The motors I bought were 24mm so I got the adapter and it flew nice, I got a bunch of the 29mm e and f engines now but haven't launched with them. Honestly I'm a little scared of the 29mm e and f engines. They're huge. On My first launch the parachute got damaged so I bought a 30" nylon one and a little concerned the 30" is a little too big and will take forever to come down making the recovery a little difficult.
***Folks, the website was stalling when I loaded this post and I kept hitting "submit", so this long-ass post was repeated 3 times. My apologies. I'm deleting content from the next 2 messages, but mods, if you see this, can you please just delete them entirely?
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If you put your chutes on a snap-swivel (for fishing) then you can swap out different chutes for your bird depending on weather/wind and total weight considerations (24mm w adapter or 29 mm motors; heavier nylon vs plastic). Stock kit weight without motor is 8.9 ounces (sorry Euro/Aussie pals, you'll need to do the conversions to metric:=) according to Estes, but that's going to vary according to your build style (e.g, adhesive selection and amount, finishing layers...), probably upward of that value. Have you weighed yours with and without a spent motor inserted? E9 and E12s weigh 2 ounces and 1.3 ounces is propellant (their chart don't account for delay/ejection/endcap weights...so the empty case probably weighs about a half ounce. D-motors weigh in at about 1.5 oz, with 0.9 oz of that being propellant. Simple to determine with a cheapo $10 digital scale from Amazon (strongly suggest you get one if you don't have--they're endlessly useful).
The SBB comes with a 24" chute, that, from the instructions (I don't have a BBB yet...boo hoo, but a Doorknob is on its way in the mail, whoo hoo!) looks like cheapo plastic one with hole protectors. Your nylon chute's gonna add a little weight, too. Without an actual weight, it's hard to determine what's the best chute size you'll want. Too big and you'll be donating it to one of our fellow rocketeers in Europe. 30" seems pretty big for that bird, unless you're popping it off super low off a D12-3 (has anybody tried a C11-3 in SBB ???). According to Mike Westerfield's LPR/MPR text "Make: Rockets", his table on page 236 indicates a rocket weight range (with expended motor) of 6.4 to 10.6 oz for a 24" chute--pretty wide range. Which fits with what Estes provided. So 30" seems a bit large to me. Just calculating for a round chute (not the kit-included hexagonal trash bag-shaped chute), a 24" round chute has an area of 452 square inches (mods can you add the ability for us to use superscript/subscript text, please?). A 30" inch chute has a surface area of 707 square inches,
i.e., is 56% bigger. That's a pretty big difference. Big enough to possibly be the difference between a great flying day and a sinking feeling in your gut as you helplessly watch your beautiful fat rocket as it begins to slowly waft its way over on its long journey to Scotland. Doug's suggestion is to reef your chute. Mine is to buy another 24-incher, in nylon. If you try to cut a spillhole, well, be careful with ripstop nylon--you need a sharp hot knife and a steady hand, and the cut edges should be reinforced to prevent tears.
And don't forget to adequately protect your laundry (chute/strings...) from the ejection charge flame and burning particles. They're pretty energetic, and given half a chance, they will happily burn holes in cheapo plastic chutes (expensive nylon ones, too), and burn strings (use Kevlar here, too) and crummy rubberband shock cords. Many folks new to the sport underestimate the amount of flameproofing to use, but that usually isn't repeated too frequently (unless they lose the rocket and never know what went wrong, tsk tsk! Except for my "disposable" fleet, and some of my streamer fleet, I long ago upgraded to kevlar string, thicker protected shock cords, and nylon chutes with Kevlar shroud lines when practicable. Baffles on bigger-diameter models. And don't pay those ridiculous prices for Estes fire-resistant (note I did not say
fireproof) toilet paper squares. They're simple to make yourself with cheap buttwipe soaked in a saturated solution of sodium bicarbonate (baking soda) or slightly better sodium borate (Borax "detergent") and air dried. Or paper towels. Dog Barf is simply fluffy cellulose insulation material with flame retardant that you can buy a lifetime supply of at Home Depot for under 10 bucks, if that's your preference. Biodegradable. Green leaves work in a pinch (or lettuce from the produce drawer of your fridge). Nothing flammable, please.
And please find a big field (and use a smallish chute) and confront your worries regarding "huge" 29mm motors! They're a hoot, and needed in anything much heavier than your current bird, though I shoot/enjoy many LPR motors, too.
The Estes 24 mm motor chart is available at:
https://estesrockets.com/wp-content/uploads/Educator/Estes_Engine_Chart.pdf . I've also uploaded it as a pdf. It requires updating to include all of their motors, too, including the 29mm series. Get on the ball, Estes!
You’re forgetting the first rule.....(and missing my sarcasm....)
