Scratch - Acme Little Giant Parachute Duration {Scratch}

Descon Acme Little Giant Parachute Duration

Scratch - Acme Little Giant Parachute Duration {Scratch}

Contributed by Jody Dorsett

Manufacturer:

Acme Little Giant Parachute Duration
For Micro Max Motors

by Jody Dorsett

This is a very interesting model to build. You will need the following parts:
1 Hand rolled 4mm BT 80mm long (see Tips) or use a TT-MM BT from Aerospace Speciality Products
1 10.5 Apogee ST 70 mm long
1 10.5 mm Apogee Balsa Ogive Nose Cone
1 Transition 4mm to 10.5mm (make yourself)
3 Fins cut from 1/32" Balsa They measure 7/8" at root, 3/8" at tip and are 13/16" long
1 launch lug 10 mm long (cut from plastic ear swab, see tips)
1 Motor mount for Micro Max (see tips).
1 Parachute
Building the Model Cut the parts to size. Cut the fins. The hard part is the transition tube. Find the center of an Apogee 10.5 bulkhead. Drill the center and glue in a 1/16th in dowel. When it dries cut the dowel to about 1 1/2" from the end of the wood. Chuck it into the drill. Use sand paper, NO BLADES!!!, And shape the transition piece. Then slowly twist out the dowel. Use a drill bit that is not in the drill motor, hold it in your hand, and hollow it out. Basically you use the drill bit like a saw. Then glue it between the two tubes.

A drill motor that is used as a lathe Join the 10mm tube to the transition section. When you glue this, slide the shock cord alongside the transition section so that when you glue the 10 mm tube to the section it also glues the shock cord. There is no room for an Estes style mount.

Then glue the tt-4 on the bottom. The fins use a standard 3 fin alignment. I use very thin sacks from the produce department for the parachute.

Rocket Pic

This is a picture of the Mk II. It has four fins that are a plywood and balsa composite. See the launch report for more detail. The link is at the bottom of the page

My advisory board: Bart and Sweetie

Acme Little Giant PD Launch Report

The great thing about this model is that it fits right on the MM launcher!

The inspiration for this came as a result of a discussion during the September meeting of NWARS. We were discussing the MM motor and having contest built around it. I had played with the concept of the PD model. So I went home and finished it. The first flight came at the October,2001 launch.

Everyone was impressed by the altitude. The parachute, a 4" for this test, deployed. The flight was not as straight as I would like, and I believe this is because it does not have enough fin area. Upon recovery though I noticed that the fins had cracked along the grain. The 1/32" balsa was too soft.

Improvements: The ALGPD MkII

For the next launch, I removed the three fins and made four composite fins. I did this the expedient way of cutting out four fins from 1/64" plywood,and then CAing them directly onto a sheet of 1/32" balsa. A few minutes later I cut them out! They are very strong and still light. I mounted them in the conventional manner.

Dec 15th launch:

The four fins did the trick, the model boosted very straight and deployed the chute. One of the shroud lines broke, surely because the model had not yet reached apogee! Too bad the delay is so short on the MM motor. None of the flight pictures worked, but here's a picture of it loaded on the pad for its second flight of the day. Another great thing is that these little models are perfect for the 5 acre park in my small town.

Rocket Pic