Dino Chute Petal protector

I was checking out Apogee's site today and ran across Dino Chutes petal chute protector. Has anyone used one of them? Myself I can't see how it will protect a chute very well. With all the open area the BP gases will for sure burn the chute. I will stick with my burrito fold wrap for my chutes. If done right the whole chute is wrapped and protected.

Gary, I saw them and thought the same thing. To get it to work there would have to be a fair amount of overlap in the petals. Then, it would seem to me that it could be very putsy getting it and the chute into the rocket while maintaining the petal orientation.

There is indeed an appropriate amount of overlap in the petals once it's slid into the body tube. It protects the parachute extremely well. Tim has some good photos on his website https://www.apogeerockets.com/Build...tection/Cloth/Dino-Chutes-3in-Petal-Protector showing the amount of overlap.These are made to very precise specifications so that they fit with close tolerances in the appropriate body tube sizes that they were designed for.

With the thick Nomex bottom they'll easily outlast the typical square protector as well as provide much better protection.

With all the open area the BP gases will for sure burn the chute.

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You couldn't be more wrong. You might actually want to try the product before you slander it.

Pat kind of strong words accusing some one of slander just for expressing my option. After being in the business for 26 years I have an idea what kind of problems may show up.

crossfire said:

Pat kind of strong words accusing some one of slander just for expressing my option. After being in the business for 26 years I have an idea what kind of problems may show up.

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You essentially said that this product won't work and will "for sure" burn the chute. Those are strong words coming from you, especially when that's not the situation and when you haven't even tried the product. Opinions are one thing, but to basically say that the product won't fulfill its intended use without having used it is irresponsible. This is the second time that you've gone after one of our products in that sort of way. Most vendors on this forum don't jump into conversations about their competitor's products, but you have no problem with it and I'm going to respond.

Not only have we flown these well over 100 times, we also had them tested using thermocouples to see how hot they get inside. The product was extremely well designed from the start.

Pat its my opinion and by the way I am not a vendor or a competitor of yours. I forgot this is the new USA where one can't say anything with out worry it my offend someone.

Crossfire,

Sorry, but I gotta side with Pat on this. I don't have a dog in the fight, but using words like "for sure" instead of "in my opinion" without ever having used the product is irresponsible. How much weight would you give to a movie review by a critic who's never seen the movie? Same thing. And history is rife with so called "experts" in their respective "businesses" whose opinions proved to be completely wrong:

https://www.rocketryforum.com/showthread.php?146379-Major-predictive-fails

Looking at the product description page on the Apogee website it looks like it has a round bottom instead of square like a typical Nomex blanket. Thus it would seem to seal off the ejection gases better. And the petals are intended to be less restrictive for the parachute, allowing it to open up better than the Nomex "bucket". Let's keep an open mind about this. The fact that Pat and her associates has test flown this product over 100 times and used a thermocouple speaks volumes. I respect every Americans' right to express their opinion, but let's do so RESPONSIBLY.

Let's cool this conversation down.

I hope Pat sells thousands of them. But in my opinion and 30 years of flying HP rockets I will stick to using the square Nomex protector and burrito folding method. I have never had a square Nomex protector keep a chute from opening.

Good luck Dino

There's a difference between having an opinion about a product and materially misrepresenting it. We're certainly open to criticism. I have no desire to argue with you. After all, we're practically neighbors except that you support the Packers

The Nomex piece on the bottom is larger than the interior diameter of the body tube so that it provides a really good seal to begin with. It's 1/8" thick Nomex that has the attribute of being able to be soaked in water, if desired, to provide additional char resistance. It's very precisely cut on a machine that was custom built to cut circles out of Nomex, so we're able to hold really tight tolerances on the fit.

The few ejection charge gasses that get by are further stopped by the cupped portion of the protector. The flaps can either be left to conform to the interior of the body tube, or folded over on top of the parachute. The tightness of the seal can be regulated based upon how tightly the parachute is packed into the cup. If the user pushes the parachute in really tight then the whole protector functions more as a piston and tends to get shot out of the airframe.

We always suggest that dog barf be used anyway and I realize that some people use Nomex protectors specifically so that they don't have to use dog barf. So while this protector will last a long time without dog barf, it will last a super duper long time if used with it.

Insofar as to how easily it conforms to the body tube, it does really well. We designed this not knowing whether or not it would be fussy to keep the petals overlapped the proper amount. They end up overlapping each other without having to pay much attention to them, though you really should verify that nothing got bunched up and left a gap somewhere. With most of our test flights, the protector remained inside the airframe in a nice cupped configuration after recovery, and we simply folded the parachute and pushed it into the protector and slid it back down inside for the next flight. No fussing with it at all. The function of the petals overlapping and mostly taking care of themselves happened, not by design, but by us just getting lucky. It's nice when that happens.

We fine-tuned the fit of these products at a great expense of making over a 100 prototypes of varying sizes and number of petals until we found the right combination that worked. Because they are custom sized for particular body tube sizes, there isn't a lot of excess fabric bunched up somewhere like when you use a square protector.

I bought one and will do a review. I am locking this thread. If anyone has a constructive post outside of the Tit for Tat, let me know and I will unlock it.