Regarding Estes parachutes

[LaunchPad]

The other day I launched rockets which I hadn't done in a few years.
Man, it felt great to do it again!
All the parachutes deployed but they didn't open fully.

For years I had stored them wadded up ready to go in the rocket but then I learned that they should be stored outside the rocket opened up which I had done before launching these babies.
Could they have stayed wadded up after deployment from being stored the wrong way for a few years?
Can they be saved and work again?
Or will I need to get new chutes?

I've also decided to untangle them all and will have to re-string a few of them.
(I may have to go to a fabric store to get the string since it's quite thin but thicker than thread.)
Any tips on the minimum length of each string?
And is there a way to keep the strings untangled or is that just the nature of the beast?

[Peter Olivola]

I like to hang them upside down from a hook/nail in a basement beam.

[JStarStar]

Parachutes will get stiff and brittle if stored rolled up for years, especially in cold temperatures. Some kinds of plastic sheeting definitely tend to stay stiff and bunched together if kept packed for extensive periods.

If a chute has been rolled up for a long long time, I would snap it open to full size, refold it and snap it open again a few times, stretch it out straight on a table overnight, then hang it upside down for storage. A light dusting of talcum also helps prevent sticking.

I always use carpet thread from the craft stores for parachute shroud lines. I mount most of my chutes on snap swivels (available from sporting goods stores in the fishing department) which usually reduces shroud line tangling and also permits me to switch out chutes whenever I feel like it.

Your best rule of thumb is that your shroud lines should be 1 to 1.5 times as long as your chute diameter. Shroud lines shorter than 1 diameter keep the chute from opening fully.

[chrism]

Powder your chutes.

[plastic_gorilla]

Had a couple o' rockets with old chutes that were stored rolled. i took them and just re-attached them inside out or upsidedown or the other way. no issues. second on the powder!

[GDJ]

I've pretty much given up on plastic parachutes and opted for making them out of a thin fabric or nylon. Much better year-round use and opening, even in -20C weather.
Up here plastic is pretty much useless as a parachute below 0C: too brittle and too stiff. Better to use crêpe paper streamers for cooler weather.

[georgeb]

I agree with snap swivels,they work very well for me. My Photon Probe is big,an the chute never opened well before the swivels,now I get full opening,an now alot of hang time in the air. My only wish with estes would be to re issue the old designs,I really liked the old pattern.Cold weather is bad for plastic chutes,I usually have a balled up chute just slowing down the crash landing. But opening them an popping the chute open helps,I also knead the chute to loosen them up.

[AfterBurners]

There's a lot of chutes to chose from out there in the market, but I would suggest using a thin mill chute like what Topflight offers. They are thin enough to pack and yet will deploy without fail. After having several failures with plastic chutes and yes I folded and packed them correctly I just gave up on them and switched over to nylon. If you really like plastic chutes you can make nice ones out of hefty trash bags. I did and they worked pretty good. I cut spill holes in all of mine and they worked great.

[nukemmcssret]

I've pretty much given up on plastic parachutes and opted for making them out of a thin fabric or nylon. Much better year-round use and opening, even in -20C weather.
Up here plastic is pretty much useless as a parachute below 0C: too brittle and too stiff. Better to use crêpe paper streamers for cooler weather.

You launch your rockets in -20 weather. How do you keep them from getting brittle? How do you stay warm? I know you where parkas LOL. Do you have tents? Like we use the pop up 8 x 8 tarps to keep out of the sun. Also are you launching in a field or on a frozen lake?

[GDJ]

You launch your rockets in -20 weather. How do you keep them from getting brittle? How do you stay warm? I know you where parkas LOL. Do you have tents? Like we use the pop up 8 x 8 tarps to keep out of the sun. Also are you launching in a field or on a frozen lake?

