shot in the dark here...but does anyone have a rocket hobby or have kids, grandkids that are into rockets? I kinda got in over my head here. I took the kids to the library to find a book to read during the summer. long story short, my preteen boy now has a C6-5 engine and a 'rocket' made from tolit paper rolls and popcilcle sticks. which would be fine if the thing he built looked anything like a rocket. he put wings on it...which would maybe work if you launched it at the righ angle? just wondering...if any of you out there know anything about them. how safe is it to let him fire off this thing? He is SO proud of this 'thing' he has made. If I was certain it wouldn't break a window or catch fields on fire or take off anyones head I'd tell him go for it. I wish I would have done more research before we went to the hobby store. with an 'A' rocket I'd let him build and shoot off anything he wanted....we bought a C! that little guy is piss@d off at me! Am I being an overprotective mommie? can we just weigh it down so it won't hurt anyone, thing, or catch on fire. ha ha
Cricket
Ah, summer, what power you have to make us suffer and like it. ~Russel Baker
I would worry too. I know nothing about these except they can be dangerous. I bet if you read the warnings that probaly came with the "c" it says use only under adult supervision. And it should say knowledgeable adult supervision. Have you no one locally to help out with this? A neighborhood rocket scientist comes to mind.
~Tina
Drama Free Zone. What every gardener loves the most, Begins and ends in rich compost. (Tina)
I bet if you read the warnings that probaly came with the "c" it says use only under adult supervision. And it should say knowledgeable adult supervision.
you got that right! from what I read. a 'C' engine will propel a 'properly built' rocket that weighs one ounce 1000 ft. a two ounce rocket will only go 350 feet. how the heck do figure out what two ounces weighs? I mean, I know what a pound feels like (a lb of butter or whatever) but what weighs 2 ounces? anyone know? how much does a CD weigh? In my mind I'm thinking a CD would be about 2 oz?
Cricket
Ah, summer, what power you have to make us suffer and like it. ~Russel Baker
cricket, i'll ask rose dud to stop in here. he was the scout leader when they built them in boy scouts. he'll be home later.
one way to get a feel for how much 2 ounces is, a half stick of butter is 2 ounces. a stick is 1/4 pound (4 ounces). if you weight the rocket to 4 ounces, it won't fly far, but will give the little guy a boost watching it. like i said, i'll have rose dud stop in. that's my husband's screen name here.
half a stick of butter is two oz! ok. I was thinking 32 oz in a lb? yea, if we can get the rocket around 3-4 oz at least I wouldn't worry so much about it damaging someone elses property. yes, let me know anything else you find out jiffymouse. three engines came in this pack we bought. so, I guess we'll have to do this thing three times. uggh! geez....I still don't understand how a trip to the library snowballed into all of this! ha ha. the kids' creative, I have to say that.
Cricket
Ah, summer, what power you have to make us suffer and like it. ~Russel Baker
Cricket, I'm not old enough to have kids or have grandkids for that matter (only 14) but I am into the hobby. I've been in it since 4th grade so I do have quite some experience. I can tell you this, rocketry is probably one of the most intriguing hobbies there is. It's educational, fun, and actually a good family hobby. It can also greatly improve anyone's mechanical skills. But about your son's rocket, I'd be pretty wary of launching it. From the description, it doesn't sound stable at all and if it's not stable, it will fly in an erratic flight path at high speeds and can potentially be harmful, being able to cause grass fires, bodily injuries, damage to property/buildings. And as for 'I'd let him launch anything with A motors', I'd suggest that you don't let him. A motors in light rockets can still reach speeds of more than 200 mph and altitudes of more than 400 feet and can certainly cause all of the things you don't want to happen. If you or anyone else in your family want to get into the hobby, I'd suggest starting off with Estes or Quest starter kits first. If there is a Walmart or Toy's R Us anywhere near you, they will most likely carry some of starter kits. It includes proper ground equipment (launch pad, launch controller), motors/igniters, and of course a rocket. The rocket may be prebuilt for you or it may contain a kit or two inside that requires assembly (and most other rockets require assembly). They're really fun to fly, but you have to have a large open space first. I launch from a school field for smaller things and for rockets that fly higher than 600 feet, I fly at an abandoned air field. So, rockets can get anywhere from a few inches long to more than 20+ feet tall and motors get anywhere from 1/4" diameter and an inch long to more than 6" in diameter and 6 feet long, delivering more than 1000 pounds of thrust. Rockets can also fly from 10 feet high to more than 50,000 feet and reach slow speeds to more than Mach 2. There are also softwares available for designing your own rockets to check the stability of it, the speed, altitude etc. Check out The Rocketry Forum for a lot more info. www . rocketryforum . com (I posted it like that to prevent spam bots). My username is the same on TRF (The Rocketry Forum), jj94, so you can PM me for more details.
