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Big Red Bee, 70cm GPS Spectacular performance, and Greg gives amazing support. All the best, James

In addition to being a rocketry enthusiast, I have some small experience as a parachutist and as a rigger. Briefly, I store my rocketry parachutes after doing the following: 1) pulled under tension, swivel to apex, until tight 2) each gore flaked out and smoothed 3) equal number of gores on...

Part of my "hands-on education" as a pyrotechnician, (which is mostly OTJ, by the way) was the difference between open circuit and static-immune shunted. ...No contest. Shunted is safer. With that said, I pre-make my charges at home, and transport them to the launch site shunted; they fly open...

Just as a FYI - the eyebolt to the motor case has a potential failure mode: Long descents under drouge can cause the fincan to "twirl" quite a bit. If the eyebolt is not firmly held in place, for example with stopper nuts in opposition to the motor closure, the eyebolt can unscrew and return...

I was quite interested in this until I read the instruction sheet...I can assemble a 6-grain CTI 75mm faster and easier. <shrugs> Every product has it's niche, this one will have one, too. All the best,James

(Kinda) back to the original topic: Off-playa landings at the Black Rock are always a mystery, because the trails are difficult to find. And they aren't marked on the topo maps, either. We spend a lot of time off-road riding in the area. Actually, we spend more time off-roading than...

If we didn't already have a 2700 psi pressure washer at home, I'd do what Andrew suggested above. Also, you'd be amazed at what a great job Simple Green does. All the best, James

Nicely done on the video! There's good data to be had there. As a helpful FYI, snatch force is defined as the impact generated by the bag (or parachute) hitting the end of the lines, not the deceleration generated by the parachute opening. All the best, James

Weeeelll...we did try a few jumps with a 26' LoPo using a regular old ram-air (rectangular) slider. It "sorta" worked but would occasionally end up skewed sideways and hang up about 6' down the lines, distorting the canopy and resulting in a chop; also we ended up with popped stitching on the...

I have personally jumped several reefed round parachutes. Only one of them (the AT-3) was a pulled down apex design like the Iris. It used a 6-point spider slider. This worked great at high speed (120 mph) but was eminently choppable - meaning I cut the frickin thing away alot - at slow speed...

This is all such old news. May I suggest an excellent read: Written in 1994, this book is a truly eye-opening look into what is (and isn't) happening now. The opening quote is blood-chilling: All the best, James

Not exactly frictionless, but we've had excellent results spraying our 1010 and 1515 rail with McLube Sailkote. You can get it at West Marine, or, Amazon. This stuff is frickin amazing. The friction is easily 1/4 of what you'd expect for a clean, untreated rail. All the best, James

There's a difference between requesting a Certificate of Waiver, or, a Certificate of Authorization. If you do not have a specific regulation you require relief from (as you summarized nicely above), if you are launching Class 2 or 3 rockets then you'll still need a Certificate of...

John, I cannot tell you how much we anticipated the flight; were standing in front of our camp cheering on the launch; how beautiful the flight was. Watching it come in ballistic, right in front of our camp, was sad beyond words. Our hearts went out to you. All the best, James

Well said - playa is marginally softer - but not much. Depends on the time of year, I would think. Early in the year, nice and hard, the equivalent of asphalt pavement; later in the year, the surface drys out and is softer and fluffier. Still frickin hard though. I've found that 18 fps...

I travel a lot on business. From being on the receiving end, you are spot on - any little effort at communicating in the client's native tongue really makes them feel appreciated, I always am bowled over when someone in another country says "thank you" in English, even when it's obvious it's not...

It's all in your head! The date still has no significance for me, and I certainly don't act my age...(not sure if that's good or bad?) All the best, James

I will agree that when first perusing the Fruity Chute web site, there certainly is a bit of sticker shock. I believe it is instructive to compare apples to apples, though (descent rate for equivalent suspended load). For example, here's the observed performance from last year's testing...

I hadn't seen there was a price increase. I just looked, and they seemed to be roughly the same? Regardless, I don't skimp on recovery components, and in my humble opinion the Fruity Chutes are quite reasonably priced for their spectacular quality. As for value for the dollar, it's triple the...

These threads might help: GSS Heavy Pad and Fade To Black launch pads All the best, James