Oh absolutely. Our first rocket got knocked off course pretty significantly, and flew for only 13 seconds. We'd been getting right around 20 seconds with that one consistently in practice. We got so lucky with our second rocket, which we never even got to test before the competition--the wind died down at the moment we launched.Flavorflav wrote:The wind was a real factor, though. It cut our expected time in half.Primate wrote:Winning time for the NY state competition (division c trial event) was 21.5 seconds.
Their policy on wind was fair, I suppose, but could've been better. The event supervisor was firm on launching the moment he pressurized it--no waiting for the wind to die down. (Delaying filling up the water obviously wasn't helpful, since the wind changed pretty significantly during those thirty seconds.) Technically, though, we're allotted ten minutes, so I don't see why we couldn't eat up part of that time waiting for the right second. Yes, some ten minutes intervals will be windier than others, but it virtually guarantees each team has a shot at a calm flight.