Dual Deploy Poll - Drouge vs No Drouge

[Starfire73]

If you rarely or only sometimes use a drogue chute (vs. drogueless), what determines whether or not you will use a drogue?​

 

[David Schwantz]

Sometimes I use a streamer, if it an altitude flight. Want it to come down fast and not far away.

 

[Art Upton]

Depends on the size of the launch field. Ohio/Mi/Indy smaller launches were mostly all Drogue less; they all went into flat spins "doing the dance" anyway.

When we went out west our group was asked why we didn't use Drogue

 

[Handeman]

I only had one rocket I ever flew drogueless. I don't really know why I did that with that rocket. The longest part of a DD flight is the fall from apogee to main deploy and without a drogue, you have zero control over the flight. Just doesn't seem smart to fly drogueless to me.

 

[Titan II]

I use a drogue in all DD rockets....period.

 

[cwbullet]

I fly drogueless if the rocket is light. I have had success going without. I have also used a streamer.

 

[Viper3]

I use a drogue to keep the forward section above the aft section. This reduces the odds of the chute tangling.

 

[Starfire73]

Depends on the size of the launch field. Ohio/Mi/Indy smaller launches were mostly all Drogue less; they all went into flat spins "doing the dance" anyway.

When we went out west our group was asked why we didn't use Drogue

Being from Michigan I can give a pretty good guess why you don't use drogue chutes. Most of the DD flights in Michigan are w/o a drogue chute. We don't have those wide open spaces like they do out west.

 

[Art Upton]

Being from Michigan I can give a pretty good guess why you don't use drogue chutes. Most of the DD flights in Michigan are w/o a drogue chute. We don't have those wide open spaces like they do out west.

Some of my Black Rock videos with the JMRC club there many years you will hear some of the peanut gallery asking as the rocket has an apogee event you can hear "Is there a drogue in there?" and on my Rocket in the Avatar I reply "NO"
and others laugh.

When we went to XPRS the very first time as the club with the club trailer; many asked us "You drove all the way from Michigan to come here?"

Even at 3-Oaks I flew Drogue less in MI.

 

[Rocket86]

I use a drogue, even a very small one, just to make the parts come down more vertically oriented as opposed to flat spin. I've had less collision damage that way.

 

[Charles_McG]

I fly drogueless with my two stagers at Bong. These are 2.5-3" cardboard sustainers. With my most recent, I've been trying to get a more vertical descent than the normal flat spin/tumble. I can see from the altimeter data that the descent rate almost doubles when it happens to line up vertical for a bit. I've tried a streamer and 2 sizes of chutes, and haven't pulled it out of the spin yet.

 

[TheTank]

Depends on the rocket. On rockets with HED or a really heavy nosecone where it falls like a home sick brick and drags the fin can behind it, I use a drogue to slow it down and flatten out the fall between the cone and the fin can. On others, I tend to run long shock cords and then all just seem to naturally fall flat - rockets from 3lbs to 60lbs. The length of the fin can along with the drag of the fins vs. the length of the payload section all plays a part as well but typically for me, HED rockets have all benefitted from a drogue. Others that I have flown both with drogue and without, i have noticed little difference besides a slower decent rate which I didnt really need.

 

[Hobie1dog]

drogue

 

[kjhambrick]

Always a Drogue either a chute or a streamer to balance the drag between the fincan and the payload + nose

 

[rcktnut]

Always drogue, keep the parts apart!

 

[cbrarick]

hed end. always otherwise only on 6" and above rockets. Even my BALLS flight (Wildman Wildthang on a large M or baby N) was without a drogue.