Today was our final launch. I can only begin to describe todays' harsh weather conditions before getting chills in my feet. I'm sure we had a hurricane today, I don't think anyone realized it though. That being said, today's weather certainly wasn't not optimal for launching a rocket successfully.
That being said, we launched our rocket, in the POURING RAIN, a total of seven times. The first five times, we filled our rocket up with 600mL of water and pumped 40 psi. The fifth launch was the most successful one of the whole day, with a flight time being a whomping (insert sarcastic voice here) 7.2 seconds. Our goal, of course was 10 seconds.
I believe that it would have had more flight time if the parachute had deployed sooner. I'd like to imagine that it had a harder time deploying because the plastic parachute was stuck inside the plastic cone due to the fact that they were both wet with rain. After the fifth launch, we decided to ditch the cone and just just wrap the parachute around the bottle. That was pointless because the parachute caught the wind as it was launching, prevent the rocket from going beyond ten feet high and reducing flight time to a little over three seconds.
The last launch was okay. It flew about 7 seconds.
Good job! The wind and rain really did cause some issues with the launches. I would suggest a smaller parachute. It was difficult to catch air due to the weather and its size in my opinion. I would cut that parachute in half, increase the water and psi for a possibly more optimal launch. Congrats on finishing! :)
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