NORTH SHORE CITY, Aukland, NZ — By day, plasterer Phil Vukovich reaches for the ceiling but by night he dreams of reaching for the sky with his home-built rocket.

Phil Vukovich hopes to set a new record with his home-made rocket. Photo: Kenny Rodger.

In the shed at his North Shore home he has built a 2.4m rocket from the same strong and light glass-fibre composite materials used in fishing rods.

"My goal is to send it 30,000 feet [9144m]."

That's nearly twice the vertical distance achieved by the New Zealand record holder in experimental class rockets, Martin van Tiel.

Dr van Tiel, who has a doctorate in chemistry and makes and displays fireworks, set the record of 4.5km two years ago at the Rocketry Association's national launch day at Taupiri, south of Huntly.

Weighing 25kg, his rocket motor delivered 200kg of thrust for six seconds, propelled by the same powerful chemical fuel that is used in space shuttle boosters.

The feat set Mr Vukovich thinking about topping it at this year's Taupiri launch day on February 3.

"I'm a plasterer, not a rocket scientist, but you don't need to be one. It's the information age; everything you need to know is available on the internet."

For five years Mr Vukovich has built rockets, starting with a small one on a stick and continually building more sophisticated and powerful ones.

"Each success brings you higher."

But last year came a personal breakthrough.

He had the thrill of sending a prototype of his latest rocket an estimated 4km.

"Unfortunately, we lost it for five days - it was windy and it drifted away on its parachute to land in dense bush - and its altimeter was damaged, so we can't be sure about how high it went."

He called that rocket "Sugar Rush" because sugar is a key ingredient of the propellant that this experimental rocket uses.

In his shed, using a cut-down electric frypan to fit as a hot plate under a big cooking pot, he concocted a toffee-like potion from sugar and an oxidiser. This propellant was poured into tubes that fit in the "motor", which is a capsule of steel and aluminium that fits inside the airframe.

He drilled a hole through the centre of the propellant so, when flare-lit from above, it burned from top to bottom.

"You are pressuring the inside and then releasing it out - a bit like letting go of a balloon." Sugar Rush had about 4.8kg of propellant and its successor will contain 15kg if it is to hiss and roar to record-breaking heights.

But Mr Vukovich says the record will not now be attempted at the national launch but in March-April.

The new rocket's metal parts, made by local engineering shops, are ready for assembly and he has designed an electronic recovery system so the rocket's landing place will be revealed via text messages and a unit like those used for tracking stolen cars.

Mr Vukovich says other problems must be overcome before he is satisfied all is set for such an attempt.

"At its peak the motor will be pushing half a tonne of thrust to propel a 30kg rocket at 2000km/h."

His new rocket will be in action at the national launch day at Taupiri. The public is welcome at the day.

See also: http://www.nzrocketry.org.nz/

Copyright © 2008, The New Zealand Herald.

01-29-2008 11:25 AM  #1
agrippo Certified Level Three   Joined: Aug 2006 Posts: 131	Re: New Zealand home project definitely rocket science Good Luck to Phil. I hope the flight goes great. It's always awesome to hear what folks are up to in other countries. Andrew

01-29-2008 11:33 AM  #2
R2K Certified Level Three   Joined: Jul 2007 Posts: 273	Re: New Zealand home project definitely rocket science Great looking rocket, and sounds like a great project. But it is always strange for me to see news coverage like this where it is clear that the author really doesnt understand the state of hobby rocketry today. They always describe these people as if they are just isolated dreamers building rockets in a vacuum. A bit strange - I dont know if it bothers me that hundreds have done these things previously, and they are ignored, or that no one seems to recognize the effort that thousands put into the hobby to regulate and maintain it. Anyway great looking rocket - nice and black!

