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Parachute tips and tricks:
-Fishing Snap Swivel
Instead of tying the parachute to the capsule directly, tie it to a fishing snap-swivel. The shock cord is still tied to the nose cove. This will allow a quick change of the recovery device at the field, and will give you a greater option to choose different parachutes, etc.
-Parachute Spill Hole
Ever notice in the center of the estes chutes there is a circular dotted line? This can be cut out to form a large “spill hole” allowing more air to pass through the chute. This can prevent an updraft lifting your model higher (and farther) away from you. If you combine this with the snap swivel, you can have a few parachutes in your field box, and choose the appropriate on depending on flight conditions, IE spill hole or no spill hole. With the small amount of plastic removed, it is easier to fold the parachute!!!
-Shock Cord Replacement
The elastic shock cords become very brittle after a few uses. Replace these with sewing elastic cord or braid works very well. These usually sell for about $1.00 and gives you 3.7m or 4 yards, enough for a few rockets! While you are at it, be generous and give some extra length of cord to the rocket, this will help the recovery system deploy.
General tips:
-Fishing Snap Swivel - Interchangeable Nose cones
I use this trick on my Estes BT-56 body rockets mainly, but a few of my other rockets have this too. The “larger” Estes E2X rockets (Astrosat, Amazon, Cosmic Cobra, etc) use the BT-56 body tube. This means that the nose cone will be interchangeable to each other. As there are a few specialized nose cones in my fleet, namely the three listed above, I thought it would be nice to change some parts around depending on the day I am having.
By adding a fishing snap swivel to the end of the shock cord, you simply latch the booster to the nose cone. If I decide to use the Cosmic Cobra as a full parachute recovered rocket, or if I want to launch the Astrosat as a true rocket instead of a rocket-jet fighter, all I need to do is clip on the appropriate nose cone. As all of my recovery devices have swivel clips too, I can easily add a larger parachute with a simple clip to the nose cone!
-Launch Rod Replacement
I never did like the small two piece launch rod that came with the kits. Go to your local hobby store, and get a piece of music wire, 1/8”(standard rod) and 3/16”(Maxi-rod) diameter. These are about $3.00 each. They are longer, stronger, and a lot cheaper than the original parts. The extra length will help guide your rocket straighter off the pad.
As they are real metal, they will oxidize a bit over time. Simply sand them down lightly using steel wool, and wipe with a WD-40 soaked cloth. This will also help cut down friction during launch!
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