The simplest mid and high powered rockets use the rocket motor’s delay and black powder charge for parachute deployment. Usually very reliable, ejecting the parachute near apogee can result in a long walk and possibly a long search for your rocket once it is on the ground. Jolly Logic’s latest addition to its innovative line of rocketry avionics is the Chute 
Release. It keeps a deployed chute from opening until a pre-set altitude is reached during descent. Therefore a simple rocket flying to several thousand feet altitude or higher can have its chute open closer to the ground to ease the effort for recovery.
Skeptical as to its efficacy and dubious to its hefty price tag, I tried the Chute Release at Tripoli Las Vegas’ Octoberfest last month. My 2” fiberglass rocket flew on an I161 with a projected altitude of 2900 ft. Normally, this rocket would deploy a chute at apogee and then float downwind, the distance depending upon the wind speed. On this flight, in a 5 mph wind, the overstable rocket weather-cocked slightly into the wind. The chute deployed just after apogee but didn’t open. The rocket tumbled quickly down to the release altitude of 300 ft where the Chute Release let go its grip on the chute. Then, as planned, the chute opened and the rocket made a soft landing about 200 yards from the launch pad for an easy recovery.
Before that flight left the pad, I’d already developed a very favorable opinion of the Chute Release. It is a product that is well implemented. Opening the sales package, the Chute Release and its standard accessories are all nicely displayed. Only a few pages long, the manual describes operation with clear and simple instructions aimed at getting the device into your rocket and up in the air in minimum time. The device is even powered by a built in battery recharged through a standard USB cable.
Using the Chute Release is really simple. One just presses the right hand button. After a short, 4 second, initialization, two banks of lights indicate the battery charge and the current release altitude. From this point, pressing either button increases or decreases the release altitude. Setting the release altitude higher than 1000 ft turns the device off, below 100 ft starts a test release. The one downside is that the device cannot be turned on or set without direct access to the chute bay.
Although most seasoned rocketeers will already have tried and true methods for folding various sizes or types of parachutes, a good folding method is even more important with the Chute Release. Once folded the parachute is held tightly closed by a rubber band with a pin on the end. When the set altitude is reached the pin is released and the chute opens. Several sizes of rubber bands are supplied to accommodate the full range of parachute sizes.
The Chute Release costs $130, which is more than most commercially produced two event rocket altimeters. That sounds like a lot of money until you add up what it costs to put your $80 altimeter into an avionics bay add shock cord, a drogue chute, and the additional size of your rocket.
The device in the images has only flown once but it is not difficult to imagine that being repeatedly packed into a tight chute bay and vigorously ejected might result in significant wear. Jolly Logic even has an answer for that with an accessory, a little Nomex pouch that fits over the Chute Release.
The Chute Release is probably the most significant development in rocketry technology since readily available downlinked GPS. With the Jolly Logic Chute Release, every rocket can have dual recovery.