Are You A Swinger?

NAR Model Rocketry Safety Code
“#5 – Stability – I will check the stability of my model rocket before its first flight, except when launching a model rocket of already proven stability.”
I build a number of scratch low powered rockets. I always do the swing test prior to flying my rocket. I have always had a great deal of success with it. Often the rocket will test unstable and I will add weight to the nose until I get a stable swing. I have never had a rocket fly unstable after passing the swing test. Even after RocSim says my rocket is stable I like to check with a string test. I do realize that the swing test has it’s limitations. The larger the rocket the harder it is to do an actual swing test and get a correct result. Do you do swing test? Do you just trust RocSim or other tools?

Here is a great article on why swing test often fail.

…..some great info on stability.

From the Centauri Rocket Designers Manual

…and let ’s not forget Mr.Barrowman