There’s a NEW Major Tom in town today...

Milkman · Sun Jul 12, 2020 6:19 pm

I built a little model rocket with my daughters today, then took it out and launched it a few times. It was a huge hit - they absolutely loved it... and they even started asking for explanations about how it worked! Education the Daddy way today, boys!

bleys21 · Sun Jul 12, 2020 7:10 pm

I assume since you launched it several times, the parachute worked? That was always our downfall when we launched rockets as kids...that or using too big of an engine, and watching the rocket just soar out of sight

tlarson58 · Mon Jul 13, 2020 6:00 am

Golly. Those are still legal?

Spike · Mon Jul 13, 2020 6:31 am

Always wanted to do that, never got around to it. Sounds like a great time with the kiddos!

toomanycats · Mon Jul 13, 2020 6:55 am

When I was a a kid back in the late 70s/early 80s my brothers, a nerd cousin around our age, and myself messed around extensively with Estes rockets. We used to drool over that little glossy catalog of theirs . . . the SR-71, Saturn V, Space Shuttle, Big Bertha, I remember them all. Before long the thrill of their regular offerings wore off and we began to, let's just say, experiment with our own designs. We started building and launching multi-stage rockets, rockets with "warheads" (M-80s), and so on. There were lots of catastrophic failures on the launchpad, but that was all part of the fun. When we discovered that there were "D" and "E" engines things really got crazy. I'd still like to know exactly how high some of those launches actually went.

Mon Jul 13, 2020 8:00 am

toomanycats wrote: ↑Mon Jul 13, 2020 6:55 am When I was a a kid back in the late 70s/early 80s my brothers, a nerd cousin around our age, and myself messed around extensively with Estes rockets. We used to drool over that little glossy catalog of theirs . . . the SR-71, Saturn V, Space Shuttle, Big Bertha, I remember them all. Before long the thrill of their regular offerings wore off and we began to, let's just say, experiment with our own designs. We started building and launching multi-stage rockets, rockets with "warheads" (M-80s), and so on. There were lots of catastrophic failures on the launchpad, but that was all part of the fun. When we discovered that there were "D" and "E" engines things really got crazy. I'd still like to know exactly how high some of those launches actually went.

Mine never ever seemed to land where they were supposed to and after the first half dozen disappeared behind the horizon, I just assumed it was a one way ride and took my primary enjoyment from building and painting them. I never could afford it on my allowance but i was obsessed with the one that had a camera....

nomadh · Mon Jul 13, 2020 12:08 pm

Always wanted to do that as a kid. Then thought about it with my kids but it never happened somehow. I even bought a small kit and never did anything with it. Good for you but now I'm a little bummed.

RockYoWorld · Mon Jul 13, 2020 5:54 pm

That's great! I made one with my dad for a school group similar to Boy Scouts growing up. We messed up and glued the capsule that housed the parachute. We aptly named the rocket "One Timer" and boy did she fly... and end up nose deep in the ground in the neighboring park... That's right, we recovered it! My dad just found it in the basement and sent me a picture of it on the day Space X launched NASA's astronauts to ISS.

Milkman · Mon Jul 13, 2020 7:55 pm

We’re just launching with small engines (B4-4 or B6-4), but my youngest daughter LOVES it. As near as I can tell, girls are different than boys (gasp! Did he really just say that?!?!).... she likes to watch the nose blow off and the ‘chute deploy, then she likes to try to spot the wadding in the air. For her, the most successful flight is the one that ends nearest to us. When I was a boy, altitude was king and total destruction a heroic and rewarding end.