Yes Siry,

They certainly do fly point first. No doubt at all in my mind either!! Some better than others, but they stablize and spin nice if they have enough air time.

Dan

   I have to agree with you on the fact that the "weather-vaining" of a glande must produce more drag on the projectile. At least until the gland is oriented long axis in line with the line of flight.
   So... glandes launched from a sling will experience more drag at first and less later in flight. The only question, I think left to settle, is weather the effect over the whole flight is more or less drag, and hence more or less distance. In other words, is the average overall drag increased or decressed. And that answer is beyond me, and what little testing I've done so far.
   Still I think there are some things we can conclude. First, that glandes were used extensively by the roman army necessitates some advantage to the slinger, if not they would not be used. Secondly if glandes of the same weight did not fly at least as far as a sphear then no matter how effective they are they would not be used, as the advantage on the battle field would shift to whoever could throw the furthest. So the glande must be capable of at least the same range as the sphear. Two things are evident, one the glande is more stable in the pouch for loading and slinging, two that the glande has more penitrating power for a given weight if thrown from sufficent distance. This still does not answer our question, but in my mind at least, I'm satisfied that on the battle field they are much more effective as ammo.
    My hat is off to who ever can settle the matter of overall efficency of the glande verses the sphear for flight distance.
   

   WalkingBird

   Who is having fun on the forum!

Chris

    Good luck with the research. I'm very interested in the outcome, as I'm sure many are.

WalkingBird

Baatz knows probably not more about aerodynamics than I do and I do know very little about that. In fact I learned most about that here on slinging.org. So I rather recommend search here on slinging.org for air drag. The Achenbach curves you can find here are IMO very interesting. The form of these cd/speed curves are probably similar with glandes, i.e. there is probably a critical speed where the cd drops down, but the actual critical speed and cd values are different. Scientific research of knowledgable people would be interesting, but because of the asymmetry the rotation is even more important than on spheres[1] which makes it probably much more difficult to analyze.

Zwiebeltuete

[1] To calculate the range of golf balls you have to include the lift caused by rotation of the ball. It is pretty important there.

If the shape does matter what's about the direction in which the slinger puts the glans in the pouch. One might put it in the pouch with its length following the direction of the cords or crosswise. Is there a significant difference?

I pesonaly think wide grip point first spiral is the only way to go. I am of the thought that it improves your aim.
But just my humble thought

Retention on little finger, release pinched 'tween thumb and index. Cords are a palm width appart ... throw with your palm facing target when release is made. 8)  Oh the glandes need to be oriented in the pouch pointed across the narrow dimension

Many thanks for your quick answer. Just one question, for I'm not sure whether I understand right (I'm not a native speaker).  Does "pointed across the narrow dimension" mean that the longitudinal axis of the glans is parallel to the longitudinal axis of the sling?

What's about the slinging style? I normally use the helicopter or over head style. Does that make a difference?

funda