45 years ago today...

[Bob Kaplow]

I flew my first model rocket. Back then my dad was working at the Adler Planetarium in Chicago. Vern sent him a sample rocket (Mark) and an A.8-3 and some literature. Dad brought the stuff home for me, and I ordered a Streak and a starter set with the Scout and the wood pad with the holes for the 4 D cells. The stuff was built over the year, and on 22 October 1964 we finally went out and flew it on a 1/4A.8-4 Yup a standard sized Quarter A. Went out of sight, and we managed to find it on the grass in the part after searching for several minutes.

There hasn't been a year since that I haven't flown rockets.

[tbzep]

That's cool, Bob. I can also remember every detail about my first rocket mail order/build/flight except for the actual date I received it. I remember taking delivery of the package on a sunny day, but having to finish mowing the yard before I was allowed to open it. Unfortunately, it was about a 3 hour job not counting trimming with hand shears, and I had just started mowing. :(

Was the planetarium your dad's career, or just a slice?

[sam_midkiff]

That's cool, Bob. I can also remember every detail about my first rocket mail order/build/flight except for the actual date I received it. I remember taking delivery of the package on a sunny day, but having to finish mowing the yard before I was allowed to open it. Unfortunately, it was about a 3 hour job not counting trimming with hand shears, and I had just started mowing. :(

Was the planetarium your dad's career, or just a slice?

My first rocket was a Scout, sometime in the mid sixties. Even though it was cheap, it took me a while to work up the courage to send off the money for it. I remember waiting anxiously for it to arrive, and being intensely disappointed when I opened the package and saw a paper tube, a little wood, a wire and some gauze. I was, however, much more impressed after I launched it.

Nevertheless, I'm constantly amazed that you can buy a 4gb flash drive for 9 bucks, a floppy drive with circuits, moving parts, cables, etc., for under $30, and an oversized toilet paper tube (e.g. a BT-80) costs $7. Not that a BT-80 isn't more useful than a floppy drive ..

Sam

[Mark II]

1964? Geez, Bob - were you still in diapers? :eek: I'm several years older than you, and I was only 10 then. (I turned 11 late in the year).

Ahhh, yes, my first model rocket. It was in late spring or early summer, 1967. I had finally written to Estes Industries a few months earlier, and in response they had sent me the 1967 catalog (http://www.ninfinger.org/rockets/catalogs/estes67/67estcat.html). It was love at first sight... :)

So in due time, as soon as I had saved up enough money, I ordered and received my Deluxe Starter Special (http://www.ninfinger.org/rockets/catalogs/estes67/67est10.jpg), 3 engines and a couple of bottles of paint (butyrate dope). Had to watch the mailbox every day for a couple of weeks, and when the box arrived (late June, right around the end of school), I had to get right out, grab it and sneak it back into the house and down to the basement...

Ohhhh myyyyy Godddd, unwrapping those rolled-up newspaper tubes and holding a real rocket engine in my hand....WOW! The look, the heft, and the smell! :chuckle: It was intoxicating! (And I'm not talking about the paint.) And pulling out that Astron Alpha kit (it had just been introduced) -- a real rocket kit! I remember thinking that even in the kit packaging, it was beautiful! Just look at that -- a perfectly turned balsa nose cone! And I had it! After years of dreaming about this day, I finally had my own miniature rocket that I could build and launch, with rocket engines that were scientifically designed, professionally made and had a guarantee to work. All designed with safety in mind - that was a really big deal for me. And a really cool Electro-Launch pad (in kit form) -- everything that I would need to launch it, and get it back so that I could launch it again! I kept everything out of sight, down in the basement, and went downstairs to just look at it at every opportunity for a week before I actually dared to start building. (I still do that with orders that I receive - some things never change. :rolleyes: )

MarkII

[Bob Kaplow]

My dad was an optometrist by trade, but spent half a dozen years in the 60s as the Asst. Director at Adler.

I was 11 when I flew my first rocket back then.

[billspad]

I was 11 when I flew my first rocket back then.

I read the title of the thread and was thinking that you must be a lot older than I am because it couldn't have been that many years ago that I flew my first rocket. I was also 11 (but almost 12) and it was 1962. Now I feel old.

There was another thread earlier in the week that said something about people who flew in the 60's to 80's not being able to build rockets any more. I would have replied to it but I was too busy building rockets.

[jflis]

I read the title of the thread and was thinking that you must be a lot older than I am because it couldn't have been that many years ago that I flew my first rocket. I was also 11 (but almost 12) and it was 1962. Now I feel old.

There was another thread earlier in the week that said something about people who flew in the 60's to 80's not being able to build rockets any more. I would have replied to it but I was too busy building rockets.

