Powdering A Chute

 The Thrifty Rocketeer blog continues...

Most rocketeers who have any experience with launching low power or Estes Rockets will recognize the need for maintaining a spare plastic parachute in their jump box or launch kit.  The need for a ready-to-go chute is often sudden and inescapable. 

But not so many rocketeers will be aware of the need to powder their behind on a semi-regular basis.

That is, one thing that we all discover is that plastic sheets, chutes, garbage bags, clingwrap and plastic shopping bags all have a behavior in common.    The plastic sheets not only like to cling to one-another, but they also tend to stick together... especially when they have been stored for awhile, or exposed to heat.  (This means, tucked in a closet during the summer, or on that shelf above the furnace in the basement over winter....   any place that a folded parachute may be stored and exposed to a little bit of heat.)

To prevent this, it is a common practice to "powder your chute" before folding it up and loading into the body tube of your rocket.

Now, I have heard there are those enthusiasts who remove their chute via a small swivel clip or a fishing lure spinner, and hang them out in the air "to dry".  This prevents "plastic memory" from keeping the chute wadded up and resisting the need to unfurl.  Personally, I think this is a little excessive, but who am I to judge.  If it works for you, go for it...

Where I was heading is the need to powder the chute.

That is, there are some rocketeers who lightly sprinkle their clean plastic chute with either: 

  1. Corn starch
  2. White flour
  3. Baby powder
  4. talcum powder
  5. poster paint
Now let me assure you that I am not a fan of most of these substances as this is NOT how they are supposed to be used.  In fact, some of these become FLAMABLE when exposed or fluffed into the air.  Some should not be exposed to the possibility of flame at all.

I have heard that while poster paint is great for visibility when the chute is ejected, it coats EVERYTHING, and is a devil to clean up.
While I have never used corn starch, I hear some rely upon it.

My personal choice is either talcum powder or baby powder.  It coats the sticky surface of the chute, and doesn't flame.  It absorbs moisture (a bit) and keeps two plastic surfaces from adhering.

And, if you shop about a bit, you can come up with a small "travel size" bottle of baby powder at many drug stores or pharmacies, especially if your Wal-Mart has a "travel size" section in their cosmetics or medical aisles. Or look in the baby care aisle.


But the topic came to mind because of a recent family emergency.  We had a death in the family, and I drew the lot to clean out the medicine cabinet.  What I found was two large bottles of similar products that had been on the shelf for years!

  1. One was your basic Baby Powder by Johnson and Johnson.  Bingo!  Bonanza!  Just what I was looking for.  But the level in the bottom of the opaque white plastic bottle indicated that it had been well used over the years.  That was initially a puzzler, because this person hadn't had a baby in the house for decades.
  2. The second was a similarly large bottle of "Cashmere Bouquet" body powder.  For those not in the know, this is a scented powder that women of a certain age like to coat themselves with under the blouse or bra to keep themselves dry and odor free.  There may be another use for this product, but as this is a family blog, we'll leave it to the imagination where else you might imagine a woman to use this.


The second bottle was slightly larger but held slightly less powder in the bottom.   But it is my belief that I will be able to make use of it much like the Baby Powder product to "powder my chutes".

The only problem appears to be either the large container is mostly empty (awkward to store) and the possibility that some moisture may have become trapped in the bottle and caused the powder in the bottle to "cake up".  (I will have to check this out before using.)

But it is my plan to pry open the top to the Baby Powder first, and see if I could dump the remainder into either my little travel bottle, or perhaps dump them into a funnel to refill.

Either way, it's an unexpected gift from my elderly Aunt Verna that I discovered when cleaning out her bathroom.

This has been the Thrifty Rocketeer saying, "Sometimes, you find the oddest gifts when you aren't expecting them. "

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