Big Daddy Parachute

[AKPilot]

Just finished mine up and was wondering . . . is the 24" parachute too big?

Maybe it's my eyes, but it seems pretty enormous. Then again, it's my first D-engine . . .

 

[powderburner]

My vote: the stock Estes 'chute is too big.
You can either cut part of the center out, or cut the outer edges off to make an 18 or 15 inch 'chute. I even use a 12 inch size if I am launching somewhere that has grass (or bushes) to land in.
I would rather get it back a little dinged up than not get it back at all.
My 2 cents . .

 

[Karl]

Yep, it's too big.

The space in the airframe between the bottom of the nosecone shoulder is too small. I cut some of the shoulder off & made a bulkhead that sits inside the shoulder. Just a extra 2-3" or so but it's worth it .
Karl

 

[brianc]

The chute's just right if you have a good sized field...

My son's club held a Big Daddy contest last weekend and
most flew in the 'stock' category (including the chute).
Counting the contest flights, my son flew at least four or
five times (I lost count) that day.... Several others made
flights in addtion to the contest flights.

None of the rockets were lost due to drift or chute failure.

 

[rbeckey]

I use an 18 inch chute with a spillhole for my Big Daddy.

 

[AKPilot]

Thanks for the opinions . . . they've helped.

I just keep going back to when our family decided that the 12" chute on a Bullpup looked too small (because of the weight in the nose cone). So we put a 18" chute on the thing and got a great duration flight. Fortunately we ended up finding it, in the middle of the street a neighborhood or two over.

The field my kids and I fly from is fairly good size; about 750' rectangular. It's big enough to hold separate soccer, baseball field, and sledding hill. So we were just thinking that with this being a D-engine we wanted to return fairly close to the launch area.

 

[brianc]

Originally posted by akpilot
The field my kids and I fly from is fairly good size; about 750' rectangular.

In that case, depending on the wind and motor, you may want to consider a <a href="https://www.rocketreviews.com/cgi-bin/flattips/glossary.cgi#18">reefed</a> chute.

GOOD LUCK!

 

[jerryb]

I've been flying my BigDaddy on its stock 24" chute, with a 6" spill hole cut into it. Probably 20 flights on that chute now.. added a much longer shock cord though...

later
Jerryb

Originally posted by akpilot
Thanks for the opinions . . . they've helped.

I just keep going back to when our family decided that the 12" chute on a Bullpup looked too small (because of the weight in the nose cone). So we put a 18" chute on the thing and got a great duration flight. Fortunately we ended up finding it, in the middle of the street a neighborhood or two over.

The field my kids and I fly from is fairly good size; about 750' rectangular. It's big enough to hold separate soccer, baseball field, and sledding hill. So we were just thinking that with this being a D-engine we wanted to return fairly close to the launch area.