Reviving an old hobby, model rockets.

No, I think you can pull out just before you launch it.

In reply to poopshovel:

They fit well in the tube.

I'd like to mention that, on the day after Sebring this past weekend, I was hanging around the Kennedy Space Center and a real Saturn V. I turned back into a little kid. It's enough to make me start firing off rockets again.

I had the V2 model years ago. I don't know if I ever built it, I'll have to dig around in my parent's basement. My Nike is probably around somewhere, that was the biggest one I ever actually flew.

My grandfather and I used to shoot rockets off at his cottage into the lake. The other brand of engines - not Estes, something else - had a plastic-like shell and wouldn't swell up after a lake landing.

Per Schroeder wrote: No, I think you can pull out just before you launch it.

LOLZ.

Growing up in Flint the public schools had a one day a week program for all of the budding mad scientist/ intellectual types at Walker School. From 3rd - 6th grade, kids from around the city would skip a day of regular school once a week and go work on science, art and literature projects. The best classes were taught by a gentleman named Gary Debevec and the best class was rocketry. We manufactured everything but the motor. To make tubes we wrapped wax paper around a dowel. Then we wrapped several layers of newsprint ,soaked in paste, around the dowel. When it dried we had a tube. The tube's inner diameter fit the motor , so the only mount that is needed is a ring glued in the tube. Nosecones and fins were made with balsa and sandpaper. It was one hell of a good time and a great learning experience.

Edit My brother just set me straight. We used grocery sack paper to make the tubes.

neon4891 wrote: This morning was perfect conditions, clear and ZERO wind. Sent it up on it's first flight with an A engine. It flew strait and the small 12" 'chute brought it down at a nice pace, 20' from the launch pad. The only down side of launching at home is my clear area is only 150' wide.

Find your local NAR section.
http://www.nar.org/NARseclist.php

I was about 6-8yrs. old during the moon landings, my aunt worked for NASA (so I was even more seriously stoked), and I probably would have blown myself up if my science teacher hadn't shown my mom an Estes catalog. I've got all ten fingers, and both eyes..and if I ever meet Vernon Estes, I'm going to shake his hand and thank him for that.

NAR member #71541
SoAR (Southern Area Rocketry, Section #571) member #21

Last evenings launch did not go so well. I had 2 engines left. I went to the basement and found my old rockets, and grabbed the first intact streamer rocket I found. I sent my new one up for it's second launch, and there was just enough wind to carry it to a tree, now I'm just waiting for more wind to blow it down. The I sent up my old rocket. Upon the ejection charge the old shock cord broke. The body tumbled down with out a scratch, and the nose came down nicely on the streamer.

Two more things that I remember about the homemade rockets, instead of a shock cord a long piece of string can be used, 6' or more. Toilet paper works as wadding.

ddavidv wrote: Our cool shop teacher gave us a project to complete the school year: build your own model rocket from scratch. Only one piece of raw material (other than the rocket engine) was required: it had to be made from an empty toilet paper roll. We made the nose cone and 'fins' out of balsa. That was a fun project; I never had messed with rockets before and my "TP-1" actually flew the hightest of the class.

back in HS I build one from a TP roll... used 1/2 a plastic egg (the easter egg type) for the nose cone and some cardboard for the fins.

it was HEAVY but using things that I had around the house was fun... also living in a 3rd world country at the time getting motors was difficult so I used what I had (had a TON of "A" motors) so I made it so it could use A, B, or C motors... A motors got it up just far enough to be fun.

was built super tough so i used a tumble recovery system... which meant I found it about 2" deep in dirt nose side down every time haha...

built a few new ones recently with the kids... they still have balsa fin projects but you've got to search... also built up my mid 90's star wars tie fighter rocket that I never assembled... will launch them soon.

a 9v battery is all you need to launch... no need for a car battery... although my dad tells me stories of his launch pad as a kid which was basically a large can (think industrial green beans) a wire hanger straightened out for the launch rod and some wire tapped to the car battery for ignitor.

good memories that I hope to pass along to my kids :)

the one tip I have is don't use elmers white school glue... it used to be the ticket for gluing fins and such but they changed the formula so it's a lot thinner now and takes forever to glue fins on and a few more applications to get those nice smoothe fillet type joints

I built some rockets as a kid, and had a bunch of fun, but I have no real interest in reviving the hobby, though. Best launch I had was an Estes "Wolverine" which kinda looked like a wingless MiG. I spent a lot of time building that one and it flew pretty well; it was not too small. After about a month, I went for a launch and apparently the engine had a pinhole in the side of the casing. It got about 10 feet off the pad and suddenly went apeE36 M3 cartwheeling around while we scattered. Burned off the whole side of the rocket where the leak was.

I used to crew for the Academy of Model Aeronautics R/C show team (dad flew a skywriting biplane and also the "Red Baron" against Snoopy's flying doghouse, at least until Charles Schultz lawyered up). One of the other guys had a delta wing model airplane with 3 little A-series rockets under each wing, that he could fire from the ground while making strafing runs.

Duke wrote: I built some rockets as a kid, and had a bunch of fun, but I have no real interest in reviving the hobby, though. Best launch I had was an Estes "Wolverine" which kinda looked like a wingless MiG. I spent a lot of time building that one and it flew pretty well; it was not too small. After about a month, I went for a launch and apparently the engine had a pinhole in the side of the casing. It got about 10 feet off the pad and suddenly went apeE36 M3 cartwheeling around while we scattered. Burned off the whole side of the rocket where the leak was.

CATO! (CATOstrophic failure) Yeah, if they get warm enough, the propellant swells up and stretches the cardboard casing. When it cools off, there's now an air gap and the propellant starts burning from the side instead of the bottom. Sometimes it burns through the casing, sometimes it sets off the ejection charge early.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t0zIo1IreIM&feature=related

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CATO! (CATOstrophic failure) Yeah, if they get warm enough, the propellant swells up and stretches the cardboard casing. When it cools off, there's now an air gap and the propellant starts burning from the side instead of the bottom. Sometimes it burns through the casing, sometimes it sets off the ejection charge early.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t0zIo1IreIM&feature=related

AH HA That explains the explosion at 7' when I launched my first 2 stage rocket.

pilotbraden wrote: <. CATO! (CATOstrophic failure) Yeah, if they get warm enough, the propellant swells up and stretches the cardboard casing. When it cools off, there's now an air gap and the propellant starts burning from the side instead of the bottom. Sometimes it burns through the casing, sometimes it sets off the ejection charge early. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t0zIo1IreIM&feature=related AH HA That explains the explosion at 7' when I launched my first 2 stage rocket.

Hmm..I'll just leave this here...
http://www.ninfinger.org/rockets/EstesTR2.pdf

EDIT: My first 2-stager. Apologies for the ugly website, but plans avail in .pdf there.

http://www.spacemodeling.org/JimZ/eirp_20.htm