29mm Standard retrofit aluminium motor retainer Blackcat rocketry

Rocket motors life expectancy will vary greatly depending on how you store your motors. 

In general you want to think of somewhere much like your living room in your house. A fairly constant temperature, not too dry nor too damp or too warm or too cold. And while that may sound like I've described every possibility do try to avoid cold damp places or extremely warm dry places. It's probably not wise to store them in the airing cupboard or in a damp outbuilding for example! You especially don't want to expose your motors to freezing temperatures or areas where condensation is apparent.

Security of your motors is also a concern. You want to ensure you keep your motors away from metal, electricity supplies and other flammable and hazardous goods. You also want to ensure they are secured against theft or the risk of children accessing them with big ideas and no adult supervision. 

A dedicated storage box made of wood or strong cardboard is a great option for storing your motors in. But ensure you don't store anything else with your motors, keep only motors in this storage container. 

Yes, we'd love to see you. You can visit our warehouse in Millom, Cumbria. It does operate on a trade counter method from one store room, but we can bring you any item you'd like to have a look at should it not be in this area.

We are usually open from 9:30am until 4:00pm Monday to Friday but please contact us if you can't make those times and we may be able to accommodate your visit outside of these hours. 

You can find our location details on the contact us page.

The simple answer is Yes. Anyone can take part in model rocketry.

To fly safely you can attend a rocketry club to fly, or you can fly from home or land where you have permission to fly. There may be rules near airports that limit you maximum altitude although many starter sets do fly below these altitude limits. There is more information on this page about rocketry in the UK. 

Regardless of your experience in rocketry or modelling in general you can get cracking with model rocketry. We have rockets for all skill levels and a selection of great starter sets that include  everything except the glues & tools you may or may not need to get flying. (Some rockets are Ready to fly or extremely easy to assemble without glue for example). 
Ready to fly starter sets.
Easy to build starter sets.

If you're limited on launch space then the starter sets with A size motors won't go terrifyingly high! If you have a bit more space or want something a bit more powerful then B motor starter sets are a great place to start. The included motors are listed on each product. You can also buy larger motors for your rockets too! All our A and B motor starter sets can take A, B and C motors. You can even go crazy and grab a Klima D9 motors for many of these rockets. Each time you advance a letter you double your total impulse of your motor. So a B motor is twice the power of an A, and a C motor is 4 times the power of an A motor for example.

We will only sell rocket motors or kits with rocket motors to people who are 18 or older. However model rocketry is great much younger than this! Most manufacturers suggest an age of 12+ for starter sets, and younger than this is still OK with adult supervision.

Model rocketry can grow with you regardless of your age with much higher power and advanced models possible in the UK perfectly legally. Please contact us for advice if you would like some and we'll be happy to assist you!

The UK Rocketry association suggests the following sizes depending on your rocket motor size. 

The table below lists the minimum site dimensions for each motor impulse class. The distances stated are the diameter of a circle centred at the location of the launch pad. The rocket flight should be planned such that all reasonable steps are taken to ensure that the rocket lands and may be recovered in this area.

For flights with increased safety considerations, the next largest distance must be used after the row associated with the Total Impulse. Examples of such flights where these considerations come into play are:

• The flight involves a boosted glider or winged recovery.
• The flight is considered Research or Experimental.

The site minimum dimension should be the maximum of:

• The distance from the table below, noting the previous statement regarding special flights.
• Half the maximum expected flight altitude of any Rocket to be flown.

We should be able to supply parts to fix almost any rocket. The majority of accidents will result in a body tube or nose cone being damaged. Although often parachutes and shock cords can need replacing too. We sell all of these items in our shop under the scratch building section. If you need help identifying what you need please contact us and we will be more than happy to help.

Body tubes / Air frames.
Nose cones.
Recovery parachutes, streamers & cord.

Rocketry is a very scalable hobby that offers great learning and plenty of technology to enjoy. As such you can add many items from Altimeters, electronics, trackers, cameras and even flight computers to control your flight and stability.

Many people like to add a camera to their rocket. We do sell some options in our Video Camera category. 

Altimeters are also incredibly popular, especially the Jolly Logic altimeters that we stock which you can find in the Altimeters section.  If you are launching a higher power rocket you may like to check out the Jolly logic chute release.

The Electronics and Payloads category has many more upgrades and accessories. Although there's nothing to stop you popping over to our scratch building section to create your own rockets too!