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Date:  13th November 2011, 8:30am - 1:00pm
Location: Doonside, NSW, Australia
Conditions:  Calm, warm and overcast, ~25C
Team Members at Event: John K, Paul K, PK and GK

Occasionally we take a break from the serious world of water rockets to have a bit of fun with the kids. On this launch day we decided to try some alternative fuels in the rockets. We knew it was going to be messy so we decided to refurbish a couple of our old launchers as we didn't want to mess up our regular launcher. We also assembled 3 of the Axion III rockets as there were likely to be some unpredictable launches.

The first launch used about 2 cups of bread crumbs, After a few years of drenching the ants at the launch site we decided to feed them this time. That's all they get ... bread and water. The launch was nice and quick and the breadcrumbs performed very much like flour that we've tried before. For the second launch we used more breadcrumbs and again the flight went well.

We brought along an air gun attachment so we could clean the launcher and release mechanism between launches. This worked quite well.

Next up were hundreds and thousands. This was the kids favourite and they kept insisting that we don't use all of them in the rockets, From my point of view this was going to be an interesting one because they looked like they flowed well and were nice and round. As we launched you could clearly see that the rocket was a lot slower on take-off and the rocket also did not go very high. I guess you just can't force so many of them through the 9mm nozzle. I also suspect the big gaps between the little spheres allowed a lot of the air to escape before pushing them out. The resultant slow take off caused the rocket not to deploy the parachute and it crashed. Damage was only minor because the rocket is light and did not go very high. Only the top bottle was crushed and the nosecone fairing was buckled. Everything else survived without a problem, and we can reuse the deployment mechanism as is.

Because of the slow take-off we decided to switch the trigger mode on the timer to the break-wire option. This setup then worked well for all the other remaining launches.

For the second 100's and 1000's launch we used a lot more of them, with the negotiated deal that we would keep at least one packet for the boys. :) The second flight was also slow but the break wire option worked well and deployed the parachute at apogee. The slow mo video showed the 100's and 1000's flying around like they were inside a particle accelerator colliding in all directions.

Next up was regular sugar. On the first flight, the rocket definitely went higher than the 100's and 1000's even though there was about the same volume used. I guess the smaller particles don't quite allow the air to pass by them and they get pushed out. I distinctly remember hearing tiny voices from the grass yelling something along the lines of "Yipeee!!! Mana from Heaven".

For the second sugar flight we used about twice as much sugar and that produced a nice long stream on the way up. As Phil commented "That was one sweet flight"

To load the rockets we had to invert the launcher, as normal loading procedure with water did not work. If a few grains of sugar or crumbs came out they would jam the nozzle in the release head.

Leaving the messiest one until last we filled the rocket with cooked 2 minute noodles still in the broth. (They were cooked in the morning before going to the launch site ) It took a bit of effort getting the noodles in in the first place, and then getting them back down through the tornado tube. The launch was very much like a regular water rocket launch, and the rocket went up the highest. When we looked at what was left around the pad, you could not recognise anything that looked like noodles. They were well and truly obliterated on the way out.

We loaded up the rocket again with more noodles and broth, ... I was going to say that that's one of the strangest things we've done... but it isn't :) The rocket flew fairly high again. The parachute deployed well, but it was our turn to make an offering to the rocket gods, and the rocket landed in the highest tree. Sadly it wasn't the only rocket that ended up in the tree that day. Phil also lost his beautiful rocket in the same clump of trees. :( These trees are at least 20 meters tall so there is no easy way of reaching them. One can only hope that they come down by themselves in a wind storm, but with 2 weeks between launches someone is bound to find them. I believe this is our first rocket that we did not get back from a tree in the last 5.5 years. Though we lost one of the timers, we still have plenty left as spares. Luckily we didn't have an altimeter or camera on board, so only a minor loss.

All in all it was a good day, with the kids and ants getting to eat plenty of the sweet stuff. We wanted to try rice on the day as well, but ran out of time. On all these flights we used the same size nozzle, volume and pressure. Though these really technically can't be considered water rockets, it was a fun experiment to do anyway. back to more serious water rockets next time.

Here is a highlights video from the day.

Flight Details