Model rockets

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

When I was a kid – pre-teen – I used to love seeing the UPS truck come with a nice box from Estes. I loved those rockets! As an adolescent, I loved being in the desert where I had any number of spots from which to launch. Rockets are fun! :slight_smile:

I still have some unbuilt kits lying about. There’s a balsa-nosed Alpha or two. These came with decals, but the ones pictured in the catalogue didn’t have them. Nope, white body, red nosecone, one black fin and a black stripe.

I built a Scissorwing Transport when I was visiting dad in Barstow, where he was stationed. It was a warm summer morning, and the sky was like a blue bowl over the yellow Mojave Desert. My SWT reached skyward with such velocity that the fins on the powerpod broke. (I found them and picked them up.) It flew beautifully – until ejection. The wings unfolded, but did not come out all the way. The rocket spiralled all the way to the ground, suffering irreparable fuselage damage.

I had a Cherokee D. When I hooked up the ignition clamps I heard a hiss. I threw myself backward to see it flying. A word of advice: Always remove the safety key from the launch control. You never know when the launch button will decide to stick.

My favourite kit was the Astron Sprint. I had a traditional yellow-and-white one (incidentally, we did batik in elementary school once, and mine was the rocket), another with a silver body and gold nose that was very pretty, and one that I’d painted entirely orange. I absolutely love the design of that rocket! I went to a rocket launching with some Civil Air Patrol cadets (I wasn’t a member, but friends were – I eventually joined as an adult member, 2LT) and launched a Sprint. Someone called, ‘Fire!’ and we all started running to meet the rocket when it came down. Someone had the fire extinguisher. I guess they’d never seen a rocket with streamer recovery. The ‘fire’ was only the bright-orange recovery streamer. One or two of my unbuilt kits are Astron Sprints. I’m so glad I have them!

I don’t remember what kits I still have. I no longer have any of the rockets I built. (I do have the impossible-to-get Astron Sprint nosecones from the white/yellow and silver/gold rockets though.) I know I have the one or two balsa-nosed Alphas, and one or two Sprints. There’s a plastic-nosed Big Bertha, and there’s an AstroCam 110. I have a Mosquito, and there may be a Quark. What else do I have? Who can say? They’re packed away with the Guillows and other balsa flying models and the plastic models.

It was a fun hobby. I should get back into it. As an ‘adult’, I should be looking into the more advanced ‘big-rocket’ designs with their telemetry and engines you need a license for. But those little Estes rockets are cheap and fun, and there are more places to fly them. I just wish Estes would get rid of their horrible modern graphics, or at least re-introduce their classic designs. And bring back the balse nosecones.

2

I remember my introduction to this hooby was back in grade school. One of our shop projects was to build a model rocket from scratch. Which included winding kraft paper around a dowel to make the main body. Our grade depended on not only workmanship, but successfully firing and retrieving the thing once it was complete. Lotsa fun. Haven’t done it since probably high school.

3

I did this as a kid, too. Mainly junior high age. Do parents today let kids launch rockets?

4

My 9th grade science class was the best - because, among other things, we built and launched rockets. Most of them performed perfectly, but at least one had a guidance problem, and kinda went sideways into a backyard near the school. I don’t remember what kind I made but I know it went straight up and floated back down and I got an A in that lesson.

As a by-the-way, other things we did in that class included taking apart and putting together lawnmower engines, then riding a go-kart, coming up with cushioning for eggs, then throwing them down a big hill (your grade depended on the condition of the egg after), and distilling orange wine down to almost pure alcohol (things were a little looser in 1968-69 school year) - I loved that class and that teacher!

5

We like Estes rockets, too. I do them with the kids (7 and 9). I really like the one that would disengage and drop 3 “bombs” and the “space shuttle”. There is a new one at Sam’s for 15.00 that has an altimeter and will take an aerial photo. Once, we even got to retrieve one from a neighbors roof. Big fun for the kiddos.

Maybe we’ll do this this week. I’ve got some reusable parts and some new kits, plus lots of engines that we got a deal on during a big sale.

Thanks for the reminder!

6

Launch one for me!

7

I had a bunch as a kid, all with the balsa nose cones and balsa fins glued on. A buddy’s kid got one a few years back and it was the plastic nose cone and fins.

My favorite was a Goblin, fairly short tube, long nose cone, D engine. I might still have my old launchpad around here someplace.

8

Plastic fins, already aligned and ready to be glued, make it very easy to build a rocket. And painting plastic fins and nose cones is much easier, too. I spent hours painting fins and nose cones with balsa filler, sanding them, painting them with filler again, sanding them again… But I always liked the work I put into the finishes. I had two ‘plastic’ rockets: the Alpha III and the Quark (which was basically an Alpha III with chrome-plates fins and nose instead of red plastic). They were never as satisfying as the ones I ‘built myself’.

