Shooting Bottlerockets From Heli's

[DUSTINBLANCHET]

Hello All, Here Is What You Have All Been Waiting For. I Haven't Put Alot Of Thought Into Wether Or Not This Would Even Be Legal But If Found To Not Be Consider It A Cartoon For The Heli Masses!!

Anyway I Was Sitting There Last Night And Had A Brain Fart, Why Couldn't You Shoot An Object Controlled By You're Radio From You're Heli? I Saw A Few Way's Of Doing It But Most Of Them Ended Up With The Heli Crashing To Earth In A Ball Of Flames, Then I Asked Myself Why Do You Need A Flame? Not Only That But How Do You Keep It Lit With The Blades Spinning Up Like They Do. Then It Hit Me, A Car Cigarette Lighter Has No Flame But Can Light An Object And Would'nt Be Extinguished By The Blades Spinning. Now This Does'nt Mean I'm Strapping A Car Lighter To My Heli, No Way I Have Something Better Than That Even.
Why Not Use A Standard Glow Plug And Push The Wick's Into The Center Of It So When You Get Power To The Glow Plug It Would Ignite The Bottlerocket's, You Would Have To Extend The Wick's Alittle But That Is Very Easy To Do.
Now You're Saying Well How Do I Get Power To The Glow Plug? How About Via A 9 Volt Battery, They're Small And Fairly Lightweight. Then The Problem With Being Able To Turn The 9 Volt Battery Off And On From You're Radio, Easy As Pie You Just Go To You're Local Radioshack And Buy A Micro Switch. I Know I Know What Can I Do With A Goofy Micro Switch? Well If You Get A Micro Servo Also You Can Mount The Micro Switch Somewhere In The Heli And Mount The Micro Servo Just Above It So When The Servo Horn Comes In Contact With The Switch It Sends Power From The 9 Volt To The Glow Plug And Away Goes The Whistleing Bottlerocket Right At The Neighbor's Cat.

You Still Say It Can't Be Done.... Well I Have A Drawing That Say's It Can And Has Been Done. I Put It All Together And It Worked Better Than I Thought It Would. Hovering At About 10 Feet I Hit The Button And It Triggered The Glow Plug To Do It's Job And Boy Did It, After About 3 Seconds The Whistler's Went Sailin And It Was The Best Thing I Have Ever Seen, They Shot Out Straight And Went About 100 Feet And Popped. My Wife Thought I Was An ***** For Even Attepmting It And After Seeing It Work And On The First Try. She Said You Better Patent The Idea..........i Said Whattttttttttttttttt No Way I'm Going To Share It With The Heli Fever Masses And See Where It Goes From There.

Anyway Here Is My Lame Freehand Drawing's Of How I Did It And I Will Be Getting Some Video Up Before Too Long So You Can All Laugh You're Butt's Off!!! Look For It On You Tube !!!

[Danimal]

Over the years I've seen others do similar projects. I've always giggled at them and thought ok you did it but what's the point? But the more I think about it the more I like the idea of turning it in to some kind of a competition.
Get a bunch of people together with there bottle rocket contraptions and try and shoot down balloons or try to hit ground targets with them. I know you cant get any real accuracy with bottle rockets but it might be fun anyway.

[DUSTINBLANCHET]

I Hear Ya, What's The Point. The Only Reason I Even Consider It Was I Like To Take An Idea And Visualize It And Then Put It On Paper And Even Test It. The Competition Thing Would Be Cool, And You're Right You Can't Get Much Accuracy But It Sure Was Cool Seeing My Idea Work Flawlessly. I Found If You Put Small Tail Wings At The End Of The Bottlerocket It Flies Straighter Than Without But Still No Accuracy. Anyway It Was Fun Doing It And It Was Just An Idea, I'm Sure I'll Come Up With Some Other's That Are Even More Goofy, With Four Kids I Have To Find Something To Calm The Nerves.

[vcampos]

I can't wait to see this in action. This reminds me. Not long ago I seen an actual semi-machine gun mounted on an R/C helicopter.

As soon as the machine gun fired the helicopter lost its balance. If I find the link I will post it. Great sketch by the way

[hawkman]

You could be on to something here, I use the blade caddy as a marker on the ground for when I fly my gasser...I come in nice and slow...doing a careful approach...and then come over the marker on the ground and then land on top of it...sometimes I touch a skid on it...then go back up for another circuit...you could use a marker like this as a reference point...so you come and hover...aim at the target and fire!

Have you tried doing a parachute drop at all?

Rob

[DUSTINBLANCHET]

Sounds Like An Idea That Could Prove Useful. I Was Working On Getting Up The Video And Then Changed My Mind. I Was Going To Shoot The Video With My Prototype And Decided That I Wanted It's Looks To Be Better And For The Accuracy To Be The Best It Could. This Is What I Came Up With, The Short Firing Tubes Worked To Get It Out There But Weren't Good Enough So I Went With A 3/8 Inch Clear Tube That Is Lighter And I Made It 12 Inches Long, It Sticks Out Past The Front And Rear Of The Landing Gear But After Trying It Out It Seems As If I Found A Pretty Good Solution To The Rocket Just Shooting Out And Running Wild. Since The Tubes Are Longer And The Rocket Is Short It Gives It Guidance For A Longer Period And Keeps It Straight For A Longer Distance But Still Veers To One Direction After 50 Or So Feet But Honestly That Is Good Enough For Now I Think.

*****also I Am Enjoying Flying Heli's So Much I Sold My Tmaxx, My 1/8 Ofna, Losi Xxxnt Truck , 1/18 Brushless Truck, And Bought A ............
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~Brand New Trex 600~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
I Am Waiting On The Tx And Some Other Stuff For It So I Can Get It Up And Going, I Can't Wait. I'm Still Gonna Fly My King 2 So It Doesn't Feel Left Out......hahahahaha. It's Kinda Funny I Sold My Collection From Over 15 Years Of R/c That I Said I Never Would And With Just About All The Money Bought The Trex..................thank You Ebay!!!

[Danzi]

WOW-


Ok, you HAVE to get a movie up on the forums - IM DYEING TO SEE IT-

Heres an idea- Remove the stick from the back and add some kind of finn or drag to counter the thrust-

Might work

[aronhk_md]

For accuracy..........remove the original stick from the bottle rocket, or cut it back to approximately 1 inch from the paper......very few of them are straight, if any. You are going to replace it with a wood (usually bamboo) skewer available in packs at any cooking related store. These are quite straight. Stick the skewer into the battle rocket along the old stub of the shaft and expoxy them together or super glue them.

Now go buy one of those fancy bottles of spring water in the store......the ones that are square shaped.

Cut out the flat portions of the bottle. This is your fin stock. Split the skewer near the tail end with a razor blade 1 inch from the end and slip in a narrow strip of the plastic (make it the same width as the head of your bottle rocket, so it'll fit in the same tube and 2 inches long, leaving about an inch hanging out past the end of your skewer.

This last 1 inch of your fin now gets split down the middle (in line with the skewer) and a 2nd fin the same width as the first but only 1 inch long gets slipped in to form your X shaped fin with a couple of touches of super glue.

Go back and trim the front of your fin to make it aerodynamic.

Depending on your target and surrounding area you may be able to collect these skewer tail fins and use them again and again.....even if they get shortened a drop each time.