My 12" Nylon Chute Won't Fit...

Over the weekend I tried to fold the parachute and pack it into the BT50 body tube for my X-Wing Alpha.... not looking good. It's a 12" Top Flight Nylon Chute.

Issue is where they fold the bottom of the chute and stitch it together. Way too bulky.

What are my options? Keep in mind I am launching from an altitude of about 8,200 feet. Not much air up here.

Should I build my own chute?

As always, your comments and advice are much appreciated.

Was it a thin mill or standard weight chute? Material makes a huge difference in smaller airframes (under 38mm). I make my own thin mill chutes from .75oz kite nylon and a 6" barely fits my BT50 size V2 (its only got about 3" of space for wadding and chute as well as the nose cone shoulder).

I'd just use an Estes 15" plastic parachute since you're planning on flying black powder.

Saw your post tonight while I was working on an Aerotech Mustang. Got me curious so I tried to see if the 15" parachute could be folded into a 24mm tube. I guess thin mil DOES make a difference. There's not much spare room, but it does pack without binding in the tube, and slides freely in and out. I assume you're laying the shroud lines inside the "burrito" then folding right? Wrapping the shroud lines around the outside just adds one more thing that needs to occur for the chute to unfurl properly. And I haven't tried it in a BT-50 tube, only larger dia. mid-power rockets, but there are X-type chutes that are thin mil and come as small as 9" . Might work for you, then again might not. They fold into a square, I guess you can then roll it into a cylinder for your rocket. Less volume of material, should take up less space. Rocket comes down slightly faster, though.



Hey, I just thought of something. Use an X-type parachute for an X-Wing fighter.:lol: Laters.

Thanks to all for your advise.

kuririn said:

I assume you're laying the shroud lines inside the "burrito" then folding right?

Click to expand...

Yep, and thanks for the R&D.

Turns out what I have is a 12" 1.7 oz chute. The nylon measures about 0.005 inches thick but the issue is where it is folded over onto itself and stitched all the way around... that's thick. Additional issue is with only about 4" of usable body tube length, the chute needs to be folder over onto itself.

I emailed topflight and asked for their advice.

The rocket only weighs about 3 ounces at this point... but at 8000 ft altitude a 12" chute is needed due to the thin air.

Reply back from Preston Nobile at Top Flight....

[FONT=&quot]John[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot][/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]Yes, the thin mill fabric packs smaller than our standard fabric. At 1.1 oz it's great for fitting in smaller tubes and where space is scarce. We have orange, red, and green for colors in the thin mill fabric.[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot][/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]Thanks [/FONT]
[FONT=&quot][/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]Top Flight Recovery LLC[/FONT]
[FONT=&amp]
[/FONT]

Recovery is a pain for all of the X-Wing kits. My first NCR X-Wing became a new kit with twice the number of parts because I packed the parachute wrong for its first flight. My "Poe-ish" Maxi X-Wing suffered a slightly less catastrophic failure on its first flight when then shock cord came loose from the body.

So, make sure the shock cord is attached well and the parachute isn't packed too tightly. One thing that has worked for me is to fold the 'chute into a triangle then place the shroud lines in middle. Fold the chute once more over the shroud lines making a point. Then fold the top down and roll the whole thing up into a cylinder that slides into the body tube. It is kind of tricky with thin mill chutes because the material is slippery.

-- Roger

Take a look at dino chutes (www.dinochutes.com). They use serged edges instead of folding over, so pack up much smaller for the same surface area chute.

I make my own chutes and I used to make them with stitched borders until I learned you didn't need to do that. I get my ripstop at THIS PLACE and I use a wood burning iron and templates I made from heavy poster board. Once you burn/cut the ripstop, it sears the edges. No stitching required. This is the best way I know of to get chutes in those darn BT-50's. Or you can opt for the plastic chutes. Consider, that those plastic chutes don't have stitched borders either which makes them easier to pack.