You are correct..Zinc-sulfur motors are not allowed..

5.3. Additional Prohibited Propellants
5.3.1. The following propellants shall also be excluded from Tripoli Research launches: double and triple-based propellants, and micro-grain propellants, including zinc/sulfur
propellants.

From here

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Jon
SAM #0396
BAR 02/07
NAR 86940
KF4GUL
Aim high, fly straight!

Wonder why the ban on double and triple-based propellants ?
Correct me if I'm wrong but are those not some of the more energetic propellants used in military missile applications ?
Seems those would be PERFECT for research.
Agree with the ban on Zinc-Sulphur though...that stuff is nothing more than a menacing hazard that has been proven time and time again.

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When in doubt, WHACK the GAS and DITCH the brake !!!

Yes, there is such a thing as NORMAL, if you have to ask what is "NORMAL" , you probably aren't !
Failure may not be an OPTION, but it is ALWAYS a POSSIBILITY.
ALL systems are GO for MAYHEM, CHAOS, and HAVOC !

I have flown lots of zinc-sulfur rockets and I can spell it too. They require different methods and precautions that are incompatible with a consumer launch. You need to use a steel tube for the motor case and you need to have blast protection and overhead protection to be adequately safe. All those facilities exist at two sites in California where zinc-sulfur rockets (and sugar rockets) are fired all the time.

I flew one 5" Z-S rocket with Dave Griffith and Mike Smalley in the 70's. It was truly cool. I saw a film, yes film not video, of a Z-S motor attached to a telephone pole which made it the largest stick rocket I had ever seen.

I saw a 1.5" diameter sugar rocket explode. It was attached to an 8x8" wood pillar. The pillar was reduced to matchsticks.

One needs a blockhouse and thick steel and concrete safety barriers for some forms of rockets. Attached is a photo of a sugar rocket static test set-up with the underground blockhouse visible. It has 2" thick plexiglass windows in those thin slots and well over a foot of steel reinforced concrete roof. You could launch an APCP "S" motor from, or into it, and not phase it.

Jerry


A Zinc-Sulfur rocket being flown from Mojave Test Area hosted by RRS.

Attached Thumbnails

 

Sulphur is the TRADITIONAL non-modernized spelling, Sulfur is more modern. NEITHER is incorrect. Another example is Grey=Gray.
The more common spelling of Sulfuric Acid changed from Sulphuric Acid actually much later.
I wondered who the first smart-aleck would be to comment on my spelling and now I know, but am surprised. I thought for SURE it would be a particular member located in california also, but not you Jerry.

ANY form of rocketry that requires large reinforced blockhouse structures is WAAAAYYYY too much hassle for me. Especially when APCP has higher delivered impulse per gram.

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When in doubt, WHACK the GAS and DITCH the brake !!!

Yes, there is such a thing as NORMAL, if you have to ask what is "NORMAL" , you probably aren't !
Failure may not be an OPTION, but it is ALWAYS a POSSIBILITY.
ALL systems are GO for MAYHEM, CHAOS, and HAVOC !

I said *I* know how to spell, not that anybody else did not.

Once someone did all the work of buying, licensing, and upgrading a facility for Z-S and "Sugar" rockets, it became trivial for others to just show up and fly. Besides it's only about 2 hours from Disneyland and Knott's Berry Farm. Mmmmmm, chicken dinners.

Jerry

APCP bigot.

Spelling and chicken = http://www.eatmorchikin.com/

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-Fred Shecter NAR 20117 (L2)
Southern California Rocket Association, NAR Section 430

The reason I mentioned Pepcon is because they were our source for AP. IIRC, it happened in 1988. When the plant went up, our home grown source of AP went also. AP eventually got scarce and expensive. We ended up importing Chinese AP to fill the rocketry hobby niche.

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I love sanding.

Many people on this forum know much more about this than I do, but here is a pretty good summary of the "PEPCON disaster." And this is where I need more information, too. The article gives the date as May 4, 1988. Wasn't there also some fire or explosion at another solid propellant manufacturing plant in 2000 or 2001?

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SAM # 0011

Isn't Canada another significant producer of AP? Also, has US production of it recovered since 1988?

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SAM # 0011

I don't know. I just know that the AP we used after Pepcon came from China. I got out of HPR entirely not too long after 9/11, so I don't know where any of it comes from now.

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I love sanding.