Mylar Spotting Streamer

[tomsteve]

one thing i do on small diameter, high altitude rockets that can be hard to spot is add some red chalk line chalk in the body tube, between the wadding and chute/streamer.

https://www.homedepot.com/p/DEWALT-2-5-lb-Permanent-Chalk-in-Red-DWHT72716/204624583

when ejection occurs, it gives me a pretty visible spot in the sky to start the tracking and seems to make it easier.

 

[Sooner Boomer]

Go to Home Depot and buy that anti bird reflective strip roll. Cheap for 50ft.

https://www.homedepot.com/p/Bird-B-Gone-Deterrent-Flash-Tape-MMFT050X/202347479

What section is this in?

 

[GlenP]

I'm not a huge fan of purchasing a new item for every single tiny thing. I think your idea could work. If you have barf laying around, maybe roll a light puke layer in before packing with a ply or two of wadding?

The plumbers tape is pretty cheap, and this is something I saw in the MMX section for micro rear eject rockets, I might try building some of those. I have packed in a regular streamer of garbage can liner and seem to have more room than I thought, so I probably can wrap some wadding around it, but I probably will swap the test streamer out with the heat resistant tape just to be safe. I hope to launch it this weekend, maybe with a keychain camera looking down to capture the staging, just afraid I might lose the sustainer and camera with it.

 

[Micromeister]

The plumbers tape is pretty cheap, and this is something I saw in the MMX section for micro rear eject rockets, I might try building some of those. I have packed in a regular streamer of garbage can liner and seem to have more room than I thought, so I probably can wrap some wadding around it, but I probably will swap the test streamer out with the heat resistant tape just to be safe. I hope to launch it this weekend, maybe with a keychain camera looking down to capture the staging, just afraid I might lose the sustainer and camera with it.

Glen P; Likely being the one who's rear ejection PTFE teflon Military grade color "thread sealing tape" rocket you saw. It was retro fitting a rear ejection pod in several Mosquito models.
That said I can tell you I use nothing but the slightly thicker PTFE teflon Military grade tread sealing tape in nearly ALL my Micro and some LPR models as it does double duty as Wadding and Recovery system. I've used 2" x 70" PTFE in BT-50 and BT-60 size LPR models without breaking a fin
To be sure PTFE color military grade is a bit heavier then most other streamer materials but remeber it is replacing the Wadding or Dog Barf as well.

As for mirror mylar streamers: NAR compedtition flyers have been using metalized Mylar for chutes and streamer since the 1970's. most chutes are made from 1/4mil silver metalized Mylar. Competition Streamers: as large as 10" x 100" are made from 1/2mil or at a maxium 1.0mil silver metalized Mylars. These accordian folded wonders can be packed and ejected from model bodies as small as .736" (BT-20). MOST space blankets and sheet and roll streamer Mylars purchased for the "Party stores" are at the least 2mil thick some almost double that.

For a 300g (10oz) rocket the OP was talking about any decent 6" x 60" to 100" 1/2mil mylar would be more than sufficent for a safe recovery. for Larger body models where a few extra grams or ounces really does not matter than space blankets are OK. but bear in mind they are actually pretty fragile as the slightest nick or rip with spread completely accross the sheet. Hot knife cutting is highly recommended.

 

[GlenP]

Glen P; Likely being the one who's rear ejection PTFE teflon Military grade color "thread sealing tape" rocket you saw. It was retro fitting a rear ejection pod in several Mosquito models.
That said I can tell you I use nothing but the slightly thicker PTFE teflon Military grade tread sealing tape in nearly ALL my Micro and some LPR models as it does double duty as Wadding and Recovery system. I've used 2" x 70" PTFE in BT-50 and BT-60 size LPR models without breaking a fin
To be sure PTFE color military grade is a bit heavier then most other streamer materials but remeber it is replacing the Wadding or Dog Barf as well...

Yes, sir, that is where I learned of this, thanks for the very useful info. I could find 0.5" tape in the hardware store, wider tape seems to be available on-line. I have room for 3/4". My flight test was sort of a successful failure. The gap-stage lit perfectly, but did not separate, thus while the sustainer was burning it produced no thrust and added aobut a sec or so of delay to the sustainer delay, it did eject the upper stage streamer before ground impact. The gap-staged streamer was mostly PTFE tape, but I taped a short section of thin can liner to see if it would melt, it did a little, but not the kind of test I was planning on. Minor repairs are needed to the gap-stage coupler area which took the brunt of the sustainer engine plume, then I will try again. I was able to fit a 36" length of the .5" tape in there easily.

PS - with regards to the camera, I did a simple tape-on test with a Viking and it spun around like crazy, I think I will make a fairing for the gap-stager to hopefully keep it flying straight. It would be cool to capture the gap staging on video. Sorry for the off-topic tangent.

 

[Nathan]

one thing i do on small diameter, high altitude rockets that can be hard to spot is add some red chalk line chalk in the body tube, between the wadding and chute/streamer.

https://www.homedepot.com/p/DEWALT-2-5-lb-Permanent-Chalk-in-Red-DWHT72716/204624583

when ejection occurs, it gives me a pretty visible spot in the sky to start the tracking and seems to make it easier.

+1
I mix red chalk powder 50/50 with talcum powder. Makes a nice red cloud at ejection. Good for small rockets that are hard to spot.