Off to the hobby shop I go. I also might buy a pinewood derby car.
Off to the hobby shop I go. I also might buy a pinewood derby car.
There's tons of info on line and parts are cheap. Way more fun to design your own without a kit! Dang, I'm so going out this weekend to fly rockets!
We built another one that's about three feet tall and has air foil fins we designed so it spins. Super cool. It uses B engines, so doesn't go high at all. We fly it just over in the park. Super cool. No way you're going to lose that one.
(edit) Ah! I did bookmark it!
http://www.unclemikesrocketshack.com/
Great place to get parts!
And this is tooooooo cool!
http://www.grc.nasa.gov/WWW/K-12/rocket/rktsim.html
fast_eddie_72 wrote: My son and I love them. We built one as small as we could and still get it stable with a D Engine. It really does go darn high! I didn't even realize they have E Engines now! We would have done that if we'd known.
look at the Tripoli link....homebrewed GRM-style BIG engines
In reply to JoeyM:
Oh yeah! I think there are some guys in Northern Colorado who do that kind of stuff. Must go learn more.
went to a model car/ plane/ rocketry expo a while back, the only attendees were 40-50ish y/o guys, guess today's kids aren't interested
Back in the day, a friend and I used to launch them. Haven't thought of this in ages.
I remember quite a few going up, chute deploying and then floating into nowhere.
Great hobby, though.
fasted58 wrote: went to a model car/ plane/ rocketry expo a while back, the only attendees were 40-50ish y/o guys, guess today's kids aren't interested
In model cars/planes/rockets, or in expos?
Keith wrote:fasted58 wrote: went to a model car/ plane/ rocketry expo a while back, the only attendees were 40-50ish y/o guys, guess today's kids aren't interestedIn model cars/planes/rockets, or in expos?
... evidently all of the above
Yes, and still do..off & on. My NAR # is 71541. I qualified L1 at the National Sport Launch in Huntsville years ago (LOC-Hitech H45), but just fly BP stuff now. I've been building "clones" of old Estes kits, and scale models. I actually won a couple of local NAR sport scale contests.
http://www.soarrocketry.org/Multimedia/phclass1.asp
fasted58 wrote: went to a model car/ plane/ rocketry expo a while back, the only attendees were 40-50ish y/o guys, guess today's kids aren't interested
haha funny... i was watching one of James May's shows doing life size models and stuff that I thought about the fact that I needed to get my son a model lol... i'm sure my son will love em when he gets a little older... he's a bit OCD when it comes to legos... wants to build exactly whats on the instructions... been hard getting him to build with imagination (kids don't need that anymore I suppose)... then again he's 6... but still
friedgreencorrado ... those are AWESOME... makes me want to shoot off some multistagers... but $10 or so for a single launch hurts just thinking about it :(
Model rockets eventually evolved into strapping them to my little brothers toy trucks for rocket powered wheels. I think the skortch marks are still in my parents driveway. We also figured outthat you could just stick the motor in a 6' pvc tube and launch them pretty effectively. That stopped when one got stuck in the tube and my friend crapped his pants.
mad_machine wrote: I always wanted to do the JATO rocket thing... and I remember building a drag car to be powered by a rocket engine.. but parents nixed both ideas
You're not supposed to tell them!!
I launched not only rockets, but just the engine (very low weight, but very little directional stability) and then a rocket powered sled, and then a roller skate, and then a few different cars made out of blocks, out of thin ply and balsa, and some other stuff I don't remember.
mtn wrote: Off to the hobby shop I go. I also might buy a pinewood derby car.
you need to combine them 
In reply to mad_machine:
Genius!
Back in the 80s my dad built a D scale Phoenix missile replica. It was really a great rocket. We launched it in the mid 90s sometime at our old school and the wind carried it into the woods. I was broken up about that one--it was the coolest rocket I've ever seen or that we ever owned.
Also, I learned the wrong way in the early 2000s that you just shouldn't fly them without nose cones.
bluej wrote: Model rockets eventually evolved into strapping them to my little brothers toy trucks for rocket powered wheels. I think the skortch marks are still in my parents driveway.
Back in about 1971, a couple of my friends took an AMT model car, put an Estes rocket motor in it, and shot it down the hallway at school. 
