Creating a spill hole in a Nylon Chute

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Greg Furtman

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I am speaking of LPRs here. I have several nylon chutes, 12" - 18" range, that I would like to put some small spill holes in to use on windier days. I'm thinking about hot cutting them with a wood burner since a wood burner has a hefty chisel sharped tip. Has anyone here done this? Will heat cutting keep the nylon from frizzing or would I need to hem it?
 
yep, I've done it..with a high school STEM group...flew their rockets then cut up to 20% spill hole in the chutes. We used a soldering iron. I still have and use some of those chutes...I have not noticed any of them fraying.


Tony
 
I've vented both 12" and 15" nylon chutes with nothing more than an Xacto with a new #11 blade and some care. Once the cuts were done I applied a very light layer of white Elmer's glue to both sides of the cut. So far, I've not had a problem with the nylon fraying after roughly a year of use.
 
if you don't really want to cut a hole in your parachutes you can get the same quick descent by reefing the shroud lines with a piece of masking tape up near the canopy itself...... or better yet use snap swivels and just change out and use a streamer....if the models are small you can use nose-blow thru and tumble recovery.....
 
Concur with Shockie on reefing the parachute. Gives you the open of going to a full parachute later. Not much you can do if you cut a spill hole.
 
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