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Upgrade NowLol,Talk to Ted at Onebadhawk. He has some heavy duty Topflite X drogues. Reasonably priced too.
Until they don't. Which from what I've seen, is most of the time.... but regular DD rockets just came down flat sideways when drougeless.
Until they don't. Which from what I've seen, is most of the time.
I've seen lots of drogueless rockets come down ballistic where the payload section drags the fincan down. These usually have the main shoot downward and open as the payload is going past it to the end of the upper shock cord. Then the fincan falls past the chute, the payload, and hits the end of the drogue shock cord with a lot of energy and shock. Usually everything holds together because most folks over build, but I've seen a welded Eye-bold ripped out of a 3/4" aircraft ply CR and the fincan never slowed down, it just came in hot.
Many times the fincan leads the way, the angle to the ground is usually less then 45° and the fins act as wings and the rocket flies off in some random direction. That's good if it's against the wind, but suck if it's with the wind. I watched one 3,000 ft flight with 500 ft. main move 1500 ft left to right, 90° from the wind direction because it was flying like that. It's actually quite common for drogueless flights if you watch for and recognize it.
The point is, without a drogue, you have zero control on how the rocket falls, which for most DD flights, the apogee to main is the longest part of the flight.
OP, Sperachutes sells an Apex Drogue. It's designed specifically as a drogue chute. I have several I made from thin Nomex and Kevlar strapping so with a Kevlar shock cord, no wadding or chute protectors are needed. I have found they are the only chutes I need to put swivels on.
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