Not necessarily on a frozen lake. Farmer fields are aplenty in the winter.
So far we haven't had a serious problem with airframe embrittlement due to temperatures, but there is a few tricks:

1) Keep the rocket engines in the car or truck (keep them warm)
2) Load the rockets up where it's warm (in the car or truck)
3) Use a good launch controller with a fully charged automotive lead-acid battery (motorcycle batteries work great, but they tend to get a bit weak after 2 hours of cold exposure). You need the extra amps to fire the AP motors. BP motors will light pretty easy.
4) Rocket engines stay fairly warm in the rocket for a surprisingly long time, even outside waiting on the launchpad. If the rocket isn't minimum diameter, you have quite a bit of airspace <> the engine mount and the Bodytube, and that's works fairly well as a insulator. It won't last more than 20 minutes, but that is usually plenty long enough to launch, find the rocket, come back, launch, etc.
5) Be mindful of what the rocket will do, and pick the delays carefully. As long as the ejection charge goes off at apogee (where the rocket is travelling the slowest usually) the chances of breaking parts is pretty low. Have to keep the shock loads as low as possible, especially with plastic nose cones.

That's about it. As long as you dress for the environment, make your rocket choices carefully, and prepare, you can launch rockets in -40C if need be (altho' I'm not that brave yet! )

[Rocketbuilder]

Down here is Florida, we need to keep our rockets in the shade to keep the glue from softening due to heat! I can't imagine launching in -20˚C.
I use exclusively plastic chutes, though I'll probably get nylon chuted for my 3" and 4" diameter builds in progress. I've never had any problems with the chutes deploying, and no shroud line tangling since I switched over to snap swivels. And no, I don't powder my chutes, and I'm too stubborn to start until I have issues with the way I'm doing it now.

[LaunchPad]

Down here is Florida, we need to keep our rockets in the shade to keep the glue from softening due to heat! I can't imagine launching in -20˚C.
I use exclusively plastic chutes, though I'll probably get nylon chuted for my 3" and 4" diameter builds in progress. I've never had any problems with the chutes deploying, and no shroud line tangling since I switched over to snap swivels. And no, I don't powder my chutes, and I'm too stubborn to start until I have issues with the way I'm doing it now.

Earlier this evening when I launched this time the chutes opened up (Probably because of talcum powder) but they did not fully open because the lines twisted.
So snap swivels would prevent the twisting?
Or would longer lines help even without snap swivels?

It feels like an experiment in progress until I get it right.
And I think I'm getting closer to my goal with thanx from the advice on here.

[GDJ]

Down here is Florida, we need to keep our rockets in the shade to keep the glue from softening due to heat! I can't imagine launching in -20˚C.
I use exclusively plastic chutes, though I'll probably get nylon chuted for my 3" and 4" diameter builds in progress. I've never had any problems with the chutes deploying, and no shroud line tangling since I switched over to snap swivels. And no, I don't powder my chutes, and I'm too stubborn to start until I have issues with the way I'm doing it now.

Up here we have to use a more flexible glue that will handle a little bit of heat but is more resilient to cold. So far the Gorilla Wood Glue seems to fit the bill: It can handle our summer temperatures in the sun well, but it still has enough flex in the winter cold that it won't crack.

Earlier this evening when I launched this time the chutes opened up (Probably because of talcum powder) but they did not fully open because the lines twisted.
So snap swivels would prevent the twisting?
Or would longer lines help even without snap swivels?

It feels like an experiment in progress until I get it right.
And I think I'm getting closer to my goal with thanx from the advice on here.

Tough call. I usually run shroud lines 3X the diameter of the parachute, but that might not fix this problem. Sometimes taking the parachute out, fluffing it up, and simply rolling it into a long cone shape without folding helps quite a bit.

[luke strawwalker]

Earlier this evening when I launched this time the chutes opened up (Probably because of talcum powder) but they did not fully open because the lines twisted.
So snap swivels would prevent the twisting?
Or would longer lines help even without snap swivels?

It feels like an experiment in progress until I get it right.
And I think I'm getting closer to my goal with thanx from the advice on here.

Yes snap swivels help... they don't eliminate twisting, but they do help minimize it and make it easier to eliminate it on the ground for the next flight. Longer lines in and of themselves won't really help eliminate twisting; it just takes longer for the twisting to accumulate to the point it starts to "reef" (partially close) the chute. Ideal length of shroud lines is generally considered to be 1.5-2X the width of the chute (from canopy to swivel). 1.5X is plenty.