01-29-2008 02:27 PM  #3
Ethan Altitude Junkie   Joined: Oct 2007 Posts: 26	Re: New Zealand home project definitely rocket science Quote: Great looking rocket, and sounds like a great project. But it is always strange for me to see news coverage like this where it is clear that the author really doesnt understand the state of hobby rocketry today. They always describe these people as if they are just isolated dreamers building rockets in a vacuum. A bit strange - I dont know if it bothers me that hundreds have done these things previously, and they are ignored, or that no one seems to recognize the effort that thousands put into the hobby to regulate and maintain it. Anyway great looking rocket - nice and black! I agree. This same article was printed in our regional newspaper a few days ago, and I was suprised at how they made Phil out to be a 'Lone Wolf'! Ethan

01-29-2008 03:29 PM  #4
denverdoc Hall Monitor   Joined: Aug 2007 Posts: 3077	Re: New Zealand home project definitely rocket science The lone wolf astronaut farmer/october boy dreamer where no one has dreamt before is obvioulsy a lot more romantic than such shots have become nearly routine in launches in the US and Europe. Hey its better than ignoring us altogether--how much mainstream press coverage do R/C aircraft get for instance?

01-29-2008 03:48 PM  #5
Ethan Altitude Junkie   Joined: Oct 2007 Posts: 26	Re: New Zealand home project definitely rocket science Yeah, this sorta thing is probably what you guys would call 'small' over there, but its a big deal down here! I'm glad they've given Phil this bit of coverage, rocketry doesn't often feature in the news much here. But yeah, if this was happening over your way it would just be another routine flight for many. Ethan

01-29-2008 05:12 PM  #6
denverdoc Hall Monitor   Joined: Aug 2007 Posts: 3077	Re: New Zealand home project definitely rocket science No disrespect intended, BTW. We have had "small" projects get a lot of coverage--in fact more than we wanted, here locally when a biggun went missing. If you look thru the archives you'll find similar articles here--in fact just recently one was about an L3 flight that went 6000'. There was another one about a college project that oops-ed during a low record attempt--but its always done in the style of the lone wolf going against long odds.

02-01-2008 02:01 PM  #7
R2K Certified Level Three   Joined: Jul 2007 Posts: 273	Re: New Zealand home project definitely rocket science Id be happy without the coverage. Keep a low profile to reduce regulation

02-05-2008 06:39 PM  #8
Chrisn Certified Level Four   Joined: Oct 2006 Posts: 44	Re: New Zealand home project definitely rocket science His test flight was "successful" the rocket landed in a power line but he eventually got it back in one piece (from what I could see there was no major damage but possibly the parachute got ripped from the power line?). Also the blast knocked over the launch tower :|. I have a 300mb video which I will compress ,cut and upload. im not sure when hes going for his record attempt possibly april which will be a more powerful motor

02-05-2008 06:43 PM  #9
Steve_Shannon Growing more clueless...   Joined: Aug 2006 Posts: 2287	Re: New Zealand home project definitely rocket science Quote: His test flight was "successful" the rocket landed in a power line but he eventually got it back in one piece (from what I could see there was no major damage but possibly the parachute got ripped from the power line?). Also the blast knocked over the launch tower :|. I have a 300mb video which I will compress ,cut and upload. im not sure when hes going for his record attempt possibly april which will be a more powerful motor This is an excellent time to point out that the only fatalities that have been associated with model rocketry happened when people tried to recover their rockets from power lines. Don't try to do it yourself. Call the utility.

02-05-2008 10:17 PM  #10
Chrisn Certified Level Four   Joined: Oct 2006 Posts: 44	Re: New Zealand home project definitely rocket science They did call the power company, they most likely switched it off (padlocked switch thing on pole) and the power company guy probably used some sort of rod to push it off the lines. dont know exactly how he got it down but hes still walking :P

02-10-2008 01:48 AM  #11
Ethan Altitude Junkie   Joined: Oct 2007 Posts: 26	Re: New Zealand home project definitely rocket science From what Phil told me the shockcord was draped over the power lines, with the Nosecone on one side and the Airframe on the other. He said he just cut it. I assume he would have still had to turn off the power though? The main chute came out at apogee (8,000 ft) so that is something that will need to be fixed before the attempt. Love to see that video Chris. Ethan