An altimeter bay is a removeable rocket compartment that usually contains electronic components used to eject one or two parachutes. All of the rockets that I have built relied on the rocket motor’s built-in ejection charge to deploy a single parachute at an appropriate time.
The easiest dual deployment setup uses the motor to deploy the drogue parachute at apogee and an altimeter/computer to deploy the main parachute at a lower altitude. When done correctly, a dual deployment system brings the rocket down closer to the launch point.
The first altimeter bay that I built looked like it had been designed by Pablo Picasso, which is to say, there were no words to adequately describe it!
This altimeter bay uses several 3D-printed parts, fits together well, and is ready for testing. It fits into my BT80 rocket and I hope to test it at the next launch in Calmar.
Getting to this point was not easy, and I learned several things that had not been mentioned elsewhere, as far as I remember…