6 replies to this topic

[Frozentech]

Well, this rocket worked (barely). Actually, two problems I saw were that my stick was only 36" long, could have used more length. The other, and more worrisome at the time, was that I used time fuse on my header, for some reason I put on a 3 sec delay as if it were a mortar shell (!?) After rocket motor burn-out, I thought it was going to come all the way to the ground before it burst. It was low, but not dangerous in the location I shoot. Next time, NO delay on rocket header, and a longer stick.

1# BP rocket with 3" ball shell header, gold streamer stars, KP rice hull & whistle burst

Edited by Frozentech, 21 January 2006 - 05:58 AM.

[Rip Rap]

That was a really nice header. If it had burst at its apogee - fantastic.

You know what was the best bit of that vid for me - the childs (your son?) exclamation of sheer delight. That's what fireworks are all about for me - excitement & enjoyment.

What was your rocket comp btw? - it produced a nice silver tail.

[Frozentech]

That was a really nice header. If it had burst at its apogee - fantastic.

You know what was the best bit of that vid for me - the childs (your son?) exclamation of sheer delight. That's what fireworks are all about for me - excitement & enjoyment.

What was your rocket comp btw? - it produced a nice silver tail.

That was my 6 year old daughter's voice. She loves fireworks It was nice to hear her compliments, since she's become quite the little pyro critic. "Daddy, it's not supposed to go *BOOM* !" She likes to put on her safety glasses and go watch me test them.

The comp was a variant of "Degn 1 LB Rocket", with 5% 'flitter' aluminum added.

60-KNO3
27-C ( 1/2 airfloat, 1/2 36 mesh)
13-S

Mill 1 hour, add aluminum, moisten and screen through 10 mesh.

[fishy1]

very nice header, how far away were you from it?

[Maineiac]

Nice! Those motors are really getting there. Three questions come to mind....why do you feel you need a longer stick and what width/material are you using? The last one would be what angle are you launching these at(perhaps this is your stick length issue)? Hard to tell from the video if the rocket tilted right out of the pipe or if the angle was a bit soft. Have you tried other break strategies? Good success has been had using meal coated corn cob and a few grams of whistle. One more question...did you weigh the header?
Your daughter's comment and enthusiasm are priceless! Keep up the good work!

[alany]

Thats got all the makings of a great rocket Frozentech.

I don't think your stick length is a problem. The flight seemed straight and stable.

It appears more like the rocket was fired at too shallow of an angle? Especially if the payload is a bit on the heavy side and your motors take a few hundred milliseconds to come up to full pressure. That's where blackmatch/piped match up the core can help, it ignites the entire core length rapidly as well as pressurising the motor. (You can over-do it of course and CATO the motor, especially with good piped match.)

Yeah the delay in the shell is completely unnecessary, I just run a few sticks of blackmatch through a spoulette tube to passfire into the middle of the break charge.

[Frozentech]

Thanks for the encouraging remarks !

The header was 82 grams, not that heavy I thought, since I loft 50 gram headers easily with 4 ounce motors.
Lets's see, the break was approximately 200 meters 'down range'. I fired it in a frozen marshy area, that is over 300 acres in area, so plenty of space. It actually broke only about 100 feet up, you can tell from my comment on tape that I was worried it would bounce off the ground first !

Launch angle is probably a factor, I shot that at about 20 degrees off vertical, hoping that if something goes awry it will go deeper into the clear area. Perhaps a vertical launch would help keep things balanced until things are up to speed. This one lifted, tilted slightly and then became stable once full thrust was reached.

I think the matched spolette for a passfire is a great idea, I will definitely go with that next shot.