[RocketsNW] Wind Dummy

[Greg Deputy]

Something with a 5" airframe?  Gonna take a lot of G80's to get that up in
the higher wind levels.  :)

> -----Original Message-----
> From: rockets-bounces at rocketsnw.com [mailto:rockets-bounces at rocketsnw.com]
On
> Behalf Of Dave Proffitt
> Sent: Monday, April 13, 2009 12:22 PM
> To: OROC List
> Subject: [RocketsNW] Wind Dummy
> 
> Oh no here goes Dave again. I was sitting here looking out my front window
at
> Wildcat Mountain. It's real up close and personal being basically right
across
> highway 26 from me. I was watching the mist creep up slope and it reminded
me
> of my days as a hang glider pilot. We used to plant wind flags about a
wing
> span and a half out of the middle of the launch areas so we could try and
get
> a "into the wind" launch. I used to fly a place near Morton Washington
called
> Dog Mountain. Lots of times we would get up there and no one was in the
air
> yet. If it was marginal for soaring nobody wanted to be what hang glider
> pilots called "A wind dummy."  If you know the site pretty well you can
tell
> if it's soarable or not just by standing at the launch and letting the
breeze
> hit you in the face. I did lots of wind dummy stuff. Sometimes I got
skunked
> and did a sled ride to the landing area but most of the time I got lots of
> space to myself as the rest of the crew scrambled getting their gliders
> assembled.
> 
> Where I'm going with all of this is;  I've noticed maybe a couple of upper
> layer wind patterns at Brothers. Seems like most of the time it's pretty
high.
> I was thinking of a wind dummy rocket. Launch this thing with a big
parachute
> on it and see where it goes when it comes down. Probably not all the time
but
> for certification flights and big, expensive rocket launches.
> It could be built really cheapo, doesn't have to be CF and have a big
motor,
> just something with enough snooze to get it above the wind layers. I just
> don't know where they are yet. One could use a single use motor so ifn the
> thing got lost it's no big deal, doesn't need electronics either. If the
club
> sprung for the cost of some of the materials for it then we could all use
it
> when we deemed it necessary.  I was thinking of something with a 5"
> airframe or above. Maybe even use some smoke on it if we could find
something
> that wouldn't set things on fire. I'd be willing to paint it with some red
> neon or a roll pattern of sorts so we could see the damn thing.
> I'm just thinking out loud here.
> 
> Any ideas?
> 
> 
> 
> Dave Proffitt (retired wind dummy)