The UP! Cup is different and takes some extra care.
The 20mm engine mount tube is over sized for a reason. A streamer is taped to and wrapped around the engine casing making a "slip" friction fit in the engine mount tube.
The instructions say to wrap the streamer around the engine casing in a spiral, like a barber pole.
Wrapped this way, the streamer unfurls about half the time.
Here's a better way to wrap the streamer:
Tape the end of the streamer at the top of the engine at an angle.
Wrap the streamer down the engine to the bottom of the casing.
At the nozzle end, flip over the streamer tail making it bend at the bottom.
Continue wrapping, now going up to the top of the engine.
Continue until the streamer is fully wrapped around the engine.
The streamer shown here is a thin red plastic, 1" wide x 20" long.
That length provides a fit that keeps the engine in the mount and still allows for an easy ejection.
The back and forth spiral wrap will unfurl after it is ejected from the rocket.
Could this be used in other rocket kits that sport a streamer? I'm not very pleased that I loose so many tumble recovery mini rockets...
ReplyDeleteHi Kirk,
ReplyDeleteThe streamer on the Up! Cup is only attached to the ejected engine. That wouldn't help a tumble or featherweight model very much. Many have extended the body tube on a Swift or Mosquito style rocket to do a normal nose cone and streamer eject.
Some club fields require that ejected engines have a streamer on them. An 18mm engine can land pretty hard!