Serious about safety, silly about the rest

Aiptek Goes Hi-Def Cheap digital camcorder catches flight movies  How to build this camera mount

Specializing in Rcandy:  KNO3/Sucrose propellant made by solution and recrystallization.

New to rocketry?  Returning to rocketry?
Check out the Fly Rockets website!

What this site is about:  Nourshing the spirit through learning, thinking, and discovery.  Flights of fact and of fancy. 
 Extraordinary achievements using ordinary things.  Making ROCKETS!

What this site is NOT about:  Bombs, weapons, crime, hate, and fear.  If you have intent to harm persons or property, to flout the law, or even to frighten others, you may NOT use my methods!  Essential to the method is an attitude of care and profound respect for others, their persons, their property, and their peace of mind.  Rocketry is inherently dangerous.  To do it, we must adopt the highest of ethical standards and practice them faithfully.  
It's a dog-eat-dog world.... so don't be a dog!

This site is NOT about fireworks either, although I love them too.  
The laws and rules for fireworks are different than those for rocketry.
To avoid excess confusion I will present here only those techniques that are relevant to rocketry.  
This may not be readily apparent, as some of the same techniques are used in both venues.

 Monoblogue - Can't get enough of my verbiage?  There are therapies, you know...  But until you find the right medication, here is more.  
Answers to questions I have received in e-mails over the last couple of years.  I could go on and on... and I do!

Leaders in Sugar Rocketry - a collection of links to sites of other researchers working with this propellant.  
Please read their SAFETY pages as well as mine!  
I recommend reading each and every one of these sites before commencing any rocketry experiments.  
This is one area where ignorance is NOT bliss.  It can be a blast, and not necessarily the fun kind.
.  If it makes you go "WOW!" it can also make you go "OW!"

Here is some of my newer stuff:

Clear PVC motors

Old News, Old Notebook

I found and scanned one of my notebooks from the previous century.   Starting in March 1980 Pretty boring, mostly, but there for posterity.   It includes one of my earliest formal descriptions of the rcandy procedure. Next in the series, August 1980 until February 1981.   This one is a lot longer... I finally got some C and D-class motors to work occasionally. By the end of the book the motors were working fairly reliably, and I had my first shipment of pyrotechnic chemicals to play with. Colored stars!  I was in pyro heaven.

Static Testing Made Easier

Videos illustrating the conversion of test stand data to an Excel spreadsheet which analyzes motor performance.

Launches you may not have seen

Not really new - Launch reports recently linked to this page: March 2009 - Sentniel Rocketeers May 2010 - Sentinel Rocketeers USLI Launch, April 2010.  Huntsville.  Nice photos of Marshall Space Flight Center.  I got video of each launch. Tampa Triploi - October 2010 Tampa Tripoli - December 2010 Tampa Tripoli, - January 2011 Tampa Triploli - March 2011 USLI Launch, April 2011.  Only a couple of videos out there, my team launched early, so we left early to start the long drive home.   Successful, though!  The UF team I mentor placed 10th in a field of about 30 schools.

Dire Warning! .... Is now abated...somewhat.

Two students from University of South Florida were arrested in August 2007 for transporting sugar propellant rocket motors across state lines. One of them went to prison... for something else. The other was acquitted - found "not guilty" because he did not make the rocket motors, nor did he have any knowledge of them. Fortunately for him.  Unfortunately for us as the court decision thus had no influence on the legality of sugar propellant. So the risk remains. Activities shown on these pages may not be legal in your area.   Please check out the Federal, state, and local laws before engaging in rocketry activities!   So now that the case has been resolved, I feel safe in releasing my "court documents." They are videos and other documentation used to demonstrate that these PVC sugar motors are not "pipe bombs."

November 2006: Amateur Icelandic Rocketry launches sugar rocket. Click here for media coverage Click here to visit the AIR website

I am very proud of my rocketry friends Steinn, Smeyr, and Magnus, who successfully launched their KNO3/sucrose rocket in November 2006.   As far as we know, this is the first amateur rocket launched in Iceland.

