Estes Pro Series II Nylon Parachutes

Anyone else have this problem?
My son's second flight on his Leviathan on an AT G77-7RL, good deployment, delay was perfect, however two of the shroud lines came off.
The rocket basically made a streamer recovery from about 1200ft. Didn't damage the rocket fortunately. Popped a spare chute in and he flew it again with no problems. I checked a couple other chutes and found at least one with a line that pulled out fairly easy. I would caution everyone using the stock chutes on the PSII kits to check the lines on them.

great. I will look over my two ps2's that i am currently building.

Looks like its time to invest in some good parachutes

AcidPaintball said:

great. I will look over my two ps2's that i am currently building.

Looks like its time to invest in some good parachutes

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Not something you will regret. Jonrocket.com has good prices on all the TFR chutes and is great to deal with BTW.

To answer the OP's question: No, I haven't had this problem in a handful of flights. However they are definitely not up to the quality of the TFR chutes I have, so they are mostly relegated to being backups.

First flight on my partizon went well this weekend, but after landing I noticed one line came off. The chute held for the flight, but needs repairs. I think this might have been a chute that dragged my leviathan about 100 feet though, so it might have worn out.

What do people think about aerotech and madcow parachutes? Also, do LOC kits come with their custom chutes?

Loc chutes have given me 0 issues

I haven't had any issues with PSII chutes, but I like TFR chutes better.

Happened to my Leviathan at URRF, and I went over to AMW and bought a Top Flight, and have had no problems after that.

I changed the shock cord to Kevlar and doubled the length, on my Ventris and Nike Smoke last weekend. Someone managed to get a picture of my Ventris snapping the nose assembly back into the chute and getting tangled up at last months launch. I had already changed out the chutes previously.

dgreger said:

Anyone else have this problem?
My son's second flight on his Leviathan on an AT G77-7RL, good deployment, delay was perfect, however two of the shroud lines came off.
The rocket basically made a streamer recovery from about 1200ft. Didn't damage the rocket fortunately. Popped a spare chute in and he flew it again with no problems. I checked a couple other chutes and found at least one with a line that pulled out fairly easy. I would caution everyone using the stock chutes on the PSII kits to check the lines on them.

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Dave, does your son's rocket have the stock underwear strap or all Kevlar/Nylon? I'll make sure I check mine before every flight. Thanks for the heads up.

That's a Shame.
I have a Sunward and a LOC Chute' that need their Lines re-sewn. Not because they are attached insufficiently, but because they are attached wrong. I assume that Estes Chutes come from the Factory with their Lines sewn on the wrong way in the first place too.

Dick, I had him put kevlar in it, I think about 15ft.

Top Flight is where I get mine, unless I make my own. I don't have any of the PS II chutes in any of my rockets they have all been to undersized for my liking.




TA

Thanks for the heads up on ps2 chutes. I just bought two of them several months ago to replace my worn out plastic chutes. I will give them a good tug test and inspect them. I will also check out TFR. Thanks

TopRamen said:

That's a Shame.
I have a Sunward and a LOC Chute' that need their Lines re-sewn. Not because they are attached insufficiently, but because they are attached wrong. I assume that Estes Chutes come from the Factory with their Lines sewn on the wrong way in the first place too.

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Thanks TR- This has been a bug to me all along. I've had great success with Max at 'RocketChutes.com' putting lines on the way they NEED to be. He will do this as a service (like the embroidery) as I also have him label chutes for me for special projects. A great vendor who'll go to extreme lengths to make you happy. I get most all my MPR chutes from him with the lines sewn in the RIGHT way and I'm always happy with the results. Do yourself a favor and order a bunch 'o' chutes from him at once-saves shipping costs and he's really fast!

I had it happen on two chutes at LDRS. I hadn't had a problem until then.

On My Argent's 5th flight, I had 2 shroud lines come free, with similar results to what you describe- streamer recovery no damage. the delay was a tad long, but seemed acceptable. I haven't had that problem even on much, much, much worse delays with TFR chutes.

Nate

dgreger said:

Dick, I had him put kevlar in it, I think about 15ft.

