Sugar Rockets

[Elthy]

Because ther could be "evidence", also e.g. monitors and keyboards count as "tools" to do something illlegal...

While i respect most of the work of the german police the whole topic about searching houses seems to be a smirch the more i read about it.

[Comrade Jenkens]

I haven't heard about that ever happening in Britain?

[lajoswinkler]

Even if you are not sentenced or anyhing they would still search the house and keep all found Hardware for years, so you would have to buy everything again. In my family that could be several thousand Dollars, just think about all the Smartphones, PCs etc...

Not for years. Months, tops, if they're deliberately lazy. What you describe is effectively stealing, and that is not legal.

Most of them are *******s, but let's not mistify them. There are mechanisms for fighting back, but there are several reasons why you rarely hear about them.

You can't be sentenced for posession of few kilos of low power oxidizer and equipment for making amateur candy rockets. You're living in 2014 Germany, not 1934 Germany.

[vetrox]

If I want to home make a rocket over here it will have to be a hybrid rocket as it is illegal to make solid motors and you can only get VERY small ones without a licence. I have the facilities to make a hybrid but it would be a major engineering challenge and I'm not sure that I'd have the required knowledge.

Its quite easy to get the qualifications to get the bigger off the shelf motors. Its basically a case of proving you can make and launch a rocket safely with said motors.

I dont have the links to hand but check out the UK rocketry asociation. I think you can find out about it all from there.

If you can weld and have money to hire a machinist then you can make wahtever you want.

The only thing you cant do in the uk with regards to model and amatuer rocketry is make your own fuel as its illegal to make explosives without the correct licensing. You could buy 1ton of kn03 and just put it in your garage to sit there and look pretty (ok maybe not, im just trying to make a point), the moment you combine it with sugar you turn into a criminal. You are permitted to make 100g I believe (dont quote me in court as im just some internet guy) as an "experiment" but thats about it.. Theres plenty of places to launch them in the uk. Just find your closest rocket club.

Buying off the shelf motors isnt the end of the world though. If your still interested in building a rocket from scratch then you still get to design the motor mounts and the various bits and bobs of the rocket. The big advantage with off the shelf motors is they are produced to be reliable and give reliable performance that you can measure. This meas you will be able to calculate flight times and dv etc with reasonable precision. If you do want to make hybrid motors then you dont need a phd in engineering. You will need some basic engineering knowhow and a little extra cash to splash but if your really interested in the ins and outs theres plenty of info out there. All a hybrid motor is, in its simplist form, is 2 tanks connected by a valve. You dont need to make your own oxidiser tank for example. Just grab an old nitrouse oxide bottle and work that into your design, it may be heavy as **** but its all part of the fun of trial and error! Its like ksp but for realz

Edited March 17, 2014 by vetrox

[lajoswinkler]

Can anyone of you prove what you're saying? Where exactly does it state that rocket candy is an explosive when it certainly isn't?

As far as I know, virtually all countries in the world permit amateur solid rocket engines up to certain mass of fuel. 100g, 250g, it differs from place to place, but it's not a tiny amount.

That, plus apogee height and launch site position restrictions, is what regulates amateur flights.

I dare you to present a proof that possession of reasonable amounts of rocket candy makes you a criminal.

[Comrade Jenkens]

http://www.gbnet.net/orgs/staar/legal.html

I can weld though I've not had much practice and can also use all the machines so maybe a hybrid isn't out of the question.

[lajoswinkler]

OK, so you can launch pretty much everything as long as you're away from the cities on public property or private property whole owner has gave you the launch permit.

Though they seem to be classified as explosive (details are needed - there are classes of explosives, so rocket candy engine can't be in the same class as a stick of dynamite, as rcandy is not explosive itself), posession is not an offence, it's manufacture of such engines.

This is valid if the linked page has valid info, of course.

See? It's nothing scary. Rules and regulations for amateur rocketry differ, but they're pretty much all the same throughout the world. Making rcandy engines and launching stuff does not make you a terrorist. Just use your common sense and pay attention to launch your stuff where and when appropriate.