Trajectory....banter

Walter & Group.....

 

 

Don't dig into my answer below ol Al's message unless you have had 2 cups of coffee, can keep an open mind, and have a copy of Mac Brown's, CASTING ANGLES at hand.......simply skip the details and go to my advice to MCI candidates in red at the end.

 

Gordy

 

 

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Howdy Gordy

 I like this one.

 

 IF the RSP is a straight line from "Stop to Stop" To make a good path for a good cast.

 The the angle that this path is would be the angle of Trajectory. right?

 Lets carry it a little further out we have our loop formed as the line passes the rod's tip after a Stop.

This is the bullet out of the barrel. We have little control but it should continue in the same direction the rod tip was traveling Or the same angle of trajectory. This is a GOOD loop formation and what we are looking for. So If the line of travel of the rod leg is going that same direction Why would we not call this the trajectory of the cast?

 

ol Al

 

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ol Al...

 

I agree....we can call the direction in which the rod leg of loop travels after it is formed at RSP, TRAJECTORY as long as we can relate that direction to something.

 

If we look at it that way, then it would be better to relate that direction as an angle with respect to the ground or water.

 

Maintaining an approximate 180 degrees between the angle of travel of the back cast loop with that of the forward cast loop, for example, we could have a back cast trajectory upward of say 45 degrees from the plane of the ground or water starting at the rod tip at RSP........then a forward cast trajectory downward at the same 45 degrees to the ground....

 

OR we could say that the forward cast trajectory related to the plane of the ground at rod tip level is the reciprocal of 45 degrees, ie. 135 degrees.

 

Taking it a step further:  We can have that same 45 degrees of upward (and back) back cast, then make a strictly straight forward forward cast level with the ground.  In that event, we could look at that as a forward cast of ZERO degrees with respect to the ground (since it does not deviate from the ground plane).  Mac Brown's box diagrams show that if the rod plane isn't changed between back cast and forward cast, that will likely yield a tailing loop. (CASTING ANGLES; Mac Brown, p 97 Figure 4.11 Diagram (C).)

 

The term, TRAJECTORY becomes even more enigmatic with respect to its use with fly casting, if we refer to its definition in Websters Unabridged Dictionary:-

 

TRAJECTORY:  1. The curve described by a projectile, rocket, or the like in its flight.

 

                        2. Geom.  A curve or surface tht cuts all the curves or surfaces of a given system at a constant angle.

 

Since the path of a real fly line loop, while depicted in diagrams in the literature as straight, is really a very slight curve (because of the slight fall during flight even before the loop fully unfurls), I guess we could apply the dictionary term, "or the like" to that loop.

 

All that brain teasing aside, my advice to MCI candidates is:

 

Use the term, TRAJECTORY as Mac Brown did, and as depicted in the literature diagrams as the path of the fly line loop related to the plane of ground/water level.

 

Gordy