1. Safety First - if you are going to make this propellant, you MUST read this page and heed its instructions to stay well, stay whole, and stay out of trouble.  Even that may not save you, but it's a start.  
2. Electric Skillet Rcandy - A simple change in technique allows this method to make large amounts of propellant in a short time.  I'm using this method exclusively nowdays.  Also check out the Propellant episode of my Model Rocket Movies.   (4/06)
3. No Karo?  No Problem!  Alternatives to corn syrup.  A little dextrose and fructose works well.  Glucose syrup is reported to be OK.  
   
4. Recrystallized KN/Sucrose - Oven method.  No longer recommended.  It's good, but the skillet is better.  (5/01 rev. 6/03)   Russian translation (3/05)
5. Static-Load Compression tests - this propellant proves to be very strong under static load  (8/01) 
6. Drop Tests - Dynamic test of propellant strength - ball of propellant breaks when dropped onto concrete. Duh.  (8/01)
7. Tensile strength Tests - 1/4 inch diameter strand of rcandy supports over 10 pounds  (8/01)
8. Lacquer:  Attempts to deal with the hygroscopic nature of KN/Sucrose by coating with flammable paint (10/01)
9. Iron Oxide used as a catalyst - increases burn rate, facilitates ignition, pretty color. (4/02)
10. Sugar Syrup - alternate method of making KN/SU propellant.  Quicker, easier, seems fairly safe, but propellant is not as good  (10/03)
11. Titanium - Adding small amounts of Ti flake gives this propellant a crackling, sparky tail.  (3/04)
12. Toaster Oven Rcandy - Development of methods to produce small amounts in a small oven.  Possible, but not elegant, not recommended.   (3/05)
13. NaNO3 - sugar syrup propellant made with sodium nitrate.  Funny texture makes it a little harder to work, but fires OK in motor. (1/04)
14. "Candy Rocket"  Making rcandy with Pixy Stix, Jolly Ranchers, Starlite mints, etc.  This is the one Theodore Gray refers to in his Popular Science article, June 2006 issue. (5/06)
    

1. First Tests - initial developments  (11/02)  
2. Static Tests - 29 static tests plus one flight test of these motors  (12/02)
3. Making the Grains - forming techniques, plus ignitors and motor assembly  (12/02)
4. Analog Test Stand - made from trash.  Works better than it looks. (11/02)
5. RATS launch - demonstration flights for the TRA Sugar Proposal authored by Stuart Leslie, with marginal assistance from me.  (10/02)
   
6. Delay Grains - enable motor ejection, allows launching of non-electronic airframes, provide tracking smoke too.   (12/04)
7. Tidy Packages - Full demonstration of the making of propellant loads for a 38-360 motor casing.  Propellant grains encased in an airtight package, which also serves as case liner.  These loads keep very well, and are easy to load in the field..  (3/05)  Here is the same procedure for sealign up 54mm loads
   
8. NEFAR launch 2/12/05 - flight testing delay grains and tidy packages.  They work! (repeat link from above)  (3/05)

1. Stand A, built by Steve Ghioto, 20kg load cell from Aerocon Systems
2. Stand B, built by Steve Ghioto, 500lbf load cell from Aerocon Systems (photo, 110k)
3. Bathroom scale test stand - full 300lbf system for about $60. (1/05)
4. Building the INA125 amplifier needed to get the load cell talking to the Dataq unit. (11/04)
5. Static tests through 8/05 performed with these devices:  thrust curves, videos, spreadsheet analysis.  This file was getting too big, so I'm dividing them up:
6. Static tests performed 9/05 through 12/05.  I have started dividing up the tests by month, but haven't backtracked to the olden days.  (10/05)
7. Static tests performed in 2006 - Wide variety of static tests. (7/06)
8. Static tests performed in 2007
9. Videos illustrating the conversion of test stand data to an Excel spreadsheet which analyzes motor performance.  
   

1. Smokeless powder ejection tests - promising results:  Red Dot may be better than black powder for ejection charges
2. Smokeless ejection II - "static tests" using Red Dot in a real airframe with parachute.  Worked well.
3. Timers.  A page based largely on ignorance.  This page is intended to present timer options to a new flyer.  I've never made a timer, and have used them very little.  But that doesn't prevent me from talking about it!  It's on the web so folks with more experience can correct my errors.  (4/07)

