While stocking up on fun toys for the summer for my kids I came across a great find.
Our local Target store had bins of cheap summer toys (sand shovels, checkers, army men) and I came across Parachute Man for $1.99. Its the type of toy that comes with an army figure with a parachute that you throw up into the air, chute opens and the little guy floats down. Upon opening to my surprise was a 12" nylon chute. Now here's the kicker, the leading edge of the chute where the shroud lines would connect too had a fabric mesh sowed all the way around it with one shroud line connected to the center of the mesh coming down to tie to the army man. Well, I loaded it up in my Estes Megga Sizz and went to my favorite rocket eating tree park for a test flight.
Up she goes, perfect deployment at about 800ft. and she starts coming down. Low and behold right into a 60 ft. oak tree........but she slipped right through. Due to the lack of shroud lines and the fact that the underside of the parachute is covered my the mesh there was nothing for the tree limbs to snag on. When the parachute inflates coming down, the rocket almost looks like it had a large balloon attached to the top of it. I know a picture is worth a thousand words and I have my fellow TRF members scraching there heads, but if you have a Target near you go check it out. I will have a pic up shorlty.
Our local Target store had bins of cheap summer toys (sand shovels, checkers, army men) and I came across Parachute Man for $1.99. Its the type of toy that comes with an army figure with a parachute that you throw up into the air, chute opens and the little guy floats down. Upon opening to my surprise was a 12" nylon chute. Now here's the kicker, the leading edge of the chute where the shroud lines would connect too had a fabric mesh sowed all the way around it with one shroud line connected to the center of the mesh coming down to tie to the army man. Well, I loaded it up in my Estes Megga Sizz and went to my favorite rocket eating tree park for a test flight.
Up she goes, perfect deployment at about 800ft. and she starts coming down. Low and behold right into a 60 ft. oak tree........but she slipped right through. Due to the lack of shroud lines and the fact that the underside of the parachute is covered my the mesh there was nothing for the tree limbs to snag on. When the parachute inflates coming down, the rocket almost looks like it had a large balloon attached to the top of it. I know a picture is worth a thousand words and I have my fellow TRF members scraching there heads, but if you have a Target near you go check it out. I will have a pic up shorlty.