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I'm not sure, but maybe the stock elastic is a tad easier on a 'chute that even long Kevlar cords? I thought I read somewhere that the Estes chutes are not rip stop nylon. I've always taken 'rip stop' as a given in chutes. I can't vouch for this.

fyrwrxz said:

Thanks TR- This has been a bug to me all along. I've had great success with Max at 'RocketChutes.com' putting lines on the way they NEED to be. He will do this as a service (like the embroidery) as I also have him label chutes for me for special projects. A great vendor who'll go to extreme lengths to make you happy. I get most all my MPR chutes from him with the lines sewn in the RIGHT way and I'm always happy with the results. Do yourself a favor and order a bunch 'o' chutes from him at once-saves shipping costs and he's really fast!

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I myself had only been introduced to doing it the RIGHT way recently when I started sewing my own Chutes' and did a Thread on it.
A Member here set me straight and posted this Picture, which I saved to my Computer to share with others.
I'de been doing it all wrong all these Years!(and so have most Manufacturers)
I've now flown two of my Homemade Chutes which I rigged the RIGHT way, and each has deployed in a "Picture Perfect" manner with zero Tangling.

none of the nylon chutes that I have received with Estes kits has been Rip stop nylon. whether Estes has changed this, I don't know. I do think that the sewing elastic shock cords are easier on chutes than non-elastic cords.
Rex
correction, the aerotech chute I have is rip stop.

I'm personally going to give some of the aero con systems a go.

I had a problem with an Estes chute like that. The stitching that holds the shroud to the chute was a zigzag stitch that crossed over the shroud line but never went through the line. I make my own chutes and always make sure I do a double zigzag on each shroud and that one side of the zigzag stitching goes through the shroud line instead of across it. The shroud line will pull right out of the stitching if it isn't sewn through.

I have a Ventris, a Leviathan, a Mega Der Red Max and a Partizon bashed into a Nova Payloader. I use the stock elastic shock cords. Have not had a PSII 'chute failure. And I believe they are made correctly - I can check one when I get home. The plastic ones in the Estes LPR kits are made correctly (illustration on the left).

The Leviathan was my L1 cert bird.

I do sometimes substitute TFR X-form 'chutes on really windy days, but most of the flights on all four models have been with the kit 'chutes without incident (other than a bit of scorching due to insufficient wadding in the Ventris, which currently doesn't have a baffle in it.

I had two chutes have this problem at LDRS. I just pulled them out and only one was a PSII chute. The chutes that I had problems with had stitching going back and forth over the lines but never through. In fact, I just tugged on a shroud line on that PSII chute and it pulled right out.

No, it is not rip stop nylon.

So, I just pulled out a new PSII chute from a ventris kit. Again, not rip stop. Also, the stitching is going over the lines and not going through them. So, now the I am going to go through all my PSII chutes and see if they are the same way. Certainly going to have to get out the sewing machine and put some nylon thread through those lines.

TopRamen said:

That's a Shame.
I have a Sunward and a LOC Chute' that need their Lines re-sewn. Not because they are attached insufficiently, but because they are attached wrong. I assume that Estes Chutes come from the Factory with their Lines sewn on the wrong way in the first place too.

Click to expand...

That is definitely the way to do it, I'm going to re-sew all the PSII Chutes like that.

my first flight with my psll rocket went perfect until the cute came out at witch time the cute came off. every one asking if i forgot to tie the cute on. rocket came straight down.[ love tall grass]. to find all the lines still attached. all my cutes now have large vent holes

I have flown my Ventris (AT F25 & F50 motors) and Nike Smoke (AT G80-7T) without any recovery issues other than a long walk or two. :wink:

My Estes PSII E2X models (Ascender, Prowler, Majestic & Trajector) have flown on Estes E16/F15 motors along with one flight with an AT G74-9W motor. No recovery system issues.

I will have to check my parachutes.

I popped one shroud line on a estes chute with a leviathan, i just took some Kevlar thread and resewed it by hand - 3 min good as new.

I checked all the other lines and all seemed secure.