My first rocket was a Skyhook. (Astron Skyhook?) Most of the rockets are pretty generic, I think. The Skyhook was an Alpha with different fins and a different paint job. I wish I could get a picture of it, perhaps from an old catalogue. It would be fun to build one from scratch. (Has anyone noticed how often I’ve used the word ‘fun’ in this thread?)

9

For my and my buddies, model rocketry dies the day we discovered you could grind the engines and make blackpowder (or something like it). We then launched (har!) our amateur pyrotechnics careers.

I don’t suppose the engines have come down dramatically in price have they? I remember them being really expensive.

10

When I was launching rockets, I never lost one! (Not even a Mosquito. I let my friend launch that and he lost it. But I had already launched it four times by then, which was sort of a record for the Mosquito.)

I never lost one til I launched a live payload. What was that one rocket that had, like, five different configurations you could launch it in? It could launch single stage, double stage, it had a glider and the payload section. (Of course I could be remembering up to four different rockets.) I put a bee in the payload section and launched it single staged. (I never launched a two-stager.) The wind kicked up just as the parachute opened and I never got the rocket back. It went into the woods over a ravine and we lost sight of it. Payment for being mean to a bee I guess.

I designed my own rocket once. I torn down a Teros kits (with the cool “scramjet” nosecone) and rebuilt it to my design. It was a “space fighter” and it was really cool. It even flew so-so.

I was looking at the Estes display at the local craft stores. You know, Soupo is 8 now. Maybe he would be interested…

11

My first two were “Reliant” and “Solar Warrior”.

I made a boost glider from the box of parts and a styrofoam glider. :slight_smile:

12

Got to launch mine from the center of the L.A. Coluseum back in the mid 70’s.
Mostly, they came back inside the stadium…Mostly. I had to go find mind in the neighborhood Outside. Engine prices, now?

13

Pinewood Derby car + Spade bit drill + Estes Rocket engine = new land speed record for Birch Street.

14

I used to use Centuri rockets (didn’t Estes buy them out or something?)

I had the Excalibur (in my day, sonny, you had to build your model rockets).

I had the one that carries a payload, and I put a grasshopper in it. When it came back, the grasshopper was BLUE, but still alive.

I had that huge ass Saturn (Apollo?) rocket that used four engines (I think?). It didn’t even go 3 feet up, then fell over.

I also had Honest John and a really small one that II forget the name of.

Ah, memories!

Don’t even get me started on slot cars.

15

[QUOTE=Rue DeDay]
When I was launching rockets, I never lost one! (Not even a Mosquito. I let my friend launch that and he lost it. But I had already launched it four times by then, which was sort of a record for the Mosquito.)

Good thread - this brings back memories. I built three rockets:

A Mosquito, which I did lose when I put in a long-burn “C” engine. It looked like it made orbit, and never came down.

An Estes “Big Bertha”, which I believe took “D” engines. It died on its maiden voyage never having left the pad. The engine was defective and literally detonated. Quite a shock.

My first was a Level 4 Space Shuttle. Of course, I did a horrible job putting it together, and it so out-of-balance that it only cleared the pad for about three feet then shot off to the side, hit a friends bookbag that was laying on the ground, and set it on fire. My science club teacher was a bit pissed :slight_smile:

When I have kids, this is definitely something they are going to do :slight_smile:

16

Growing up in inner-city Cleveland, launching model rockets was one of those things that I was always dying to do, but never got the chance to try out.

When I have kids, we’re definitely going rocket launching!

17

Anyone else launch the one that was a badminton birdie? I put an oversized engine in it (I was a little on the dangerous/destructive side) and sent it into orbit.

18

I had two Cherokee-D’s and lost both on the first flight. That claim of 1800-foot altitude was no exaggeration.

When I was a kid in Ohio, you could launch a model rocket anywhere. I used to shoot them off in my backyard if I was too lazy to walk to the beanfield. A few months ago, I built a rocket and ignition system with my little boy here in California only to discover that you have to go to an approved launch site. The nearest launch site is 45 minutes away and they don’t let you use your own ignition system.

On the other hand, in California there is a concentration of boys who like to play with bigger toys. Check these guys out, especially the videos.

19

I had just enough money as a kid to buy a couple of these rockets but never enough to buy the launcher. I built them and then leaned 'em up against the curb and stuck a firecracker fuse in their bottom but, sadly, that twern’t enough to set 'em off. Eventually the fins broke off, then I took the parachute out and attached it to G.I. Joe and I never got to see one fly.

I can afford a launcher now. Hmmmm… maybe I’ll attack any upcoming mid-life crisis with Estes rockets.

20

One of my brothers was really into the rocket thing when he was in junior & senior high. This was the late 60s/early 70s. He left them at home for a few years while he knocked about on a 10-speed, during which time one I tried to get into rockets but wasn’t really interested. One of those old rockets (a Trident) got stomped on when some boys from across the street were looking at them.