It was the night after chinese new years, not a creature was stirring, well except for a bunch of kids doing whatever they feel like... I took my stick rocket, which looked like an 18mm motor stuck to a stick with a cone on it... I put it in a bottle, lit the fuse, and when it went it sounded like what a 18mm motor should sound like, then it hits apogee at I dunno, 200 ft? then it went BOOM (yes it was a boom rather than a pop) with nice break and spirals and stuff, then that wasnt it, there was a second boom, and followed by a flower of spark. There is no recovery to speak of, except maybe like
1/2 of that stick that was attached to the rocket, and bits and peices of paper/plastic that would eventually be decomposed by the course of nature or most likely picked up by street sweepers. Was it a sucessful flight, well yes considering that it was expected, but of course it would have been a complete NAR safety rule violation on the following ground: 1. The rocket is to be electrically ignited, no fuses... 2. Nothing explosive or flammable may be used as payload except ejection charge (well one could argue it WAS ejection charge, just a large one that is...) 3. It had to be launched off of a proper launch pad, not a bottle! 4. It had to have a recovery system... in this case it had none, well there is one, I call it humpty dumpty recovery...
Sorry couldnt resist... it just doesnt feel the same when you watch your own built rocket fly and make it back to the ground without damage, than something you buy (or was given to you) that is designed to land in peices... it wasnt this tiny bottle rocket that pops and whistles, this is like some kind of display skyrocket that cost a whole lot more but was given to me by a coworker... was quite fun watching it go, wish I have like 100 more, it did make car alarms go off though...