Estes V-2

I fly mine on F24-7s for awesome flights to just under 1400 ft.

Dennis

EXPjawa said:

I've flown mine on E9's. The package says the D12-3 is OK, though the only one I've seen that did use that didn't end well. It seemed to be built heavy though.

Click to expand...

I've flown mine with D12-3s and it was fine.
Except the first time it landed in a tree.

Well, to be fair, the one I saw that ended poorly was more of a flyer problem. The rocket weather cocked bad off of the pad and arced way over back to the field before the deployment event happened. If the rocket were to actually go straight up, it would fair much better, I'm sure...

Ok, finally maidened it with the D12-3, thinking the delay is not enough, ripped two of the 3 lines out of the chute, thankfully there was enough drag yet for it to land and not break...

I have video for later, but here is the pics..




How it landed


Ripped all but two tie points out....

I built both of mine with 18" ripstop nylon chutes. Works well (though I did dislodge one of my fins on landing on a soft field once - I think that its tough to get a good bond between the balsa and plastic boat tail). I only use the thin plastic parachutes on small rockets anymore, none larger than a 12" chute. And several birds with 12" ones are using nylon instead.

Your rocket looks good, and your camo is just about perfect for hiding in that field!

Thanks, so I need to upgrade the chute then? This is built per estes kit/manual. Im thankful the fins stuck, it landed pretty hard on hard ground. CA for the win, haha.

Im really happy with the way it turned out!

Understand the stock chute, but the stock chute that Estes provides is a bit underwhelming. The shroud line attachment is clearly not up to the load that a rocket of this size puts on it. The 18" canopy probably provides a safe decent rate, but the 9", 12" 18" & 24" plastic parachutes all have the same strength of line attachment - which is the polyethylene's resistance to tear out. Since they all have 6 lines, they all have the same max capacity of shroud line weight/tension. All that means that the 9" and the 24" chute wind up both having the same weight limit for the shroud line mounting, even though 24" canopy itself can support a lot more weight. The attachment point is the weak link. So, a nylon parachute (which will have the lines sewn on) is an excellent upgrade.

Gotcha, any suggestion on where to purchase the stuff I need? I dont have many bigger rockets. Definitely want a better outcome next time, haha.

Thanks!

Lots of places. I've bought mine direct from Top Flight, as well as from other vendors (Apogee, ASP, Uncl Mike's, etc.). My preference is for their thin-mil (1.1 oz fabric) chutes for this size rocket. They're fairly light, though they only come in bright orange. The standard chutes come in many colors. However, the orange is very visible in the sky and on the ground.

I found Top Flight Recovery website, never heard of them before, thank you.

Ill order up a thin 18"

https://topflightrecoveryllc.homestead.com/thinmil.html

Finished the video finally, enjoy!

[video=youtube;J05_430V6ts]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J05_430V6ts&feature=youtu.be[/video]