The purpose that I am making this post is to have a discussion about all things parachutes and recovery. Although I do have a few particular questions and want to hear others opinions, I want there to be a place where alot of this information can be found in one spot. Im sure there are other forum threads that have good information, nothing quite answers all the questions that i have.
This post will not tolerate bashing vendors for any reason.
Short story of my background: Started HPR 5 years ago joining my collegiate rocketry club Pioneer Rocketry out of UW - Platteville. Since then have been in numerous competitions including IREC (Spaceport America Cup) and as of writing this post just recently successfully flew my Wildman Intimidator 4 rocket to get my TRA L3 certification.
Since I am a broke college student and parachutes are expensive, i have taken up making my own parachutes. Up to now I have used the Scott Bryce gore generator and has worked great for me so far. (https://scottbryce.com/parachute/spherical_parachute.html) I like the look of the hemispherical chutes so i stick with 50% sphere and a 20% apex vent. Which leads to my first topic of discussion.
1) What is the most efficient way to test parachutes? Cost effective, timeliness ect. With making homemade chutes id like to test them with different weights to get descent rates and CD. Initially my plan was to build a heavy lift RC plane to drop the parachutes but unless you go massive, 5lbs is the largest realistic payload, and can only test parachutes up to a certain size. Second idea would be like an air cannon/potato cannon, but again comes with weight restriction and trying to keep the parachute from opening during ascent. Lastly the most obvious but most expensive would be to launch rockets. But with my largest parachute being 12' you need a 50lb rocket to test it at rated capacity. What are your thoughts?
2) Parachute packing and long term storage: How does everyone store their parachutes, Pack it as if it were ready for launch? or loosely pack it or even hang them up unpacked? Is it acceptable to pack a parachute as if it were ready for launch store it for X time period and dont repack the parachute and launch it?
3) I have a lot of other talking points when it comes to making parachutes and the best practices is all aspects of recovery. When attaching shroud lines, what pattern do you connect them to the parachute? Is there a best way or do it not even matter? Where do people source the rip stop nylon that they use? what materials do people use for their own parachutes shroud lines?
I understand there are a lot of questions here and im not expecting everything to be answered, but im just curious to hear what others have done.
Happy flying!
This post will not tolerate bashing vendors for any reason.
Short story of my background: Started HPR 5 years ago joining my collegiate rocketry club Pioneer Rocketry out of UW - Platteville. Since then have been in numerous competitions including IREC (Spaceport America Cup) and as of writing this post just recently successfully flew my Wildman Intimidator 4 rocket to get my TRA L3 certification.
Since I am a broke college student and parachutes are expensive, i have taken up making my own parachutes. Up to now I have used the Scott Bryce gore generator and has worked great for me so far. (https://scottbryce.com/parachute/spherical_parachute.html) I like the look of the hemispherical chutes so i stick with 50% sphere and a 20% apex vent. Which leads to my first topic of discussion.
1) What is the most efficient way to test parachutes? Cost effective, timeliness ect. With making homemade chutes id like to test them with different weights to get descent rates and CD. Initially my plan was to build a heavy lift RC plane to drop the parachutes but unless you go massive, 5lbs is the largest realistic payload, and can only test parachutes up to a certain size. Second idea would be like an air cannon/potato cannon, but again comes with weight restriction and trying to keep the parachute from opening during ascent. Lastly the most obvious but most expensive would be to launch rockets. But with my largest parachute being 12' you need a 50lb rocket to test it at rated capacity. What are your thoughts?
2) Parachute packing and long term storage: How does everyone store their parachutes, Pack it as if it were ready for launch? or loosely pack it or even hang them up unpacked? Is it acceptable to pack a parachute as if it were ready for launch store it for X time period and dont repack the parachute and launch it?
3) I have a lot of other talking points when it comes to making parachutes and the best practices is all aspects of recovery. When attaching shroud lines, what pattern do you connect them to the parachute? Is there a best way or do it not even matter? Where do people source the rip stop nylon that they use? what materials do people use for their own parachutes shroud lines?
I understand there are a lot of questions here and im not expecting everything to be answered, but im just curious to hear what others have done.
Happy flying!