Forbid from making rockets

[NeighborJ]

I love making rockets it's been a passion of mine for 20+ years ,love the smell the fighter jet fly-by sound ,but only in this last year have I begun to dabble with anything other than commercial and sugar rockets. I had been consistency testing my latest 6# core burner after getting it dialled in. I normally test in a pipe buried in the ground with the nozzle pointing up but because I was also testing different metals in the delay ,I was having trouble seeing what was happening under the smoke and glitter fallout. It was then that I had the seemingly brilliant idea to mount my test motors atop a 2x4 cemented in the ground which had previously been part of my dog run. So I set to it then lit the fuse and waited patiently behind a tree for a beautiful thrust cone with a nice glitter effect.

But that's not what happened, not exactly. The motor lit and promptly snapped the 2x4 off at the base and took a 7 foot hunk of it soaring to my estimation over 500' in the air and on a ballistic trajectory over a rural suburban neighborhood.

Fortunately thru some kind of miracle it cleared all houses and cars and I found it nearly 1/2 mile away sticking out of the ground in a corn field.🙄 My wife was furious and promptly forbade me from making or testing any more rocket motor and I was in no way in a position to argue with her.

Now there are several lessons I have taken away from this mishap. Always test and launch in an area which can ensure that (any) scenario will result in a laugh and not an oh crap (not the words I used). Always assume the worst will happen and be prepared for it, maintain situational awareness and never allow yourself to become complacent.

In the 2 months since I have been granted permission (from my wife) to build rockets again, however she has limited my experiments to 1# and under at a safer location a few miles away. And I agree there simply is no need for me to build such large motors, but they are cool😈.

This could have ended much worse.

[dagabu]

I'm glad to hear that you didn't hurt yourself or anybody else, this can be a hard lesson to learn. First off, congratulations on the fantastic wife! Tell I said so. She is letting you back at it and that means that she is a friend to rockets, now be careful and do everything you can to get a license! Looks for others in your area and build with them, get/use a magazine and test safely.

 

Be safe!

[NeighborJ]

I would love to join a club in my area(Pittsburgh) and make this hobby as legal as possible with a licence. I have been hard pressed to find an active club that allows homemade fireworks. I do use two magazines separate from my build area. One in an unused walk-in freezer and the other in a shed ,all chems are stored in various air tight ammo boxes. It doesn't matter how nice a setup it may be I want it to be legal. This is where I do need some guidance.

Armature rocketry was set up different with FAA altitude clearance and motor classification ranges. I just wanted more from the hobby so my interests kind of morphed into fireworks and grew. It is now getting to the point where a little bent rule is turning into a lot of broken laws. So I've come to this forum to find direction as to how to do it legally.

[Arthur]

Rule number one is never get caught! But it seems that you are tweaking that already. Keep it small and away from people and things (homes, gardens, cars etc) until you have found your local pyro club. Maybe someone here can help, maybe the PGI can tell of a club near you, but maybe near will not be five or even 50 miles.

[dagabu]

PGI will only be 6 hours away, less than 2 weeks! ATF (dont worry, they are NOT there to take names and investigate, they WANT you to get licensed), Dr. John, all sorts of people with legal building areas to speak with and find out what you need.

[mikeee]

A club is a good choice if you can find one in your area, another option is to find another Pyro in your area that lives in a rural area with plenty of space.

If you are flying under the wire, do not test anything on your property, all it takes is one nervous ill-informed neighbor to cause you problems.

Edited July 25, 2016 by mikeee

[Mumbles]

You may want to look into some of the clubs in the area. There is the Crackerjacks, Mid-Atlantic Pyrotechnic Arts guild (MAPAG), or the Pennsylvania Organization of Recreational Chaos (PORC). There used to be another PA specific pyro club (pennsylvania pyrotechnic artists) but their website seems to be down.

 

www.crackerjacks.org

www.mapag.us

http://www.paorgrecchaos.org/

[NeighborJ]

Yeah milkeee I've been reading the orange book all evening and I think I'll move my gun safe into the walk-in freezer and try to apply for that BATFE type 20, after looking into the state and local refs. The Mag I've been using is inadequate. But I still need to remove the second mag, it is nice to be able to keep the clorates far from any possible sulfer. I've been trying unsuccessfully to get a hold of a fellow union member who is in the hobby for several months. I'm sure somehow a solution will present itself.

I do keep thinking about that PGI meet, I've been off work for the last two weeks and when I get a new job I'll likely be working 6 or7-10s. There's just no telling when that may happen. Is there a campground?

[NeighborJ]

PPAs cite seems to have been down for over 9 mo. I've been checking, And I thought crackerjacks only deals in consumer display fireworks?

[dagabu]

Yeah milkeee I've been reading the orange book all evening and I think I'll move my gun safe into the walk-in freezer and try to apply for that BATFE type 20, after looking into the state and local refs. The Mag I've been using is inadequate. But I still need to remove the second mag, it is nice to be able to keep the clorates far from any possible sulfer. I've been trying unsuccessfully to get a hold of a fellow union member who is in the hobby for several months. I'm sure somehow a solution will present itself.

I do keep thinking about that PGI meet, I've been off work for the last two weeks and when I get a new job I'll likely be working 6 or7-10s. There's just no telling when that may happen. Is there a campground?

 

Yes, primitive camping is the only thing left, heeelll, you aint gonna sleep anyhow!

[Mumbles]

PPAs cite seems to have been down for over 9 mo. I've been checking, And I thought crackerjacks only deals in consumer display fireworks?

 

 

To the best of my knowledge they do homemade stuff as well. I know several people who have fired their own stuff at least. They are one of the most expensive pyro clubs I'm aware of, but they're good people. You can always send an e-mail to someone on their board to find out for certain.

[taiwanluthiers]

Man that's powerful. Anything that can snap a 7' chunk of 2x4 and carry it 500 feet up is powerful. To be honest with you if you are going to be testing a comp, make something SMALL first. You know 1# or under.

 

With small rockets you can at least see what the tail looks like, and it won't fly very far (for example a 1/2" rocket won't go more than 100 feet) and less potential damage to worry about. Plus you won't have to build a giant test stand to test it, heck you won't even need a test stand, you can just fly it (since it won't fly far) to see how it goes (but respect burn bans in your area, you don't want to start a brush fire). Then for anything big just test it by burying it into the ground facing up.

[NeighborJ]

Yeah I did a lot of things wrong with that test and I feel fortunate that no people or property were damaged. Even the small rockets go high, I have a 2 oz nozzleless that I use for lifting almost all my 2" can shells and it's a lot higher than 100'. It was more of a series of proof tests for the 6#er, I got greedy and figured I'd do two tests at once before thinking too much. I still have a stainless core which is 1" dia and around 16" long I was planning on creating a 2" monster. This is where my brain takes me when left unchecked. Don't worry it's not going to happen. The 6# was scary enough, it rattled the china cabinet and shook the house from 100 yards away.

[OldMarine]

100' for a 1/2" rocket sounds kind of puny. My hand rammed 1/2 inchers will carry a 2 break 1.75" consumer shell a good bit higher than that. I'm pretty sure if I had a BP spindle in that size and went nozzleless it'd do even more.

[taiwanluthiers]

Well, to be honest with you I have no way of knowing how high they went. I mean it could be 100 feet or 200 feet. Hard to tell,

[Mumbles]

Not that it actually matters, but that is still not even close to their potential. They should be able to comfortably hit 2-300 feet with a header, and easily 500-1000ft without one, depending on the variety of course.