Scioly.org

We launched again today and got around the same time, the problem now is that the parachute is too small. We are boosting from 28in diameter to 34in diameter. I put a small hole in the middle of the parachute to make it more stable and my sister got pigeon, she said it's going to make it come down faster. But it will be more stable on the way down, I really want to keep the hole in the next parachute but she is totally against it (she makes the parachutes, not me). Any recommendations?

And I have heard that the strings should be 1.5x the diameter of the parachute.

ktrujillo52 wrote:We launched again today and got around the same time, the problem now is that the parachute is too small. We are boosting from 28in diameter to 34in diameter. I put a small hole in the middle of the parachute to make it more stable and my sister got butterfly, she said it's going to make it come down faster. But it will be more stable on the way down, I really want to keep the hole in the next parachute but she is totally against it (she makes the parachutes, not me). Any recommendations?

And I have heard that the strings should be 1.5x the diameter of the parachute.

I like the string idea...I know nothing about it though, just saying.

As for the parachute...sometimes a hole helps, it depends on how big the parachute is. I'd think your 34in one may need/want a hole, but it would probably be okay without one too. Just launch it first and see if it needs stability as it falls.

Does anyone have a suggestion on how to make the nose cone fall off of the pressure container?

Yes, simply let it rest on the top of the pressure vessel. Gravity does all of the work for you.

jazzy009 wrote:

ktrujillo52 wrote:We launched again today and got around the same time, the problem now is that the parachute is too small. We are boosting from 28in diameter to 34in diameter. I put a small hole in the middle of the parachute to make it more stable and my sister got butterfly, she said it's going to make it come down faster. But it will be more stable on the way down, I really want to keep the hole in the next parachute but she is totally against it (she makes the parachutes, not me). Any recommendations?

And I have heard that the strings should be 1.5x the diameter of the parachute.

I like the string idea...I know nothing about it though, just saying.

As for the parachute...sometimes a hole helps, it depends on how big the parachute is. I'd think your 34in one may need/want a hole, but it would probably be okay without one too. Just launch it first and see if it needs stability as it falls.[/quote


I heard the 1.5x thing somewhere, I forgot where though. That is what I have been using since last year and it seems to work fine with the parachute. Also, before we were having trouble with the strings tangling. I made this thing out of cardstock that straightens out the strings and makes it much more difficult for the strings to tangle. The parachute has been stuck in a tree and has flipped inside out and still has not tangled. I'll try to post a picture of what we did whenever I have time.

Thanks. I guess my head wasn't screwed on the right way when I posted that. I created a nose cone that swings open on "hinges" to let the parachute out when it's falling back to the ground. It seems to be working pretty well so far.

Launched today, very windy day. Our 36inch parachute worked very well. However, I wasn't able to retrieve it. After it deployed, it began moving west toward some fairly large buildings. I ran toward them but couldn't find the parachute in the air. We believe that the flight time was around 40 seconds before it landed on top of one of the buildings.

We just had our first competition (Southland Invite, if anyone else was there) and our school won egg-o-naut. We got a 32 second hang time, and the final score was even more if you add separation and egg survival bonuses. The main reason is because the parachute caught an updraft or something, so the capsule stayed up for a long time. I know there were some questions in last years thread about updrafts being an external source of energy and issues following that. Did that ever get resolved? Don't get me wrong, I'm happy for my partner because he won, but there was a large amount of luck involved.

well it was a major topic in last years thread the post that started it was this one
most of the people believed that since updrafts are uncontrollable makes it impossible to say it is an external source of energy but to get a more detailed view of the argument if goes from the post i linked to the end of the thread

...just trying to cover myself here:
I can use gorilla glue with this year's rules right?

yes