Good luck! OL JR

[Micromeister]

snap swivels help but don't eliminate twisting when we build in twisted lines by following the directions printed on the chute. to further lessen twisting attach shrould lines across the canopy rather then corner to corner outside the canopy. Adding a spill hole will help eliminate parasheet oscillation during model decent.

[LaunchPad]

Yes snap swivels help... they don't eliminate twisting, but they do help minimize it and make it easier to eliminate it on the ground for the next flight. Longer lines in and of themselves won't really help eliminate twisting; it just takes longer for the twisting to accumulate to the point it starts to "reef" (partially close) the chute. Ideal length of shroud lines is generally considered to be 1.5-2X the width of the chute (from canopy to swivel). 1.5X is plenty.

Good luck! OL JR

What is "canopy to swivel? Do you mean from one edge to the other or from edge to middle?

snap swivels help but don't eliminate twisting when we build in twisted lines by following the directions printed on the chute. to further lessen twisting attach shrould lines across the canopy rather then corner to corner outside the canopy. Adding a spill hole will help eliminate parasheet oscillation during model decent.

How do I add a "spill hole?"

[AfterBurners]

Canopy to swivel means where the shroud lines attach to the swivel. If you have a circle cutter or Xacto knife you can easily cut a round spill hole in the center of the canopy. Most holes are about 10-15% the size the canopy.

[luke strawwalker]

What is "canopy to swivel? Do you mean from one edge to the other or from edge to middle?

I mean from the edge of the canopy to the point where all the shrouds attach to the locking snap swivel (which is always a good idea to use... MUCH better than attaching the shroud lines directly to the nosecone or shock cord...) From the canopy edge to the swivel should be about 1.5-2X the chute diameter according to "standard practice"... this means if you're making the shroud lines long enough to go from the canopy down to the swivel and back up to the canopy on the directly opposite side, the shroud line should be 3-4 times longer than the diameter of the chute when you cut the string off the spool or whatever...

How do I add a "spill hole?"

For plastic chutes this is very simple... lay the chute out flat (preferably before you put it together, or ensure all the lines are well out of the way if it's already assembled) on a suitable cutting surface (cutting mat or whatever) and use the hobby knife to cut out the center emblem on the chute... Estes even puts a dotted line around it on some chutes... on others, simply cut a hole around the center of the chute to the size you want. Typical spill holes are usually about 2 inches on up, as there's little benefit to going smaller than that, and I usually like a spill hole between about 10% to around 20% of the chute diameter-- or two inches, whichever is more... I've got a couple "ring chutes" that actually have a spill hole about 50% the chute's diameter cut in the center... but that's for a rocket that really needs a chute rather than a streamer and that I want a faster, non-oscillating descent on... it acts more like a drogue chute or a really big streamer than a parachute, per se...

Cut the hole with a VERY sharp hobby knife, going slowly and carefully... you CAN use a compass to draw a circle the appropriate size on the side of a cereal box and then cut that out with scissors to make a pattern to help guide the hobby knife blade if you're afraid of slipping or making an irregular cut... or put a cup, glass, or anything else within reason that's round and the appropriate size centered over the precise centerpoint of the chute canopy and "tracing" around it with the sharp hobby knife...

Later and good luck! OL JR

[Micromeister]

Spill Holes:
There are as many ways to cut them are there are impliments the cut Plastic sheeting. Spill holes DO NOT need to be larger then 1" in our typical 12 to 24" parasheets. If we are simply trying to stop parasheet oscillation. Larger openings over 1" begin to increase decent rate as well as dampening out oscillation.

A sharpened and stropped or new Xacto blade can do the job, I use a Leather working 3/4" or 1" Hole punch that is used by hand, Placed in the center and twisted to cut a perfect hole in the plastic.

Easiest and fastest way is to spike the canopy by folding into a tight triangle with the tip formed at the center the simply clipping off about 3/8 to 1/2" of the peak. Forms a very nice tho not perfectly circular spill hole. but then again it's a spill hole it doesn't really have to be perfect or round

PS: I gree with Luke on attachment of the swivel to the shockcord about 1/3 or so from the NC between the NC & Model body. This is easily done with a Butterfly knot to form the loop in the shockcord. even in heavy elastic this knot can be fairly easily tied and untied later if the knot placement needs to be adjusted.

