For 2006, I plan to reconstruct Spruce Goose Egg to be better. This is notably a necessity because of the crash landing Goose experienced in the 2005 launch.
For the first step, I decided to model last years version of Goose up in Rocksim software. The result is shown in the following schematic (click for full size).
The 3d rendering looks much closer to the finished rocket than my original cad design did (see picture below). The eggs aren't shown because they are simply modeled as an invisible "mass object" appropriately located.
The software model puts the rocket weight around 14lbs. I can't seem to find a record of what I weighed Goose in at last year. I think 14lbs may be close.
The simulation data put the total flight time at 6.5 seconds. Going back and watching the video, this seems pretty close to its actual flight time. The data puts the apogee height at 140ft (which is probably generous). The peak upward velocity was 49mph. But then, the peak downward velocity was 60mph on impact. It amuses me that the rocket speed was maxed out by gravity and not the twin G80-4's that powered it. The maximum G-Force generated by the engine thrust was around 3.4 G's. The ejection charge intiated around 5.5 seconds, when the rocket was falling at about 40mph with 1sec left to impact. The plot summarizes the data below.
