Repentigny Represents!

[beatquest_djnn]

Hello,

My name is Normand, I'm from Repentigny, 10 km east of montreal Island in Qc, Canada. Sorry if my English is not perfect, I normaly speak french...

I launched my first water rocket at the age of 7 !!! I saw how to build one in a science TV show for kids (older kids i'dd say!).

My poor mother!... A 7 yo asking for a bottle, a cork and the bicycle pump to experiment in the backyard! At first she did not mind... but when my first attempt flew a couple of hundreds of feets in the air to land in my neigbour's pool... she began to worry !

When I was 16, I was working in a summer camp. I had all the kids in my group painting plastic bottles they brought from home and most of them did not even tell their parents why they needed it... Finaly, it made some of the best pictures of that summer! (sorry, I lost the pictures in a car fire... long storry, so sad!). The kids where all wet and had smile on their faces!

Security was not a concern at that time! Those rockets had no fins, kids were holding them straight on the ground with their hans to get as wet as they could! The only security mesures were to tell them: "don't point it at anybody, don't put your head over it while i'm pumping!"

Lunching was occuring when the cork finaly let the bottle go... The more the cork got wet, the higher the rockets would go...

I want to step this up by a notch... or hundreds of notches! I will attemp a world record on a multi stages rocket (everybody gets to dream sometime!).

Step 1, build a rocket!!!

See you all this summer on youtube!

[WRA2]

Hello,

My name is Normand, I'm from Repentigny, 10 km east of montreal Island in Qc, Canada. Sorry if my English is not perfect, I normaly speak french...

I launched my first water rocket at the age of 7 !!! I saw how to build one in a science TV show for kids (older kids i'dd say!).

My poor mother!... A 7 yo asking for a bottle, a cork and the bicycle pump to experiment in the backyard! At first she did not mind... but when my first attempt flew a couple of hundreds of feets in the air to land in my neigbour's pool... she began to worry !

When I was 16, I was working in a summer camp. I had all the kids in my group painting plastic bottles they brought from home and most of them did not even tell their parents why they needed it... Finaly, it made some of the best pictures of that summer! (sorry, I lost the pictures in a car fire... long storry, so sad!). The kids where all wet and had smile on their faces!

Security was not a concern at that time! Those rockets had no fins, kids were holding them straight on the ground with their hans to get as wet as they could! The only security mesures were to tell them: "don't point it at anybody, don't put your head over it while i'm pumping!"

Lunching was occuring when the cork finaly let the bottle go... The more the cork got wet, the higher the rockets would go...

I want to step this up by a notch... or hundreds of notches! I will attemp a world record on a multi stages rocket (everybody gets to dream sometime!).

Step 1, build a rocket!!!

See you all this summer on youtube!

Welcome to the world's largest water rocket community.

Don't worry about the language difference...Just use Google translate if needed.

[beatquest_djnn]

Welcome to the world's largest water rocket community.

Don't worry about the language difference...Just use Google translate if needed.

"Google translate" would make funny unreadable translations!

I am almost bilingual, but subtile language differences between french and english, ways sentences are built, double meaning of some words and choosing a perticular word in a given circumstance unstead of another one are thing that are hard to do when you don't speak in english everyday!

Don't be affraid to correct me when I say something that makes non sense... I won't take it as an offense!

[U.S. Water Rockets1]

Hello,

My name is Normand, I'm from Repentigny, 10 km east of montreal Island in Qc, Canada. Sorry if my English is not perfect, I normaly speak french...

I launched my first water rocket at the age of 7 !!! I saw how to build one in a science TV show for kids (older kids i'dd say!).

My poor mother!... A 7 yo asking for a bottle, a cork and the bicycle pump to experiment in the backyard! At first she did not mind... but when my first attempt flew a couple of hundreds of feets in the air to land in my neigbour's pool... she began to worry !

When I was 16, I was working in a summer camp. I had all the kids in my group painting plastic bottles they brought from home and most of them did not even tell their parents why they needed it... Finaly, it made some of the best pictures of that summer! (sorry, I lost the pictures in a car fire... long storry, so sad!). The kids where all wet and had smile on their faces!

Security was not a concern at that time! Those rockets had no fins, kids were holding them straight on the ground with their hans to get as wet as they could! The only security mesures were to tell them: "don't point it at anybody, don't put your head over it while i'm pumping!"

Lunching was occuring when the cork finaly let the bottle go... The more the cork got wet, the higher the rockets would go...

I want to step this up by a notch... or hundreds of notches! I will attemp a world record on a multi stages rocket (everybody gets to dream sometime!).

Step 1, build a rocket!!!

See you all this summer on youtube!

Great story! That brings back plenty of memories! Those kids probably have a lot of good memories from their time at camp with you as well. Who knows, you may have inspired one of them to get involved in rockets on their own!

We are big on safety here, but you can sill have fun if you just use common sense. There are still fun ways to get wet while launching water rockets safely.

Nice to have you aboard the forum. We look forward to your experiments and your progress towards that record!

[beatquest_djnn]

Okay.. about rules for the competition... some things aren't clear to me...

Reaction mass: It says "Reaction Mass must be primarily ordinary tap water" Does it have to be plain water... or can a biodegradable foaming agent be used in addition to the water?

