I was giving this some thought the other day and was wondering if "Bungee" cord material would make a good alternative to the standard shock cord material? I know the most common would be nylon or Kevlar, but there seems to be "no give" and literally causes "shock / stress to the rocket" but with an elastic type cord I think personally it would work better or perhaps have a portion of the recovery harness with elastic and then either nylon or Kevlar. As far as heat is concern I'm sure there might be a way of treating material or maybe use a Nomex sleeve protector for it. Either way it might prove to be rather efficient and cost effective. I just think the amount of money spent on a one piece of Kevlar, of course depending on size can be rather expensive and probably in most cases from what I've seen on this forum "Overkill".
I mean is Kevlar really necessary for a recovery harness when there's other materials like nylon and corded elastic?? I think having a recovery harness that does not provide any "give" would be harder on the rocket's components and mounting attachment point and over time would cause failure to that particular stress point especially if you miscalculate the velocity at deployment and it's more likely to zipper your rocket's air-frame in the process, of course you can imagine this stress point will be greatly jeopardized if you had a heavy rocket, but of course I'm assuming most of us take the time to accurately determine the correct motor ejection / delay for each of our rockets.
I wouldn't say going without a Kevlar recovery harness is being cheap, but again really why use a material that literally will created more "shock" on your rocket? Some will argue just buy an exaggerated amount and again that might work, but how much are you willing spend. You could buy a couple motors for the price of a 30 foot piece of Kevlar.
Another thought? Maybe attaching a small amount of elastic to the chute as a leader line to absorb the shock as well?
I mean is Kevlar really necessary for a recovery harness when there's other materials like nylon and corded elastic?? I think having a recovery harness that does not provide any "give" would be harder on the rocket's components and mounting attachment point and over time would cause failure to that particular stress point especially if you miscalculate the velocity at deployment and it's more likely to zipper your rocket's air-frame in the process, of course you can imagine this stress point will be greatly jeopardized if you had a heavy rocket, but of course I'm assuming most of us take the time to accurately determine the correct motor ejection / delay for each of our rockets.
I wouldn't say going without a Kevlar recovery harness is being cheap, but again really why use a material that literally will created more "shock" on your rocket? Some will argue just buy an exaggerated amount and again that might work, but how much are you willing spend. You could buy a couple motors for the price of a 30 foot piece of Kevlar.
Another thought? Maybe attaching a small amount of elastic to the chute as a leader line to absorb the shock as well?