[LaunchPad]

PS: I gree with Luke on attachment of the swivel to the shockcord about 1/3 or so from the NC between the NO & Model body. This is easily done with a Butterfly knot to form the loop in the shockcord. even in heavy elastic this knot can be fairly easily tied and untied later if the knot placement needs to be adjusted.

I don't quite follow. Is there an easier way you can explain how to attach what your trying to describe?

I have the parachute lines and the shock cord attached to the nose cone.
So if I add a swivel, would I attach one end to the nose cone and then the lines and cord to the other end of the swivel?
Or would shock cord attach to cone and lines to the swivel?

[luke strawwalker]

I don't quite follow. Is there an easier way you can explain how to attach what your trying to describe?

I have the parachute lines and the shock cord attached to the nose cone.
So if I add a swivel, would I attach one end to the nose cone and then the lines and cord to the other end of the swivel?
Or would shock cord attach to cone and lines to the swivel?

You attach the shroud lines to the swivel... the easiest way to do this is, when you're making your parachute, after all the shroud lines are attached, gather them up side by side (note the graphic Micromeister attached above, showing the best way to attach the strings to the canopy to avoid tangles) and hang the parachute from the shrouds by one finger... grab the center point of the parachute (the 'peak' or very center of the canopy) and pull straight down, pulling the shroud lines taut... make sure they're all even so the parachute is "level" when inflated (if the shrouds are all uneven, the parachute will be 'crooked' when inflated and will spin or do other weird stuff that will tangle the lines, wind them up, and/or cause the whole rocket and chute to spin and descend much faster than normal). Once the shrouds are all even, pinch them between two fingers of your other hand to hold them in place, slip your finger out, and grab your snap swivel... you'll probably have to "pinch" the loop that was over your finger, to make it "flat" enough to pass through the eyelet of the swivel. Slide the shroud loops through the swivel and slide it down, open the loop (ensuring that ALL the shroud loops are open and parallel) then simply flip the swivel over THROUGH the loop, and then gently pull the swivel up-- this will tighten the loop around the swivel into a square knot of sorts... I usually will put a single drop of white glue on this knot right on the swivel eyelet and rub it into the lines by rubbing between two fingers, just to lock everything in place and ensure they don't slip at some point... don't go crazy with it... it doesn't take much!

What Micro described in his post was to take the shock cord, double it over onto itself, and let the nosecone hang down about 1/4 of the length of the cord between the rocket and cone... then form a loop by pinching the cord between your fingers of the other hand and slip your finger out of the loop... wrap the loop around the shock cord lengths coming down from the loop itself, and pull the loop up through the loop formed by wrapping it around the lines... this forms a "square knot" with a loop sticking out of it... attach the parachute swivel to this loop, not to the nosecone itself. Make sense??

later and good luck! OL JR

[LaunchPad]

To sum up, here's what I got on improving parachutes performance:
In random order:
1) Use a locking snap swivel.
2) Cut a small hole in the middle of the chute.
3) Attach the end of the shock cord to the nose cone. Make a loop in the cord and attach the swivel to that with the chute lines attached to the swivel.
4) Use longer chute lines and put them on in a different way as in the illustration above.
5) Use talcum powder on the chutes.

Is that it or have I missed anything?

[JStarStar]

Well, that's a pretty good checklist for starters.

Also, it is not hard at all to make/cut your own chutes - those thin poly plastic tablecloths available at dollar stores in a wide variety of colors (red, orange, yellow, hot pink) make good ones. With a plastic tablecloth costing a buck, a spool of carpet thread costing a buck, snap swivels available in packages for about a dime each and a sheet of tape discs costing maybe 50 cents, you can make probably 20 parachutes. So if the old ones are too crumpled and stiff, just trash 'em and put in new chutes.

