Rocketry

[Doc]

Having three small boys and not much to do on Saturday, we happened to pop in to the local model shop. £20 later, we emerged with an Estes model rocketry kit.

Now, this is a LOT of fun in a small package.You load a recovery parachute into the top, and fit a solid fuel rocket motor to the base. they come in different powers, from 'A' to 'M'. You need explosives licenses, etc for the bigger ones but up to size 'D' you just buy them at the model shop.

The instructions suggest test firing with an 'A', but the rocket will accept a 'C' motor. The shop only had 'C' types so, we decided to skip the test firing....

They are fired electrically (with a big button on the controller marked 'Launch') and it goe up to 600 feet very quickly indeed. When the propellant runs out it glides upwards for a few seconds, emitting tracking smoke, and then a second charge deploys the parachute and down it comes. In this case, about 400m away.......

The boys thought it was great. Recommended.

 

[mark a.]

Well cool! Rockets are a great invention.

I've never seen one in real life, but I do remember having great fun with the water-pressure ones - amazing how high they can go with just a bit of water and air. Not quite the same league as solid fuel, of course. And presumably not as noisy.

 

[Doc]

Think I need to experiment with the water pressure ones too.

Estes also make a rather neat hydrogen powered rocket - you use water and I think it separates it into hydrogen and oxygen by electrolysis. It 'only' goes up to 200ft but could be cheaper in the long run, and maybe more environmentally friendly than solid fuel.


You can also get one that takes aerial pictures on 110 film.


http://www.deepskyrocketshop.co.uk/juststarting.php

Not really bushcraft but good fun.

 

[innocent bystander]

Great fun until a gust of wind catches it, and it lands in the middle of a lake half a mile away...

In that instance, streamers are better than chutes...

 

[Longstrider]

Great fun until a gust of wind catches it, and it lands in the middle of a lake half a mile away...

.. Or it "lands" still under power into the crowd like one of the demo rockets I saw launched by a rocketry club at a kite festival last year. Luckily the thing was going straight down, (To quote Billy Conolly "It went in like a ****ing dart!") and missed everyone. Could have been nasty though. These are toys for BIG open places me-thinks. Still, it sounds like a lot of fun could be had.

I want one now.....

 

[Seagull]

Anyone remember the old "Jetex" tablets?

Ceeg

 

[Spacemonkey]

Yes I do!

We used to make our own rockets with homebrew gunpowder and rolled paper. Touch paper made from powder solution soaked bog roll. Worked a treat! Add aluminium filings for silver stars, and other metal powders for different colour effects (can't remember now). Good fun if you know what you are doing, bloody lethal if not...

 

[stone]

Anyone remember the old "Jetex" tablets?

Ceeg

I do! I had one that used 2 tablets and a gauze screen that you wrapped a small coiled fuse between it and the tablet and the rest came out the hole in the cap that you lit. I hooked it up to the roof on a plastic car model (I was about 12 years old) and remember it going like hell for about 10-15 feet, then melting into a pile of crud...LOL great fun!!

 

[tomtom]

Great fun until a gust of wind catches it, and it lands in the middle of a lake half a mile away...

or a field which is being combineharvested

these things are freat fun and you can get some amazing ones.. a friend of mine had one with a camera built in the nose cone so when it poped out to release the parachute it took a picture of you standing in the middle of a field looking up at it from 600feet... these things really are great fun!

 

[MagiKelly]

So this is what you were doing instead of canoeing. Speaking of which could you make a floating platform to launch it from so we can launch them on the loch then have a race to recover it Honest I am a grown up, sort of.

 

[JohnC]

Took one of these to Lewis and set it off on the beach, and of course it headed out to sea, my brother in law and I dared each other to swim out. I have never felt so cold, we had to run up and down the beach to warm up, however the positive side was we never felt old for the rest of the day. We retireved the rocket.

 

[bushtuckerman]

They are fired electrically

...we used to use the short fuses instead, since excitement was the main criterion for success.

you should try the cheapo air powered 'stomp' rockets too, it's a laugh trying to catch them, and they go ducking high up, and are pretty small...they don't come with the large field attached but you should find one!

there was a time when i was experimenting with ground up matches as fuel for small home-made rockets and various other explosive devices, and MAN they worked. of course , it started out where you just used the match sticks as rockets but things developed a bit.. soon, launch craters were expected.

long live explosive devices..

i can quite honestly say i have not grown up in the slightest..those were the days though..

 

[Spacemonkey]

...
long live explosive devices..

i can quite honestly say i have not grown up in the slightest..those were the days though..

Hear! Hear!!!

 

[innocent bystander]

Then we must have done the old trick of putting silver foil around a swan vesta head and putting the match in the fire ?

 

[bushtuckerman]

Then we must have done the old trick of putting silver foil around a swan vesta head and putting the match in the fire ?

Ahem!!
no comment.

I found that with some of the [tubular] devices, safety matches were a significant improvement on vestas, as they are much more explosive when heated slowly, especially if ground to a powder...i won't go into more detail.

 

[innocent bystander]

Ahem!!
no comment.

I found that with some of the [tubular] devices, safety matches were a significant improvement on vestas, as they are much more explosive when heated slowly, especially if ground to a powder...i won't go into more detail.

Nudge nudge, wink wink, say no more.....

 

[Grooveski]

Presumably the lower power solid fuel motors don't make it so high? A couple of hundred feet could make for an entertaining target. I mean, twenty quid, you can't even get a 3d pheasant for twenty quid....

Hmmmm.... ....strap a target to a rocket..... .....sorry, don't mind me.....
Naughty post Doc, shouldn't encorage folk.

 

[Spacemonkey]

One of my inventions at school - along with my henchman (RIP Benny..) - was the Test Tube Cannon.

Take one test tube (preferably from the chemistry lab..) and attach a couple of Lego wheels on a brick with an elastic band as the undercarriage.
Place 3+ match heads in a close pile in the bottom of the tube.
Insert cork.
Aim.
Apply dot of light from a decent magnifying glass to one of the aforementioned match heads.
Watch as match heads ignite, produce smoke, increase pressure and fires the cork 20-30ft.
Roll around giggling in schoolboy mirth whilst chanting "We have matches, we want FIRE! We have...etc"

Oh, those were the days....

 

[innocent bystander]

Also fun is the "Alkaseltzer" mortar, using 35mm film cans

 

[Martyn]

The boys thought it was great. Recommended.

The boys!

Of course dad didnt get any fun out of it at all?