Hey all...
I'm new to the forum and had a quick question. I was into model rocketry a lot when I was in my early teens and now that my son is 11, he's taken an interest in the hobby as well. I'm pretty excited about building / launching with him.
Anyway, we picked up four Estes kits...the Bandit, the Amazon / Crossfire (comes with the lauch pad) plus I just picked up a Crossbow at Wally World this past weekend.
My question is this... It seems like Estes is now putting parachutes on quite a lot of their low power (mini-engine), low weight models. Seems to me that a model like the Bandit could get by with a streamer instead. I'd imagine Estes is trying for the "wow" factor on the beginner kits by putting in a chute or something.
Has anyone switched to streamers on these small kits in the interest of actually recovering them on a slightly gusty day?
Finally... what type of material could I use to make some streamers? I was thinking maybe something like an old PVC rain poncho...
The other idea I had was to cut a spill hole in the chute to make the model descend faster. Not sure if that'd cause the chute to collapse or work as intended though. Any thoughts?
Thanks in advance!
I'm new to the forum and had a quick question. I was into model rocketry a lot when I was in my early teens and now that my son is 11, he's taken an interest in the hobby as well. I'm pretty excited about building / launching with him.
Anyway, we picked up four Estes kits...the Bandit, the Amazon / Crossfire (comes with the lauch pad) plus I just picked up a Crossbow at Wally World this past weekend.
My question is this... It seems like Estes is now putting parachutes on quite a lot of their low power (mini-engine), low weight models. Seems to me that a model like the Bandit could get by with a streamer instead. I'd imagine Estes is trying for the "wow" factor on the beginner kits by putting in a chute or something.
Has anyone switched to streamers on these small kits in the interest of actually recovering them on a slightly gusty day?
Finally... what type of material could I use to make some streamers? I was thinking maybe something like an old PVC rain poncho...
The other idea I had was to cut a spill hole in the chute to make the model descend faster. Not sure if that'd cause the chute to collapse or work as intended though. Any thoughts?
Thanks in advance!