[luke strawwalker]

To sum up, here's what I got on improving parachutes performance:
In random order:
1) Use a locking snap swivel.
2) Cut a small hole in the middle of the chute.
3) Attach the end of the shock cord to the nose cone. Make a loop in the cord and attach the swivel to that with the chute lines attached to the swivel.
4) Use longer chute lines and put them on in a different way as in the illustration above.
5) Use talcum powder on the chutes.

Is that it or have I missed anything?

Yep... sounds like a winner...

I'm a little ambivalent about the "loop in the shock cord" thing myself... I usually just attach straight to the screw eye... I've had no complaints using that method. On certain models it probably helps to use the loop method, like say if there's a tower or something sticking out of the nosecone, or the screw eye is in the bottom of a transition with a tube section and nosecone sticking out the top of it. But for most rockets this isn't the case...

The concern I have with the "loop in the shock cord method" is that then you have TWO parts hanging down under the chute... usually on descent the rocket starts to swing around and eventually this sort of becomes a "coning" motion where the rocket swings in a circle under the rocket. The spill hole helps in this regard by preventing the "rocking" motion which tends to amplify the swinging/coning motion of the rocket, by allowing air to "spill" into the partial vacuum behind the descending parachute... without a spill hole, the parachute tends to "rock" from side to side to allow air to "spill over" the sides of the chute to relieve the partial vacuum... The rocket will most likely swing to some degree regardless of the chute, simply from the wind, or air pushing on the body/fins during descent and perturbing them, or whatever, but the rocking of the chute eventually comes "into synch" with any natural swinging of the rocket and tends to amplify the motion... I've seen some rockets that, due to the "natural frequency" of the swinging of the rocket, length of the shock cord "pendulum" and the diameter and construction of the chute, they RAPIDLY come into synch and create a feedback loop SO severe that the rocket and parachute are spinning around each other nearly horizontally by the time they reach the ground, and fall significantly faster... NOT a good thing. By lowering the nosecone below the chute as well on a length of the shock cord, this just creates ANOTHER "pendulum mass" besides the rocket body, albeit on a shorter length of shock cord and a smaller mass, which will then start to swing in the opposite direction of the rocket body, and if there's any spin or rotation to the motion (which there's a 98% chance it will) the two masses will start to rotate around the common center at some rate, like bolos... (hopefully not THAT severe, but you get the idea). This "spin" will tend to wind the chute lines...

So much depends on the design, moment arm lengths, aero forces, and environmental conditions, it'd be nearly impossible to predict with any certainty beforehand, other than through actual practical experience, IMHO...

YMMV... OL JR

[luke strawwalker]

Well, that's a pretty good checklist for starters.

Also, it is not hard at all to make/cut your own chutes - those thin poly plastic tablecloths available at dollar stores in a wide variety of colors (red, orange, yellow, hot pink) make good ones. With a plastic tablecloth costing a buck, a spool of carpet thread costing a buck, snap swivels available in packages for about a dime each and a sheet of tape discs costing maybe 50 cents, you can make probably 20 parachutes. So if the old ones are too crumpled and stiff, just trash 'em and put in new chutes.

Very good points. Dr. Zooch kits come with a "trash bag" parachute... VERY handy and cheap... which helps him keep his kit costs down. They work well too. I've even got a couple of the "famous" RED trash bag chutes... Wes managed to get some RED trash bags and made some into chutes, and used the rest for his actual household garbage... til he found out the trash man wouldn't pick it up, because red bags are reserved for "biohazard" waste rather than regular trash... Most of them are now yellow, though he did have a run of white bags, which were hard to see in the air and on the ground... I'd avoid black for the same reason. Orange trash bags are available around Halloween for bagging leaves to make "pumpkins" for the front yard... those make cool chutes...

