R/C Naval Combat

Posted By Darren Scott on 07 May 2011 06:14 PM

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What I can't understand is why chrony testing isn't universal. Surely all clubs that conduct our hobby could afford the purchase of one? ....


 

I'm a big fan of using a chrono to find gun velocities, but only on the bench not at the lake, atleast not universally.  The amount of time it would eat to chrono every gun on every ship before every sortie (how else could you verify that nobody tweaked between sorties) would be way to much for any decently sized event which is probably where it matters most.  

Can our guns hurt people? sure, deal with it.  It is a game based around shooting guns in close proximity to ourselves afterall.  And realistically the current "super mega guns of unholy death and destruction" are already pretty close to the realistic max velocity and are already well into the realm of diminishing returns. 

If you're really serious about limiting gun velocity there are a number of good ways that require a lot less time and equipment to enforce.  Lower the allowed max pressure, lower max barrel length, or set a limit on the size of the feed line to the gun.  (pressure, barrel length, flow volume)  

Gun velocity (like pump rate) is often more about intimidation than actual usefullness.  (oh your boat can pump 4 gal/min? sounds good leave it on till it sinks and let me put a few thousand points of belows into you, great idea well as long as you're on the other team)

I see your point, and agree. Testing every barrel on every ship before every battle is unrealistic.

Testing one or two barrels, on different ships, at random, isn't.

Applying peer pressure by letting all present know the results of the testing good or bad is a way of allowing each member to self-regulate and decide if they really want to risk being the one caught with way over-velocity cannon..... which is something they can check if they have their own chrony.

Allowing testing by challenge is a less diplomatic way of doing the job, and may create bad blood, so I'm not really a fan of that. Sometimes, however, there are thick-skinned individuals who just won't take the hint. No, don't think of their name right now, even if you do have one in your club.

Ultimately, it's up to your club and it's members to decide how you limit muzzle velocity, and to each individual member to abide by the club's decision.

As for barrels, what's wrong with scale length barrels? I've seen photos of some REALLY long barrels on some ships, and thought "nice ship...WHOA! those guns are UGLY!!!"

I'll ask at this point that we not hijack this thread too much more, and apologise for doing so.