Use of Eggtimer Apogee for booster recovery?

[Sooner Boomer]

This is probably a stupid idea, but bear with me... Ignoring for a minute how to ignite the upper stage, could an Eggtimer Apogee be used to deploy the recovery system on a mid- or high-power booster in a two stage configuration? Is there anything inherently different between the flight of a booster and a single stage rocket, from the perspective of an ejection altimeter?

 

[Titan II]

Why is it stupid? It will work fine. I use a RRC2+ on all my boosters. BTW....the RRC3 is a great sustainer altimeter for two stage.

 

[bad_idea]

@Sooner Boomer , that's my plan for for the booster of a two-stage design I've been working on. I don't think it's a stupid idea, but if it is, you have company.

The plan is for ignition and sep. charge to be controlled from the sustainer, so all the electronics in the booster need to do is recover the booster. Since it will stage at low altitude and far out in the field, I don't plan to fly a backup altimeter in the booster, though I will probably use motor ejection as a backup. Due to the low altitude, I probably won't fly a tracker in the booster. If I decide to fly a tracker, maybe a Quasar would make sense, overqualified as it is for a single event.

 

[Jmhepworth]

I’ve started to put Quasars in the booster. It gives me a separation charge, an ejection at Apogee, and a backup a second later. And GPS tracking. It’s perfect for a booster in a high power two stage configuration. But to answer the original question, an Apogee will work fine for booster recovery. It sounds like a good solution for starting out in high power staging. Of course recovery of the booster is the easy part.

 

[Charles_McG]

I’ve put Quarks in boosters for redundant deploy, and for hot wire chute release. I done same with a Quantum to get descent rate data.

I’ve got an Apogee I plan to put in the pop-pod of a glider, so I don’t have to guess the timing for the delay.

 

[DaHabes]

I have a two-stage design for 29mm BP motors with a three engine booster made of the central airframe and two outboard pods. One booster pod will have an Eggtimer Apogee for chute deployment and a tracker (Eggfinder Mini or Featherweight GPS) in the other. It's just way down the build pile at this point...