This is it on the ground. I took
the trouble to make the nose cone a little longer
than normal so that the parafoil chute, with its
greater volume of material, wouldn't get too
squashed up inside. Also, the pack for this is a
little odd in that it concertinas and then folds
which doesn't lend itself to making a wide
variety of packs - concertina or concertina.
Using
an interchangeable nose cone/parchute assembly
like this allows you to choose between whatever
you have got - bin-liner/circular-nylon/parafoil
- without any problems. Just keep the chutes in
their respective nose-cones and screw on the one
that you want, when you want it.
This shows the chute just
opening. I have altered the contrast of the
picture so that it is easier to see the mouth
of each of the cells as they fill with air.
Despite
having all of those cords, there is very little
tendancy for them to get tangled. If you keep the
screw on top from getting tangled up in them
before you screw the parachute onto the top of
the rocket, there is no opportunity for a tangle.
In the air, they all come to their tension and
the chute works fine.
Fully open - the drogue drifts
off to the left as the rocket swings around. (All
that is needed to make it complete is a little
man with a smoke canister attached to his ankle).
This shows the angle of attack -
the solarised picture on the right showing the
cords. If you want to make the decent slower, you
could adjust this to be shallower although you
should bear in mind that if it is too shallow,
the chute could stall and never fill up with air.
Just before touchdown. The
parafoil has not done that badly compared to the
drogue so its decent is not that slow in
comparison to a circular chute.
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the Water Rocket Recovery Systems Index
