Model rocketry, where to start

[tk5800thesecond]

After kerbal space programlit the fuse of my rocketry enthusiasm (he, he, he) i wanted to go bigger

I bought a bottle rocket kit and i am having the best fun with it, but i want to go, higher and bigger with my rockets, where do i start?

[HarvesteR]

I think if you wanna go big, you should find the rocketry club nearest you and join it. Those guys are the experts, and they will be able to guide you into larger projects ( and get clearance to launch them and all that )

Cheers

[Sycosys]

Yeah look for a local rocketry club.

A word of warning, the higher and bigger you want to go the more it costs.. some of the bigger rocket motors run into the hundreds or thousands of dollars.

http://www.nar.org/NARmodeltypes.html

Happy launching

[RedDwarfIV]

Funny. I\'m a Master Rocket Scientist on the forum, but in real life I\'m a bottle rocketeer.

My rocket, Kraken II, can go pretty high. I had a secondary nosecone for it at one time but I\'m not sure where that went.

[Nooblet68]

Funny. I\'m a Master Rocket Scientist on the forum, but in real life I\'m a bottle rocketeer.

Huh...

Well, in real life, the only rockets I\'ve ever launched are fireworks - which promptly exploded 100m into the flight... I guess I\'d also be a Bottle Rocketeer...

[Polecat Industries]

Well, I have several rockets. Here is a tip: Don\'t pack the wadding too tight. Mine landed without the chute opening, and made a small crater in the snow!

Also, a club would be a good idea unless you have a lot of land to launch at.

[Randox]

My brother used to have a model rocket. The only time I can really remember it launching it broke up into pieces on the way back down, and only the propeller (it had a propeller like thing near the top to slow it down instead of a chute) landed safely. I think we found all the parts though. I think that thing only ever went up a handful of times.

I managed to get to build these twice in school. The first one was using streamers instead of a chute because we we\'re told they we\'re more reliable. Mine didn\'t deploy and instead made a lovely nose first landing that shortened the styrofoam nose by an inch and added a jaunty angle. With a new cone, it would have been fine to fly again though.

Only one person in the whole class had anything resembling a controlled descent (using a chute), and I think they landed about 2km away in the woods. A couple streamers deployed as well, but I\'m not sure I\'d call that controlled. Just upright.

I got to do it again a couple years later. I can\'t really remember what happened. I think it went up, deployed its chute and landed in the forrest. One of my classmates sabotaged his fins to make things more interesting for us. That one got up about 20 ft before going sideways and zooming around in the head height to 20ft range. Everyone ran for cover for that one.

And someone else sabotaged their thrust ring, and the engine migrated into the body shortly after takeoff. Their chute did NOT work after that, but there was a bit less rocket to land.