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Model Rocketry

bilder

bilder

Active Member
Joined
Oct 12, 2006
Messages
1,470
Was watching the Discovery Channel with my daughter over the weekend and they had several programs about rockets. She has become interested and I started to remember all the fun I had as a teen playing with model rockets. May buy a kit or two and have some fun this spring.

Anyone here into model rocketry? If so, has much changed over the last 20 years or is it pretty much the same as it was in the 80's?
 
i dunno how it was in the 80s, but the ones now are sweet and have some altitude. Had one that we launched last summer on a golf course and was never to be seen again...... They seemed easy enough to setup.
 
I was into small scale rocketry big time. If I had the facilities and the silver, I'd probably be into the big'uns today.

From what I've seen on the shelves, it appears that they've "dumbed" the hobby down somewhat. I remember building the Mercury/Redstone kit and I had to piece the escape rocket framework together out of tiny wood dowels. Talk about exacting work. The new kits appear to have molded plastic parts. A shame really.
 
PetersCreek said:
I was into small scale rocketry big time. If I had the facilities and the silver, I'd probably be into the big'uns today.

From what I've seen on the shelves, it appears that they've "dumbed" the hobby down somewhat. I remember building the Mercury/Redstone kit and I had to piece the escape rocket framework together out of tiny wood dowels. Talk about exacting work. The new kits appear to have molded plastic parts. A shame really.
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Exactly. I used to have to do the same thing as a kid, and the slightest bit of uneven-ness in putting the stuff together would create havoc in flight. I used to build some of the three-stagers...filling them all with D rocket engines. When I revisited the hobby a few years later, it was all plastics.
 
I used to be big into model rockets. I don't think it's changed in the past 15 years much. I don't do it anymore, since there is limited space. I used to go up to Vegas in the mid 90's, and would never have trouble finding empty land 10 min from the strip. Today, there is no empty land, unless you go way out. Not worth it to me. Used to be a lot of fun though! The nice thing about launching rockets in the desert is that I never lost one. I recovered all of the rockets I launched. Rocketry isn't expensive either, great hobby. Have fun with it!
 
I built a couple of the hard ones when I was younger. Most of what I did were the easier ones though. I remember the Estes Alpha, Viking and Wizard rockets were easy to build and a hoot to fly. Lost a few to trees or ponds, but most were recovered pretty easily. There are some areas up here that would be great for launching rockets.

You are right about them being inexpensive. I don't recall paying more than $20 for a model, most were under $10. Just hope the prices have not gone up much.
 
Building a rocket was one of the projects we did in shop class when I was in junior high (middle school/circa grade 8 for those of you that call it something different).

It wouldn't suprise me to learn that would be banned as too dangerous for school now.

It was quite fun at the time though. My buddy and I ended up taking one of the rockets and putting a larger engine in it and launching it from his front yard. Bye bye rocket. The parachute never even opened, we figured the heat from the extra large engine fried it. Lost way off in the woods somewhere. Ah, the good old days...
 
Like all the above, I enjoyed it when I was a kid. Never had to money to invest into it a lot as my parents did not see much in it especially coming from the city. They were probably worried that it would explode and the neighbors would complain. I never forgot it. I think your daughter would remember it all her life, the time her and her father did this great cool thing. Go for it!! :thumbs:
 
Estes still has alot of the original styles around. The biggest change that I have found is there are alot more powerful engines available. I was going to work on one with my little cousin. You can mail order for some rockets/engines that would dwarf the old D size!!
 
It hasn't changed much since the 80's. I just did some launches last year. I used to design my own rockets for launching which was a blast. :thumbs:
 
bilder said:
Was watching the Discovery Channel with my daughter over the weekend and they had several programs about rockets. She has become interested and I started to remember all the fun I had as a teen playing with model rockets. May buy a kit or two and have some fun this spring.

Anyone here into model rocketry? If so, has much changed over the last 20 years or is it pretty much the same as it was in the 80's?
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I used to do it when I was a kid. I have looked into recently so I can do it now with my boys. It appears from what I can recall that their are far more choices of rockets now. It also appears that there are some kits that are VERY easy to build with almost no skill or extra supplies needed. Specifically, when we did it years ago the fins were always balsa and you have to shape them and then make sure they were glued in place at the correct angles - they sold a special alignment tool for that. Now some kits I see have pre-formed fin sections that you just glue in place. Of course there still are some very complicated kits out their too. Other than the prices going up it seems to be pretty much the same.

The only thing I would add now that I think about it is to exercise caution when picking out a launch site. When we were kids my father would take us to the local school on the weekend or a large park. State and local laws may prohibit either trespassing or the launching of rockets (or both) so you may want to make a few phone calls first. When we were kids it nevere appeard to be an issue.

- Jason
 
bilder said:
Was watching the Discovery Channel with my daughter over the weekend and they had several programs about rockets. She has become interested and I started to remember all the fun I had as a teen playing with model rockets. May buy a kit or two and have some fun this spring.

Anyone here into model rocketry? If so, has much changed over the last 20 years or is it pretty much the same as it was in the 80's?
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You've got a PM to read... :whistling: :whistling:
 
You are too kind Alan.

The kindness and generosity of this group amazes me.
 
I flew many in the '70's.lost some to trees recovered many to fly again and again. Flew some more in the '90's with my son and hope to fly again with my grandchildren( who BETTER not be cocieved yet). It is a great hobby and a real learning experience for young and old. Although there seem to be more ready to fly and as was stated plastic fin assemblies( which can make it easy to start), the old style kits are still there. When the kids get bigger so do the rockets , a shop near here has several that are 6' tall!

Mark
 
Cigar Smokin Chef said:
I flew many in the '70's.lost some to trees recovered many to fly again and again. Flew some more in the '90's with my son and hope to fly again with my grandchildren( who BETTER not be cocieved yet). It is a great hobby and a real learning experience for young and old. Although there seem to be more ready to fly and as was stated plastic fin assemblies( which can make it easy to start), the old style kits are still there. When the kids get bigger so do the rockets , a shop near here has several that are 6' tall!

Mark
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WOW!! This brings back some memories. :laugh:

We used to do this quite a bit 30 years ago, we had a pretty good sized field down the road next to the neighbor's house. Unfortunately, someone built a house in the middle of it in the late 1970's so we lost our launching area. :(

I had been thinking about getting back into it but I've got way too many hobbies and interests that I already don't have enough time for and I figure I'm too old and out of shape to chase down rockets or climb trees to get them out. :laugh:
 
Yep, that was some fun.

We lived on 4+ acres so I had my own launch area. Still lost a few to the trees.

I remember the ones that you could put in a 'payload'. There were a few dead critters after we discovered and built that rocket. :whistling:
 
Like everyone esle here, I did it when I was a kid and had a blast. The best combination was to put old fireworks in them and insert booster engines in the bottom. You dont recover too many doing that! I'm looking forward to doing that when i have kids. Not that I'm looking to have kids any time soon, but when I do...
 
I've pursued Model Rockets way past being a kid. I filmed one for my WAR participant and video taped the launch with my digital camera and sent it to them. But the craziest launch I did was in the Spring of 1991 in Salt Lake City. For my Senior project in Physics I launched one in a 60+ mph Canyon Wind. The teacher said are you sure its safe and I assured him I was a Pro at this type of stuff. Needless to say it was like my 3rd launch ever and some how pulled it off. Ahhh the memories revisited from days long past. :thumbs:
 
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