Yeah, they got in trouble. It did make a pretty impressive noise as it went by my English classroom.
The doors at the end of the hallway were open, and the model car made it all the way out to the far end of the parking lot but the wheels were worn down to nothing.
Another time the same guys put a white mouse in a rocket, but unfortunately Mr. Mouse didn't survive reentry.
I went through a rocket phase for a couple summers in my youth. Built some pretty cool ones, but never really got into multistagers or payloaders or anything.
My dad was on the AMA R/C airplane show team, and part of the show was a delta-winged R/C plane with 2 or 3 little rockets under each wing like M8s. They could be fired from the ground on command while the plane was in flight. Pretty cool.
bluej wrote: Model rockets eventually evolved into strapping them to my little brothers toy trucks for rocket powered wheels. I think the skortch marks are still in my parents driveway. We also figured outthat you could just stick the motor in a 6' pvc tube and launch them pretty effectively. That stopped when one got stuck in the tube and my friend crapped his pants.
The last sentence makes the post magazine worthy, in my esteemed opinion.
My daughters get rockets from Santa sometimes. Unfortunately, our last attempt to launch failed. I think I need to build my own launch controller (a momentary push switch, battery holder, small gauge wire, and two alligator clips).
So...will two AA batteries in series (3 volts) light up an igniter? I seem to remember that's what the "regular" estes launch controller had. I have an ancient "BigFoot" launch pad that has 4 D cells in the pad, but I can't get it to work...probably old corroded contacts everywhere.
Clem
ClemSparks wrote: My daughters get rockets from Santa sometimes. Unfortunately, our last attempt to launch failed. I think I need to build my own launch controller (a momentary push switch, battery holder, small gauge wire, and two alligator clips). So...will two AA batteries in series (3 volts) light up an igniter? I seem to remember that's what the "regular" estes launch controller had. I have an ancient "BigFoot" launch pad that has 4 D cells in the pad, but I can't get it to work...probably old corroded contacts everywhere. Clem
I can only tell you that a grill lighter and a can of hairspray will not light a model rocket engine, but will melt plastic trucks they happened to be strapped to.
... my dad used to use old car batteries... or those 6v lantern batteries... or a single 9v...
for whatever reason my lanuch controller died when I was a kid... so I stripped some of the insulation off the wire (at different lengths so it wouldn't short if I did have a battery in the controller) and just use a 9v for ignition... always worked assuming the ignitor was seated properly... which was much easier with the modern plastic plug type ignitor holders... using tape back in the day was very hit or miss lol...
In reply to ClemSparks:
waterproof fuse works really well.
Then I made a ramp up the patio hadrail with some 2x4's and would launch it out across the field. My very own JATO launched glider
That_is_awesome. Janet Napolitano would rip my nuts off and eat them for breakfast if she knew some of the cool E36 M3 I'd done.
ClemSparks wrote: My daughters get rockets from Santa sometimes. Unfortunately, our last attempt to launch failed. I think I need to build my own launch controller (a momentary push switch, battery holder, small gauge wire, and two alligator clips). So...will two AA batteries in series (3 volts) light up an igniter? I seem to remember that's what the "regular" estes launch controller had. I have an ancient "BigFoot" launch pad that has 4 D cells in the pad, but I can't get it to work...probably old corroded contacts everywhere. Clem
The kids in my neighborhood had a pushbutton store bought controller that was always breaking. I used a ruler with batteries taped to it. Touch the wires to the ends of the battery column and away it goes. We used AA, C and D cells depending on which flashlight we raided. I seem to remember that 2 AA cells got the job done, but 12" of D cells was prefered.
Later on I discovered cannon fuse. Cut your desired length, poke into exhaust nozzle and wedge with a scrap of paper, broken twig, chewing gum or what ever is handy. This worked very well
I had the coolest rocket ever when i was 12-13. It was all aluminum and was powered by FREON! Back when a can cost about a quarter.You'd fill it until it vented out of a vent at the top of the fuselage. Had little 'fingers' that gripped the nosecone/parachute section that released their grip when the fuselage depressurized from running out of Freon. I even remember the company- Vashon Enterprises in Washington state. Took it to school and some a$$hole stole it...
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