I'm not particularly fond of "tape disks". Zooch kits have "tape rings" like you'd use to reinforce the holes in paper pages in a binder, to keep them from ripping out... put them on the corners of the chute, poke a hole through the chute material in the center of the ring, and then feed the string through it and tie it in a knot to itself, forming a "locked loop" (versus a slip loop that will slide up and "cinch" up the parachute material under a load, which tends to pinch/cut into it). I use a surgeon's knot for this, and it works well. I had mixed results when I was using the old "Estes sticky dots" to hold the string onto the chute... pretty unreliable IMHO... in a hard deploy the string simply pulls out from under the sticky dot, so you end up with an undersized streamer flapping behind two or three strings and a hard landing that busts up your rocket, or given time, the sticky dots glue dries out and they turn loose from the chute or wiggle away enough to allow the string to pop out... even the "tie a knot in the end of the string and put the dot over it with the knot outside the dot" method, while SLIGHTLY more reliable than the old "coil the string onto the sticky dot and then press it onto the edge of the chute" method, it's STILL not as reliable as the "stick the dot/ring to the chute edge, poke a hole through it, and then thread the string through and tie it into a loop with itself" method...

Toughest and best material I've found for chute shroud line attach/reinforcement-- plain old duct tape! I rip a piece of duct tape off the roll, and cut it into small squares about 1/2 by 1/2 inch with scissors, and 'store' them on the edge of my carpenter's wood filler plastic tub while I'm building the chute. Once I've got the chute canopy itself cut out of the material, I stick these small squares of duct tape onto the outside top of the canopy around the edge, recessed about 1/8 to 1/4 inch from the edge of the canopy. Then I can either use a regular holepunch to pop a hole through the tape square and canopy for the chute hole, or just poke through it with a bamboo skewer or electrical test light probe... depending on the size of the chute (use the hole punch on all but the smallest chutes myself). These make "free" "tape dots" that, once stuck to the canopy, will NEVER come off without destroying the plastic of the canopy itself... the duct tape glue is EXTREMELY strong... and the duct tape is reinforced with embedded strings in a crosshatch pattern which makes it VERY strong-- FAR stronger than simple paper tape dots or paper binder hole reinforcement rings... The main thing with this method is, burnish the tape squares down TIGHT to make sure they're permanently sealed to the plastic sheet, then LIBERALLY dust them with talcum powder and rub it in around the edges of the tape and around the plastic canopy sheet-- this will "de-gum" any sticky tape adhesive that might have managed to get onto the parachute, that could potentially cause the chute to stick to itself and not deploy correctly. Of course dusting the chutes with talcum powder is a good idea before every flight anyway-- I usually put about a teaspoon of powder inside the chute as "tracking powder" that forms a little cloud on deployment for a little additional visibility...

As for chute material, there are TONS of stuff that can be used... one of the coolest are "space blankets"-- mylar sheeting available fairly cheap in the camping department of Wally World and elsewhere... I've even seen GOLD mylar film (and picked some up) at the NASA visitor center gift shops that looks like the kapton and mylar insulation they put on the LM and other satellites and spacecraft for insulation... that 'crinkly coating' on them (MLI-- multi-layer insulation). Another terrific FREE source of chute material is old mylar party balloons-- the kind that you get filled with helium at the flower shop or the card/flower section at Wally World and elsewhere... I've got several "Happy Birthday" silver mylar chutes from these, a few bright green and silver mylar "Hightower Hurricane" balloon parachutes my wife brought back from graduation at her school last year, my daughter's Fatboy flies with a "Disney Princess" parachute cut from an old birthday balloon, I rescued three "heart shaped" balloons from the roadside near our farm that must've floated away after Valentine's day... one was pretty weathered so I scrapped it, but the other two still had a little helium left, though they were practically flat... I stuck a regular drinking straw into the valve and blew them up with air to inflate them and make it easier to cut them in half... The "heart shape" of course isn't particularly practical for using as a parachute, but a slightly smaller ROUND chute can be cut from the material, which is exactly what I did... and the mylar is silver on the inside and a beautiful "electric red" anodized looking color on the outside... I even found a "star shaped" mylar balloon hung on the fence, and rescued it... actually made that one into a "star shaped" parachute using 5 shroud lines, crossing from each point to the opposite "crotch" between points on the other side of the canopy, making offset length shroud lines... (yeah, couldn't make them all "parallel" like I should with any other symmetrical chute, but for this asymmetrical chute it still worked...) Looks REALLY cool coming down, with the silver inside and the electric "anodized" blue exterior on the top! I have several "chrome" chutes from the backside of balloons that were colored with a message or picture or pattern on the front and plain chrome on the back of the balloon.