P.S. Although this hobby does sound dangerous, if the proper precautions are followed, it can be extremely safe.
Thanks Josh! you sound like you have quite a bit of knoweledge on the hobby. thanks for the website! i'm gonna go there now and check it out. i tried to google to get info on homemade rockets, but was taken to some pretty scary sites. (i dont' want to be put on any watched list by the gov or anything!) ha ha. I've been to the Estes site and got some info, but that was after I bought the engines. hubby finally got involved in the rocket project and has been giving him ideas and I think he's gonna help him make a new one. the boy has no more patients for any of mom's advice, but seems to be listening and taking advice from dad now. let me go learn something and let dad know so he can little guy build something safe. so, josh...it's legal to shoot a small rocket from school property? we were gonna go to the baseball fields.
Cricket
Ah, summer, what power you have to make us suffer and like it. ~Russel Baker
Well it all depends on what your authorities say. I'd suggest that you go to the school district's officials and ask them politely if you can launch from school property. If you're going to launch in a park, I'd go to the county officails and ask them.
And so it sounds like your husband is getting interested to...if they get fully into the hobby, get ready and prepare yourself. Haha, it's very easy to get carried away. I have atleast 20 rockets all in various stages of construction and about 10 kits I need to start on. And that's not even a lot; I know some people who have over 1,000 rockets. At TRF's website, go to The Coffee House and look at the first few threads at the top. If you go into Rocketry Links, you'll see a bunch of links, more than you would ever want, for almost anything in rocketry. For getting your first kits, not the starter kits, you'll probably have to go online for some variety, Michaels, Walmart, etc. don't have a lot of things to choose from. I'd like to recommend Commonwealth, www.commonwealth.net. They have some nice prices and a lot of things. They are my main supplier of rocketry items. For some first kits (once again, not starter sets), I'd recommend the Estes Big Bertha. Very easy to build and a great flyer. If you want more info, I'd suggest taking this topic over to TRF, you should get multiple replies pretty fast.
I went into the rocketry website and got completly overwhelmed! they don't call it rocket scientry for nothing. Glad to know I wasn't being overly cautious. these things are powerful. I sure wasn't intending on getting everyone interested in a new hobby! just wanted my son to read a book or two this summer. I get the overall feeling that it is NOT a good idea for an amature to try and build a rocket from household items. am I right on that?
Cricket
Ah, summer, what power you have to make us suffer and like it. ~Russel Baker
For a beginner to scratch build a rocket, well not a very good idea. I'd suggest building atleast 10 kits as a precaution for him to get the feel for the basic parts of a rocket, how they assemble together, and what their purposes are. For your son to scratch build a rocket, he'd have to know the basic steps of building a rocket, make sure it is stable, etc. Though many people do scratch build. In fact, a lot of my rockets are either modified from kits (for example I opted to use a bigger motor tube or to cluster them together...more power!) scratch built. FYI, vendors sell parts for scratch building so people don't need to roll their own body tubes, make their own nose cones, etc. So to keep it simple, if your son (or husband for that matter) really wants to get into rocketry, keep them limited to some of the easier rocket kits available for a little bit and then they can progress to work on some of the bigger or harder things as their knowledge builds.
And as for pictures for my rockets, I have some pictures on hand right now but I can't take any more because of my whack camera. I can't post the pictures becuase I don't currently have an account on a photo hoster, but I'll include links to the kits I have or used to have (most likely lost them to trees; parachutes just love to get stuck in branches) for you to see. I may or may not have modified these kits.
Those are all of the currently in production rocket kits I have. I have a few out of production kits and numerous scratch builds that I cannot show, but I think the links are good enough. ;)
It's good to see you are so involved in a hobby! keep yourself busy, and out of trouble! thank you SO much Josh for posting your opionions. I let my son read them earlier. He takes info better coming from another guy. especially from one only a few years older than himself. although he won't admit it, I can see he's not extreamly tee'd-off at me anymore. he understands what I was telling him about safety. ok, time to re-group. He did read the library book, and if I get him a simple kit he'll read the instructions. so, the whole point of getting him to read this summer will still be accomplished as well as some engineering and science lessons too. thanks again! ps...your very well spoken for a 14 yr old. will you be working for nasa one day?
Cricket
Ah, summer, what power you have to make us suffer and like it. ~Russel Baker
Haha, no problem for the help. And thank you for the compliment. But honestly, I don't know what I want to be, but I do want to get into the field of science for college.
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you got that right!
josh, you did an excellent job, and after watching your explanation, i was happy you happened on the topic!