has anyone ever built or has seen an emergency recovery chute for airplanes for that just incase emergency. i think it would be nice to have if you ever get a glitch or just something to differnt to try.

thanks

Well RC Flyer it should work. They were available as an option on light aircraft over ten years ago. I'm out of touch with small aircraft, but may still be, so if they'll work there, they should work on a model.

It should be simple enough to rig up a capsule on top or bottom of the model, and if you get into trouble, e.g., in flight break up, pop the parachute and minimize the damage.

I've used these on RPV's....in years gone by.

We found that a drogue chute is vital to ensure successful deployment of the main canopy....BUT the drogue has a habit of snagging the tail...SO, the drogue must be sprung loaded such that it is pinged well clear of the airframe. This system works well. Try it without the sprung drogue at your peril. The full-sized 'chute on the Cirrus uses a pyrotechnic to deploy its drogue, I understand.

What we did was to source a large coiled spring, about 2" in diameter and about 5" long. The drogue was loosley packed over this spring and the whole assembly then pressed down under the parachute' hatch. Sounds a bit Heath-Robinson, but it did work effectively. Once the hatch was sprung, the drogue popped out under spring pressure . I should state that, often, deployment was elective. In these cases, the aircraft would be slowed right down prior to 'chute deployment...which helps a great deal.

Of course, at the sizes of model which we typically fly, the weight penalty might prove prohibitive. You could consider a system like that was tried by the Luftwaffe in its ejection seat trials. This comprised a long lever which was pivoted near to the aircraft's tail. The free end of the lever was attached to the pilot's seat. I think that dynamic air pressure was used to swing the pilot up and over the aircraft tail. Might work, but you'd really have to NEED something like this on a model.

If you can arrange things such that your canopy is deployed aft of the tail feathers (like full-sized spin-recovery chutes) you may have fewer problems.... until you come to balance your model. Good luck!

bogbeagle

Its really too much work and weight penalty to make it practical on RC planes. It might be something fun to goof around with just to do it but to do it to save a plane is not very realistic. You will be as likely or moreso to have problems with the deployment of the chute than practicality in saving a plane. Anyway, most of the time you realize your plane is in trouble it would probably be too late for the chute anyway.

All that said it might be fun to try. Maybe build a spad and expirement that wayyou have a minimal investment of time and resources while you work out the bugs.

One of the trainer manufacturers offered this system a couple of years ago. I don't know if they were successful in selling it, or if they still do, but do recall that one of the drawbacks was that most folks flying a trainer weren't quick enough to operate the proper Tx switch to deploy it before the plane was toast. After all, if they were fast enough to do so they would probably have been fast enough to save the plane without the need for a parachute.