02-03-2021, 12:07 AM
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Master Modeler
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Join Date: Jan 2009
Location: Fairbanks, Alaska
Posts: 6,507
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Quote:
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Originally Posted by olDave
Maybe I'm an old fuddy-duddy purist, but such electronic trickery sorta smells (to me) like it goes against the spirit of these competitions.
Maybe start a new, separate contest for "electronic stability assisted/enhanced"?
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That sounds reasonable. There are certain scale prototypes that are of such configurations (like the Navaho), or have very small and/or forward-mounted fins, or have no fins at all, that scale models of them simply won't fly well (or at all) without stability augmentation systems. These systems are very small (an inch or so) and lightweight (~10 grams or less), and are very reliable; they can also be adjusted to cater to ambient wind conditions. Finless scale models, such as (to give just two examples) of the Minuteman III and the Atlas-Agena, would ascend smoothly, as if they had fins (so could their upper stages, if they too were powered by model rocket motors). |