The rocket itself: Does it have to be made of plastic bottles... I had an idea including fiberglass as reinforcement over a plastic neon tube... would that be accepted?

Payload: Does it have to be a minimum weight? do I have to add balast if it's lighter ?

[WRA2]

Okay.. about rules for the competition... some things aren't clear to me...

Reaction mass: It says "Reaction Mass must be primarily ordinary tap water" Does it have to be plain water... or can a biodegradable foaming agent be used in addition to the water?

The rocket itself: Does it have to be made of plastic bottles... I had an idea including fiberglass as reinforcement over a plastic neon tube... would that be accepted?

Payload: Does it have to be a minimum weight? do I have to add balast if it's lighter ?

Just to be sure, you are referring to the "multiple stage water rocket altitude record competition:

http://www.wra2.org/WRA2_Class_B_Rules.php

1. Foaming agents would be acceptable if added to plain water. How much foaming agent are you planning on adding (1%, 2%, 5%)?

2. The rocket can be made from any non metallic material. Fiberglass reinforcement would be allowed.

3. No. you do not need to add ballast if your rocket and payload weigh LESS then 1500 grams. Do not exceed 1500 grams though. The total weight is calculated as the weight of the rocket (pressure vessel) and payload section in a "flight ready condition" without the reaction mass (in your case water + foaming agent) This also includes all staging mechanisms and altimeters, deploy system, parachute, camera, flight computer, deploy mechanism). The best way is to assemble the rocket as it would fly, don't fill with "fuel" and weigh on a scale.

Thank you for asking before building and flying.

[beatquest_djnn]

I have just filled the form to be an official member.. it says to contact an Admin to change my user privileges... Admin... are you there?

[WRA2]

I have just filled the form to be an official member.. it says to contact an Admin to change my user privileges... Admin... are you there?

At 5 am?

Your privileges have been upgraded.
Your team has been added to the member list.

Welcome to the WRA2

Nice to have another electronics expert in the WRA2

Good luck!

[beatquest_djnn]

I tried to add an Avatar to my profile... but the file size is really limited!!!

My file is 100x100px, and even with the worst possible resolution, I can't get as low as 6Kb for the file... 8,xx was my best try!

Is there a way to increase the size of the avatar to 20Kb or so??? It's really not a big deal of space and would accomodate any .jpg file of 100x100...

Thanks!

[WRA2]

I tried to add an Avatar to my profile... but the file size is really limited!!!

My file is 100x100px, and even with the worst possible resolution, I can't get as low as 6Kb for the file... 8,xx was my best try!

Is there a way to increase the size of the avatar to 20Kb or so??? It's really not a big deal of space and would accomodate any .jpg file of 100x100...

Thanks!

Avatar file size increased to 20k. We will see if it affects page load speed but I believe it will be ok.

[beatquest_djnn]

WOW!!! WRA2, that's what I call fast Admin services!

I really love my Avatar! The Apollo 11 Haynes manual!

Thanks again!

[WRA2]

WOW!!! WRA2, that's what I call fast Admin services!

I really love my Avatar! The Apollo 11 Haynes manual!

Thanks again!

No problem. We strive to make this the best water rocket forum in the world!

Cool Avatar

[beatquest_djnn]

Well.. it seems that you are on the right path to success.. you are #1 in google when I type water rocket!

I'dd like to ask for something... why is the "IMG" tag disabled?
That could be usefull to reduce server load and banwith by reflecting images from external image hosting site...

If image size is the reason, I found a plugin that keeps images larger than a specified size from displaying and a link to appear unstead... (I was once a phpBB website admin) I could help you with this one...

[WRA2]

Well.. it seems that you are on the right path to success.. you are #1 in google when I type water rocket!

I'dd like to ask for something... why is the "IMG" tag disabled?
That could be usefull to reduce server load and banwith by reflecting images from external image hosting site...

If image size is the reason, I found a plugin that keeps images larger than a specified size from displaying and a link to appear unstead... (I was once a phpBB website admin) I could help you with this one...

One of the problems with the IMG tag is that the images are stored elsewhere and if the image is deleted , moved, the site where the image is hosted is down or whatever then it is lost. Ever go to a forum and get a broken image (usually one you need to make sense of the post). We have lots of bandwidth and server space so we encourage using image attachments here so the images will remain with the post. We offer our members large quotas for their attachments (only reason we have a quota at all is to prevent spammers from loading the board with attached SPAM. If a member ever ran out of space we would simply add more to their quota (just as easy as I increased the avatar size).

I know we are ranked #1 in Google and it is people like you that keep it on top by providing tools (like your offer to make a tool to extract data from an altimeter data file) or construction tutorials, videos, photos or just sharing experiences in the world of water rocketry.

[beatquest_djnn]

Oh! okay... that is cool then! Normaly, site host don't offer unlimited space... But you are right about the broken link thing!

I am curious, what hosting company do you use?

(like your offer to make a tool to extract data from an altimeter data file)

Well.. i'ts done!!! I coded it yesterday! Needs some adjustments to work with the mini Alt15k/WD 0.05 sec sampling rate but for the standard version, it works! Look for it in this THREAD...

Should I post this elsewhere? in a dedicated section or something?

- Normand