To make a balloon into a chute, hopefully it will be flat (or nearly so) and have been laying that way awhile. If it's been outside and kinda wadded up and sticking to itself, it's MUCH easier to work with if you reinflate it. Shove a soda straw up through the valve where the helium filler would be inserted, and blow it up with air... pull the straw out and it will stay inflated once the valve closes. You can store it this way awhile to "relax" the material if necessary... When you're ready to make it into a parachute, simply take a sharp pair of scissors, and cut the valve off flush with the edge of the balloon... there's a plastic sleeve inside made from clear plastic sheet (part of the valve) which you'll discard. Deflate the balloon and spread it out evenly and smoothly as you can so the seam lays flat all the way around. Now, using scissors, simply CLEANLY cut the edge off about 1/2 inch or so in from the edge of the balloon, holding the seam as flat as you can, all the way around... this will separate the front and back panels... (they are "welded" together at the factory-- you're merely cutting off this "weld" in the plastic). Another method is to use a SHARP hobby knife and cut around this seam just inside it, cutting on a good cutting board or cutting mat. Once the seam is cut off all the way around, separate the front and back panels, presto, you have two new chute canopies ready to go. If you want them smaller, cut a circular, hex, or octagonal pattern (or pentagonal, square, whatever) pattern of the desired size from poster board, cereal box, cardboard, whatever, or trace around an appropriately sized bowl you zoinked from the kitchen (don't let the better half see you though!) and presto-- new chute canopies... depending on the size, you can sometimes get multiples out of one panel. I've even inverted a salad bowl on a panel on top of my cutting mat, and went directly around it with the hobby knife, holding the bowl down FIRMLY against the mat the "clamp" the balloon panel in place, and cutting lightly to ensure it's not pulled out of position. Works like a champ!

The thing to remember with mylar chutes, is that mylar is kind of a strange plastic... it can be stiff and hard to work with... scrunching it up repeatedly to "relax" the plastic is usually beneficial... this takes probably at least 3-4 cycles and usually a half-dozen or more is better... the more the mylar is scrunched and unscrunched, the softer and more 'relaxed' it will be. Store mylar chutes OPEN and hanging by their snap swivel from a coat hangar... easy to do and will prevent the mylar from getting "memory" that will make it stiff and not want to unfurl and open after ejection. Mylar also doesn't respond well to a ragged edge or nicks... a ragged edge or small nick or tear tends to create a stress point that can rip WIDE OPEN when the chute pops open after ejection... ALWAYS make sure you have a CLEAN SMOOTH EDGE after cutting them out... if there are any 'ragged edges" after cutting, gently snip them off SMOOTH with the scissors or a SHARP hobby knife after cutting it out... even if it leaves a little "flat spot" on the side of the chute. This will give you a stronger chute and won't hurt the performance a bit. I use duct tape squares to attach the shrouds... with holes punched through the squares and mylar after the squares are attached with a regular holepunch-- this gives a nice smooth round hole with no ragged edges that could start to tear or "run" under stress, and reinforces the hole tremendously. Of course be sure you powder the chute LIBERALLY with talcum to de-sticky any tape goo, and also because mylar tends to be a little more 'sticky' to itself than some other materials... (tends to get a little "static cling"). Talcum powder will eliminate this.

I've cut some nice chutes from various plastic shopping bags... the thicker, slick, smooth ones that come from places like Macy's and such... got a nice one with a big red star on it somewhere around here... Target bags have a neat pattern if you cut around their logo, as do some other companies... use your imagination!

For "ultra-lightweight" chutes, dry cleaner bags are hard to beat... if you own anything that needs dry-cleaning (I don't). Regular "onion skin" type bags from the vegetable department at Wally World work about as good... you CAN use regular "Walmart" plastic bags you get at the register (or most any other store, that use the same cheapy type plastic bags). They work okay, but not as good as the dry cleaner bags. You'll probably want to use paper rings or Micromeister's mylar tape squares to minimize weight on such parachutes, since that's the whole point of choosing this material.

Later and good luck! OL JR

PS. wish I could attach pics, but alas I cannot yet... computer problems...