Streamer deployment ideas ?

The Rocketry Forum

Help Support The Rocketry Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

Tom

Well-Known Member
TRF Supporter
Joined
Jun 4, 2019
Messages
275
Reaction score
59
I'm working on an Estes Vapor. I want to put streamer recovery in it. The streamer is 20'-0" long but fits into the BT60 easily. In fact too easily. Even though I wrap like 3 feet of Kevlar string around it as soon as I put it in the body tube it unravels and ends up wrapping on the shock cord.

One thought I had was a small piece of body tube that the rolled up streamer fits into nicely. On one end of this body tube I would put a small parachute. The idea is that upon the nose cone with the streamer attached will pop out and the small parachute will pull the body tube away off the streamer allowing it to unroll.

Maybe there is a special way to tie the string around the streamer in such a way it will hold it until the shock and wind of deployment will pull it loose?

Any other ideas? I'm sure someone has thought of something.
 
If you have Estes tissue paper type wadding, you may be able to create a cupcake/muffin cup shape around the folded (never ROLLED!) streamer that will both keep it gathered as well as help protect it from ejection heat.

I haven’t encountered your described problem, though. My packing order is wadding, then as much as the shock cord as I can get in (need a little bit out to give you working space for streamer and nose cone end of shock cord and shoulder), THEN the FOLDED streamer, then the remaining shock cord, then the nose cone.
 
I use streamers lots in the MD stuff. I always roll them never fold them as folding takes up twice the room. I wrap them in a nomex blanket, just like a chute. This will hold them tight until ejection. LOC has some very nice nomex "starter" blankets. I have them and they work very well. No sewing on the edges, lots smaller, but still hold up to several flights.
 
I use streamers lots in the MD stuff. I always roll them never fold them as folding takes up twice the room. I wrap them in a nomex blanket, just like a chute. This will hold them tight until ejection. LOC has some very nice nomex "starter" blankets. I have them and they work very well. No sewing on the edges, lots smaller, but still hold up to several flights.
I fly almost exclusively low power. I use "caution tape", usually fluorescent pink or orange (I think that's what comes with the Estes Viking kits.) I have had some episodes where rolled streamers didn't unfurl, could be the material, could also be I packed them the night before, I dunno.

My understanding for streamer physics is that once you get beyond 10 to 1 length to width, your bang for your buck (or "drag for your length") drops of precipitously, although any additional length DOES make it easier to spot the rocket in the air AND on the ground. Since my tape is about an inch wide, about 10 inches long, folding it in half, half again, half again, and so forth has never been a packing or deployment problem.

A 20 foot streamer is much longer than I have experience with, sounds like you have much better experience with longer rolled streamers than I have had.

some links that might be helpful

Rocket Reviews streamer calculator

https://www.rocketreviews.com/streamer-calculator.html

Chris' rocket blog mentions 10 to 1 ratio

https://modelrocketbuilding.blogspot.com/2019/02/streamers-food-for-thought.html

In any case Tom, hope you have a straight trail and a soft landing with a short walk!
 
the longest streamer that I have used is 100". I made a little streamer roller out of brass sheet metal, gets em pretty tight. I have used rip stop, the mylar ones from Apogee, but my latest have been from JoAnns fabrics. I went in and looked at the most sparklyest ribbon I could find. 3" wide and 50' on a roll for like 4 bucks. I sew a kevlar cord in an end for attachment to the shock cord. I used silver sparkles, shows up for 10,000 feet in the sun.
 
Well I can report that it 'seems' to work. However the E12 I had in the Vapor burned through and ejected about 40 feet off the ground at a high rate of speed. The streamer came out though the rough ejection tore off the last 3 or feet of the streamer.

I witnessed at least 5 CATOS today all of them Estes D and E engines! 2 of them were mine!
 
Well I can report that it 'seems' to work. However the E12 I had in the Vapor burned through and ejected about 40 feet off the ground at a high rate of speed. The streamer came out though the rough ejection tore off the last 3 or feet of the streamer.

I witnessed at least 5 CATOS today all of them Estes D and E engines! 2 of them were mine!
Is there anybody out there?
R. Waters
 
Well I can report that it 'seems' to work. However the E12 I had in the Vapor burned through and ejected about 40 feet off the ground at a high rate of speed. The streamer came out though the rough ejection tore off the last 3 or feet of the streamer.

I witnessed at least 5 CATOS today all of them Estes D and E engines! 2 of them were mine!
Yikes I just got some E12s for my Whopper Flopper Chopper. Hope I have better luck!
 
I like to use bird scare tape for streamers. It weighs nearly nothing, it costs nearly nothing, and it's incredibly visible at altitude. It's pretty fragile, so it needs to be in a solid burrito, and it gets replaced every five flights anyways.

I look at the 10:1 rule as a bonus, not as a drawback. You can use five feet of tape for drogue on a mid-sized MPR and get great visibility at altitude without excess drag.

https://www.amazon.com/Premium-Quality-Deterrent-Reflective-Scare/dp/B06XXPF32J/
 
Back
Top