1. December 13, 2003 - NEFAR my first launch of the Sugar Rush, first flights with the 54mm Loki casing,
2. May 2004 - NEFAR first flights using Ti-enhanced Rcandy and 3-grain 54mm Loki motor
3. August 15, 2004 - Amateur launch - I got to fire the Sugar Rush twice, both times successfully.  Post-hurricane wet slog recovery. (8/14)
4. November 2004 - Still photos only, but some nice ones!  (11/04)
5. February 12, 2005- Testing delay grains and tidy packages in Dr. Rocket motors.  Ariel fired twice, small fire started by errant Ti.  (2/05)
6. April 9, 2005 - Movies of my first two moon-burner flights, and two launches of Richard Creamer's radio recovery rocket, flown with motors by Steve Ghioto (4/05)
7. May 2005 - two-day launch.  I fired my two rockets four times, and perusaded other club members to fire four more in their airframes.  (5/05)
8. August 2005 - Two flights of the Sugar Rush.  First one straight as an arrow with BATES grains.  The second using a moonburner grain, wags its tail upon liftoff so severely as to cause early ejection at motor burnout.  
9. October 2005 - Big Sugar Launch.  Team project with Rick Creamer and Steve Ghioto.  9 foot rocket went to about 4000 feet (11/05)
   Also Ti night launch.  Delay grain failure made for a spectacular photo, and a very low flight.  
10. November 2005 - Big Sugar Launch 2.  Due to "operator error" my video camera did not catch the flight.  But others contributed their photos and movies to make for a pretty good show.  Motor and airframe worked well.  Nothing else did.  
11. February 2006 - The Sugar Rush gets to fly with its new nose cone and blows it.  Not the nose cone, the fin department.  Motor casing is overpressurized and blows out the head end closure.  But that was a good thing!  Really!  
12. March 2006 - Rebuilt the lower section of the Sugar Rush, obtained a new Loki 4-grain 54mm motor, and am ready to fly again.  3 good flights, paper nose cone works fine.
13. April 2006 - Jonathan Carter was here for a few wonderful days.  We went to the NEFAR launch, where he fired his Like a Woman Scorned airframe using his own K-motor burning KN/dextrose.  An impressive flight.  I had reconfigured the Sugar Rush for dual deployment again.  Fired once using the 4-grain 54mm Loki motor and Pixy Stix propellant.  Sims put apogee at 5100 feet, altimeter said 2510 feet.  Quite a discrepancy there.  Check out the video and judge for  yourself.  
14. May 2006 - I fly the Sugar Rush to one mile altitude using Pixy Stix propellant.  But there is an anomaly in the ejection, drogue does not pop after apogee and rocket is last seen heading down the way it went up.  Will I find a smoking pink hole in the pasture?  Check out the "long" video, and make sure your sound is on!  (5/06)
15. July 2006 - Maiden flight of the Pixy Stix Drifter, a project started by Pete and Dennis, and donated "to a good home."  Don't know about the good home part of it, but she finally flew!  Sugar Rush flies again on 5-grain motor.  
16. August 2006 - Video of Steve and Rick's camera rocket.  Sugar Rush flown on propellant load made by UCF engineering students in our workshops back in July.  Their motor load worked great!  My recovery system did not work so great....  The cows know where it is, but they are not talking.
17. September 2006 - Since my Co-Pilot wouldn't wake up and my new ARTS has not yet arrived, I am without altimeter and thus unable to launch a large rocket.  Two saucer launches will suffice, as well as an opportunity to observe some other really nice launches.  These include a beautiful boosted-glider, an unreal close proximity landing, and a short-range hybrid lawn-dart.  (9/06)
18. October 2006 - No web page yet, just a link to the 9-meg launch movie.  Pixy Stix rocket launched with 4-grain Loki motor using 3 grains for propellant and one for smoke.  Apparently smoke grain broke in half and burned as propellant, as acceleration and altitude were greater than simmed, and there was no trailing smoke.
    
