Ye Olde Rocket Forum - View Single Post - Countdown checklist "apps?"

Quote:

Originally Posted by Wildflysch

I’ve been lurking for a while and maybe this isn’t the best place for a first post, but I do have a suggestion, a database. Since I couldn’t find an app like that, I decided I would try to create something workable for myself. I figured a database would be the way to go and started looking at different versions of databases out there and decided to give Google Docs a try since it’s, well, free. And it had the added bonus of being web based which means I can use it on my Droid, whereas I couldn’t (as least as far as I could figure out) use MS Access on there.

I created a form in Google Docs that has all of the information I need in it to prep my rockets put together in a flight log kind of format. Some fields are fill in the blank, most are drop down or multiple choice, and many of them I have set to require an input before moving to the next page. My checklist is pretty small, as I mostly fly LPR and have just started in on MPR a bit, but I have each rocket in my fleet listed with recommended motors, recommended parachute/streamer size, etc. I also have other misc. sections to fill out such as weather, launch location, flight info, deployment (early, late, good, etc.), recovery (lost, damaged, etc.), altitude, and a section for notes. Some fields mirror flight cards you fill out at a club launches, and other fields mirror those in common flight logs.

The form is web based and I open it on my Droid to fill out when prepping a rocket for launch. I have it set up in 3 pages, the first being fields with all pre-launch items I fill out as I prep the rocket, the second regarding the flight of the rocket I fill out while making that recovery walk, and the third with information on recovery after I inspect it. When the form is complete it sends it to my Google Docs account and I can then look at a report of all of my launches. So I can see that while the kit’s recommendation is a C6-5, deployment appears to be late regularly so in the future I might use a C6-3 with that rocket. Or if I consistently break a fin, I might decide to go with a slightly larger chute.

My particular form is pretty simplified just helping me keep straight what motors and parachutes to use along with a couple of other things, and would not be of any use to anyone needing a more comprehensive checklist for setting up dual deploy or anything like that. But I have little experience in working with a database and only spent about an hour putting it together, so I’m sure just about anyone could put together a really nice checklist using this and get pretty close to what they need. And I’m sure other database programs would work just as well, if not better.

Welcome! Your database version sounds perfectly usable and helpful. It sounds similar to the multiple checklists ("Parachute or Streamer," "Featherweight or Tumble," and "Boost-Glide") that are included in the Appendix to the "Industrial Arts Teachers Manual for Model Rocketry" (see: http://www.ninfinger.org/rockets/ca...anual/ia66.html ). Your database's additional features (such as listing the rockets' recommended motors and recommended streamer/parachute sizes) would also help to prevent those types of mistakes that we've all made, particularly when prepping models in haste and/or in distracting situations, such as at public or school launches.