I used a Prairietwister Rocketry cutter:
https://www.rocketryforum.com/showthread.php?142328-Drogue-and-main-terminals-on-same-side-of-e-bay
to do a 38mm MD rocket. Made a long forward ebay for an EggFinder TRS. Cut off the base shoulder of the NC so a Linx antenna could project into the
hollow nosecone with two terminals on the base of the "longish" ebay. Main 36" chute has a loop at the apex that I threaded a small puck of hard foam over. I attach
a 10" drogue/pilot chute to the loop. I pack the chute so the foam puck is restrained underneath the chute protector by the cutter's zip tie. I have the main chute
close to the eyebolt and there is strain relief for the cutter ematch wire.
Rocket flies to apogee and the apogee charge fires. Rocket breaks in two pieces like a single deploy. I pack the pilot without a protector in front of the restrained
main chute as it "protects" it from the apogee charge.
Now the drogue/pilot is out in the open to fill and lines up the main chute for deployment. It can't pull the main out of the protector because the hard foam "puck"
is restrained against the ziptie. Now I also have the chute protector attached solidly down the harness and there is a bit of slack between it and the chute.
When the main charge fires, it breaks the ziptie, the pilot/drogue is free to pull the chute free plus the harness now extends passively, between the pilot/drogue
pulling on the chute and the positioning of the chute protector to pull it off the chute, I get the main deployment.
This is not my doing, I read it on a link here years ago but unfortunately the excellent pictures disappeared sometime thereafter.
It's not too hard to visualize: 1. sewn loop at apex of main chute. 2. Small "hard foam" puck (I cut mine from foam I saved from some items I had shipped to me) 3. Positioning the chute protector down the harness a bit and lining up the main chute pack close to the eyebolt. I used a short bit of harness material
with the 38mm MD rocket. 4. Custom cut and strain relief on the ematch leads.
Yeah, the JLCR changes everything now but in a 38mm rocket it's a tight fit. I did the project a long time before the CR was available. Plus over 8k' on a cardboard/plywood appropriately laminated finned rocket on a venerable J350 makes it a nice rocket to practice out of sight GPS tracking on a budget.
Now if Mr. Beans can get a CR to fit in a 29mm airframe, an easily had "Apogee Aspire-like" with an EggFinder mini would be practicable and could routinely
fly to 5k or more with a reasonable prospect of routinely finding it. I have one partially built with a forward ebay with the antenna projecting into the nosecone.
Am going to laminate the fins with glass cloth in a tedious 1/3rd, 2/3rds and full span fashion like the 38mm project described above. Should be fun.
Kurt