19. January 2007 - See the Sugar Rush in her underwear!  Actually, just the white primer coat.  Spent all my painting time working on a new electronics bay, altimeter plus backup timer.  Drogue deployed, main didn't.  Post-mortem sheds interesting light on Red Dot and my recovery charge packet design...
20. Florida Winternationals, January 2007 - videos of a couple of launches of "interesting" projects by Ed Wilkes.  Also, a demo of the Gorilla Motors sparky propellant in Mike Kiss' Wildman rocket (mislabeled "Thor" in the video)
    
21. February 2007 - Launches of several NEFAR folks, including the first two hybrids that I have seen that actually worked.  Video camera mounted in the Sugar Rush, temporarily renamed the "pinkeye."  Flight was low and slow, apogee at 820 feet.  Good video was obtained from the Aiptek MPVR+ onboard.  These videos are on the NEFAR website, www.nefar.net
22. March 2007 - Another small gallery of launches on the NEFAR website, including a drag race between the Sugar Rush on KN/sucrose, and a Wildman on Wimpy Red.  Also first launch using "beer propellant" made with dry malt extact. 3/24/07
23.  Rocketry Organization of South Carolina (ROSCO) ICBM launch at Orangeburg, March 31/April 1, 2007.  An outstanding launch with lots of sugar being flown.  Here is my video collection.  
24.  April 2007 NEFAR launch.  Fired the Sugar Rush once with handicam.  Several other launches documented.  
25.  June 2007 - NEFAR launch.  I mostly watched and filmed other folks' launches.  (redirect to NEFAR website)
26.  July  2007 - NEFAR launch.  I blew in from the West just as a huge thunderstorm system was coming in from the East and everyone was frantically tearing down, putting away and driving off.  Thus I captured no flight video.  But some members got there on time and flew in the morning.  I've uploaded a few of their videos to the NEFAR website.
27. August 2007 - I flew the Sugar Rush once, this time using the propellant load we made in the Thunderflame course back in July.  It worked great!  You know, AP isn't all that bad...  There are lots of other interesting launches on this page as well.  
28. September 2007 - One more flight of Sugar Rush with Aiptek camera, this time on a Loki 2000 casing, sparky sugar moonburner.  Again many more launches.  Sugar Rush is #43 of the 53 I caught on tape.
29.  October 2007 - Another fine NEFAR launch.  I get so excited capturing video of other folks' launches that I don't do many myself.  But I did get in another flight of the Sugar Rush with camcorder onboard.  The humidity had dropped below the usual 90 percent, resulting in a clear day and perhaps the best video so far.  It is launch #63, way down on the page.  
30.  Bunnell Blast - November 2007.  I caught video of many launches, including several nice sugar motors by Scott Jolley, Marc Slabbinck, and Steve Ghioto.  Sugar Rush was launched twice.  Camera glitch during first launch resulted in bad file, thus no onboard video.  Second launch obtained good video, but not quite as pretty as the October launch.  
31. January 2008  I did a silly thing at the NEFAR launch, sending up TWO long rockets at once.  Both are male, both are pink, so this is a real Drag Race!  Both had cameras running, one of them high definition.
32.   February 2008 - NEFAR launch.  Tried the silly drag queen drag race again but made a silly mistake.  Used a hardware-store washer for the nozzle support ring.  BAD IDEA.  See the results at the NEFAR web pages.  
33.  April 2008 - NEFAR launch.  Fired the Sugar Rush using a Gorilla sparky demo motor, and you know, it worked pretty darned well!
34.   June 2008 - NEFAR launch.  No launches by me, I just documented everybody else's launch and had a lot of fun doing it.  
35.   July 2008A - NEFAR launch.  I'm still laying low, taking video and doing edits.  
36.   July 2008B - Sentinel Rocketeers launch.  North FL Community College has a fine rocketry club, and they were kind enough to host Ed Mallory and me launching an electronics package for the Sugar Shot to Space to give it a bit of exercise.  It flew on a 3-grain 54mm motor load that I'd made over a year ago, and stored in an aluminum foil "tidy package."  It was fresh, crisp, and worked perfectly/
37. January 2009 - NEFAR launch
38. January 2009 - Sentinel Launch  Flew the Sugar Rush on a 5-grain 54mm this time, to give the Sugar Shot electronics a little more challenge.  
39. February 2009 - NEFAR launch  I almost launched this time, but there were a few little glitches with the rocket that would have taken too long to fix.  So I just got video of the other launches, some of them dramatic, at least one comical (It starts with "Mongolian...")
40. February 2009 -Sentinel Launch - We had a propellant-making workshop at North Florida Community College, hosted by Terry Zimmerman, Chair of their Physical Sciences department.  Several groups of students each made a small batch of propellant, and packed one 54mm grain.  These were assembled into the motor which flew in the Big Bird at this launch.  
41. March 2009 - Sentniel Rocketeers
42.  ay 2010 - Sentinel Rocketeers
43. USLI Launch, April 2010.  Huntsville.  Nice photos of Marshall Space Flight Center.  I got video of each launch.
44. Tampa Triploi - October 2010
45.  ampa Tripoli - December 2010
46. Tampa Tripoli, - January 2011
47. Tampa Triploli - March 2011
48. USLI Launch, April 2011.  Only a couple of videos out there, my team launched early, so we left early to start the long drive home.

