Hi & need some help for a small competition

[Chris_147]

Hi,

I'm Chris van Belgium, I'm very new to waterrocketry.
I stumbled upon a launcher like this one: http://www.ontdekplek.nl/index.php?opti ... &mosform=4
I tried it with a small 0,5 liter bottle and it already flew 6 meters high
Does anybody know what's possible with such a launcher?

Now, I'm planning a weekend with some friends (they are all adults) and one half day activity would be a water rocket competition.
Some ideas I found already: furthest distance, highest altitude (how to measure that?), longest airtime, be as close as possible to specific distance, safely launch and land a raw egg, and perhaps most beautiful rocket (the last one is cheesy, yes)

The time they have is half a day (3 hours or so), so I don't think learning and building multiple stages or boosters will be possible.
For the material I think I would need:
- 10 PET bottles per team (5-6 persons)
- tape and/or glue to attach fins etc
- cardboard for fins and other designs
- fabric, rope, binders etc for parachutes
What else do you think the teams could use?

Any other suggestions for such a competition?

[U.S. Water Rockets1]

Hi,

I'm Chris van Belgium, I'm very new to waterrocketry.
I stumbled upon a launcher like this one: http://www.ontdekplek.nl/index.php?opti ... &mosform=4
I tried it with a small 0,5 liter bottle and it already flew 6 meters high
Does anybody know what's possible with such a launcher?

Now, I'm planning a weekend with some friends (they are all adults) and one half day activity would be a water rocket competition.
Some ideas I found already: furthest distance, highest altitude (how to measure that?), longest airtime, be as close as possible to specific distance, safely launch and land a raw egg, and perhaps most beautiful rocket (the last one is cheesy, yes)

The time they have is half a day (3 hours or so), so I don't think learning and building multiple stages or boosters will be possible.
For the material I think I would need:
- 10 PET bottles per team (5-6 persons)
- tape and/or glue to attach fins etc
- cardboard for fins and other designs
- fabric, rope, binders etc for parachutes
What else do you think the teams could use?

Any other suggestions for such a competition?

You should try and get some large plastic bags to cut up and make parachutes. You might also want to find some plastic balls or eggs to make nosecones from. Don't forget to collect enough tools for everyone to work with. Scissors, hobby knives, etc. as well. Other materials you may be using are plastic straws or dowels and plastic sheets (like notebook covers or signs) to make plastic fins from.

Hope you have fun!

[Chris_147]

Thanks for the tips.

[Brian]

Hello Chris, all the comps sound good, for the altitude comp you can use an altitude tracker to measure the height of your rocket, all info and you can download one here http://www.reachoutmichigan.org/funexpe ... cking.html you can get a more accurate measurements by triangulating the rockets location with 3 altitude trackers surrounding the launch site then averaging the measurements.