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I caused a small brush fire playing with an Estes rocket. Fire department told me "try to be more careful."

• davidcuddeback 13y ago
  Oh yeah, I also caused a small explosion at school by filling a water bottle with LN2.
• Yhippa 13y ago
  I didn't start a fire but I remember launching those things when I was a kid. Did it in Boy Scouts and several after-school programs. Can you even launch those things these days without violating some sort of protected airspace or getting in trouble for some other nonsense rule?
  • jlgreco 13y ago
    Yes. IIRC they tightened up the laws about buying those engines after 9/11 but later loosened them again. If you are launching large rockets then the FAA has some rules, but that is nothing new.
• jfb 13y ago
  I remember hooking a D motor up to a guide wire (no rocket!) and firing it off in a lot behind my friend Jason's house. It took the predictably chaotic trajectory and again predictably shot straight through the closed window at a house under construction across the otherwise empty lot. I think we stuck around long enough to make sure that the place didn't catch fire, which, in retrospect, was probably the dumbest thing of all. Good times.
  • davidcuddeback 13y ago
    That's almost exactly how I started the fire. We launched the rocket several times, progressively losing more parts of it. First the nose cone. Then the body. All we had left was one last rocket, so we launched the rocket alone without a body. It sort of spiralled into the air. It didn't make it very high---maybe about 100 feet---then fell into the brush. I think the parachute charge went off after the engine landed in the brush.