In my post about this month's HARA launch, I talked about the NRC B eggloft altitude flights that Doug and I made. As well as providing great help and the use of his launch gear, Brian was also the score keeper and contest manager. He submitted our scores up to the NAR contest folk, and they appeared on the scoreboard a couple of days ago. We are not yet ranked, as the NAR contest director has not certified the flights, but as it stands now Doug is #8 and I am 5 points behind, at #9. This is out of 11, so it's not a colossal achievement. However, I am reasonably excited to make my first "official" return to contest rocketry since NARAM 30 (1988).
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| NRC National Scoreboard for B eggloft altitude as of 2022 February 19. (Click to enlarge). |
The scores in NRC altitude events are computed rather simply - one corrects the altitude reading for the temperature and the score is the corrected altitude in meters. The FlightSketch Comp altimeter gave a peak altitude of 263.4 feet (80.28 meters) but the temperature was 51.2 degrees Fahrenheit, about 8 degrees colder than the 59 degrees used by the altimeter algorithms. This means the reading was on the high side, and when we correct for temperature we get 79.1 meters. So my score is 79.
I'm eager to try to better this score, but I made a major faux pas in painting the Eggstravaganza - adds weight, and I want as light as I can get. So I'm sketching out my own design, built around the lighter Apogee vacuform styrene egg capsule and a BT-20 body tube. Only problem is the altimeter placement; there's no room to put it in the egg capsule. It looks like I'm going to have to create some sort of pouch to protect the altimeter from ejection gases. This pouch will be attached to the shock cord up at the parachute connection and I'll punch a couple of small vent holes near the top of the body tube. I figure I can get a significant weight reduction and more altitude with this approach.
We shall see.
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