1. Static tests  (12/03)
2. Pictures of the Loki motor to illustrate how the snap-ring motor casing works.  Includes a few photos of the Dr. Rocket 38mm for comparison.
3. A few photos of the Loki head end closure with smoke grain recess.
4. Pictorial series on the parts of a snap-ring motor and its reload, illustrating how it all goes together.  Includes a 3-1/2 minute movie illustrating  the assembly of the snap-ring motor.  (Beware... movie is almost 300 megs!  Gotta re-edit that one!)
5. Sealing the load - sugar propellant keeps very well IF you can keep out all the moisture!
6. For flights using the Loki motor (and others!), see NEFAR launches above.

A plan for getting Level 1 and Level 2 certifications.

The Plan Described - Recommended steps toward L1 and L2 certification

L2 Rocket - Altimeter Bay

    Mounting altimeter standoffs - an easy method of getting them in exactly the right spots.

Motor tubes with integral cast aluminum nozzles

1. Foundry - made from a tin can, melts aluminum.  (7/02)
2. Aluminum Micro-Motor:  Nozzle cast directly into aluminum tubing.
3. Aluminum Mini-Motor:  Larger tubing, better-secured nozzles
4. Aluminum Midi-Motor: 1.25 inch tubing, G and low H level
5. 5-14-02a - flight test of aluminum motor in a 4x4 airframe
6. Dimpled tubes - a  way to keep nozzles in place
7. How To...  a summary of the technique - minimum of rambling narrative.

1. Micro Rockets I- Bottle-rocket sized engines made with Rcandy and aluminum foil
2. Micro Rockets II - Whizzers!  VTOL rotary rockets!  Tiny Turbillions!  3 gram rockets that fly 400 feet!  Less is more!
3. Duct Tape Rocket Motors - Not the common cheap plastic duct-tape, but the aluminum-foil kind.  Very useful stuff.  (4/04)
   

1. How much rcandy will send one pound rocket to 500 feet? 28 grams came pretty close!  (9/03)
2. I Motor - early PVC motor, construction details and static test, estimated to be in the I-class (7/01)
3. Shorty - Two launches of an under-achieving rocket for testing of ejection systems.  "The Right Chuff"  (9/01)
4. Bates -grain PVC motor - "H" class.  (3/02)

1. Basic Instructions  (1/03)
2. The Kit - Instructions  (4/03)
3. Tests of the Rokit and 4M water rocket kits (10/16)
   

1. Nose cones for 3 inch diameter rockets made from posterboard and PVC parts, no lathe required.  Holds electronics. (1/06)
2. Gravity Switch - why it should not work for parachute ejection.
   
3. Tubes - A technique for making sturdy tubes of paper and glue.  Make your own model-rocket motors! (2001)
4. Grinder tile - An alternative to the mortar and pestle.  Good for powdering small amounts.
5. Cloth Board - An excellent tool for manipulating warmed propellant, allowing it to be shaped easily and precisely.  
6. KnCalc11 -  A little Visual Basic program I am writing to calculate Kn ratio progressions for uninhibited, outside-inhibited and Bates grains.  Not quite finished.  Source code available, in case you would like to finish it for me!
7. BatesCalc - an Excel spreadsheet file that calculates the progression of Kn ratios for Bates grains.  Not nearly as sophisticated as BurnSim, Grains 2000, or Richard Nakka's design sheets but simpler, perhaps a good way to get started before learning these better programs.  Works on Macintosh Excel
8. Characteristic of Potassium Nitrate Based Solid Rocket Propellant - research paper on use of KN/sucrose rocket propellant, Technological University of Malaysia.  I found this while doing my research for the TRA Sugar Project, and obtained permission to post it.  (10/02)
   
9.  Jimmy's biographical intro to the SugPro list
10. Rocketry Links, a bunch of them!