I was thinking similar thoughts... 46 years here (1963), though I was 7 at the time.

man.... LOL

[Rocketcrab]

October 17, 1968, my Astron Scout took to the sky on a 1/2A6-2. After I lit the fuse and backed off, of course. :chuckle: Who can forget their first time? I was 12 at the time.

[Randy]

The age of 11-12 must have been the age to become interested in rocketry in the 60's. I flew my first rocket at age 12 in July 1968. I remember the month because I have a very good memory but not the exact date 41 years ago.

This is not directed at Bob or anyone in particular, just a general comment but I have to ask, how is it that so many rocketeers remember the exact day they flew their first rocket from decades ago? Did I miss something back then? Was there something in the kit instructions that said "write down and always remember the day you make your first flight?" While I remember many details from my first launch very well, it was just something to do on a hot summer day like swimming or playing baseball, not a life altering event like getting married or a firstborn.

As Fred Flintstone would say, "Fellow Buffaloes, I sometimes feel like I missed out on the secret handsake or something."

Randy
www.vernarockets.com

[Royatl]

Yep, for me my first flight date was July 16, 1968. I also know the date I was introduced to model rocketry as well, but only because it was the day the first Saturn V flew (November 9, 1967). And yep, I was 11 (for both dates).

I don't remember exactly when I got my first catalog (before Christmas), or my first rocket kit(feb or mar), or the replacement after I screwed up building that one, or pretty much any other date associated with my activity in the hobby.

[GregGleason]

... how is it that so many rocketeers remember the exact day they flew their first rocket from decades ago? ...



I sure don't know. I do remember it was the early seventies and that I was 10 to 12 yo.

But I DO remember it was an MPC Moon Go. My guess is that it was a BD gift so I would have likely flown it in late summer or early fall. Oh the memories ...

The funny thing is last year my parents gave me a set of old pictures. In that group of a few pictures, there was a photo of my first launch. I was ecstatic to see that!

Greg

[Doug Sams]

Yep, for me my first flight date was July 16, 1968. I also know the date I was introduced to model rocketry as well, but only because it was the day the first Saturn V flew (November 9, 1967). And yep, I was 11 (for both dates).

I don't remember exactly when I got my first catalog (before Christmas), or my first rocket kit(feb or mar), or the replacement after I screwed up building that one, or pretty much any other date associated with my activity in the hobby.My first flights were Thanksgiving Day, 1969 or 1970. An acquaintance of my father, with a son about my age, had given Dad an Estes catalog, 1968 or 69 vintage, and we ordered an Alpha starter set for Christmas. It arrived so early, and I was so uber-psyched, that my folks let me start building right away. In reality, I'm sure my mom and dad did most of the work, but I can't recall many details. I was only 8 or 9 at the time, and hardly able to do it without help.

Anyway, we had them built and ready before Thanksgiving, and decided to celebrate the holiday by flying.

But we had a heckuva time getting them lit. The 6V launch controller, with non-photoflash batteries, in the cold of November in Kentucky, wouldn't do squat with the old "Astron" ignitors. I finally went in the house to warm up while my dad, uncle and cousins stayed at it a little longer. One cousin knew just enough to try the free sample of nichrome wire included in the kit, and sure enough, they got one airborne.

They called me back out, and proceeded to launch another one. Never having seen a rocket launch other than NASA rockets on TV, I was expecting a bit slower, more majestic lift-off, but the Alpha was gone in a blink leaving only a trail of smoke at the pad. I don't think I ever saw it move. Poof. Gone. Anyway, we had enough eyes to spot and recover it safely, and I wasn't turned off by the experience. I was determined to do it again and watch more carefully so I could see the entire flight.

It was a so-so start, but it instilled a thirst in me that's still hard to quench.

Doug

.

[stefanj]

I'll write up my nostalgia blast next summer, which will be the 40th anniversary of when I picked up an Estes catalog.

Sneak Preview: My friend Paulie and I made a rocket from a tapered, brass-tipped sofa leg with four triangular pieces of wood glued to it. Can you say "ballistic?" (No one died.)

[billspad]

This is not directed at Bob or anyone in particular, just a general comment but I have to ask, how is it that so many rocketeers remember the exact day they flew their first rocket from decades ago?

I couldn't even remember what year it was until I found a picture with the date written on it. I did remember that it was a Scout and that's what's in the picture.

[sam_midkiff]

I couldn't even remember what year it was until I found a picture with the date written on it. I did remember that it was a Scout and that's what's in the picture.

At this point, I'm happy to remember the decade ...

Sam

[Bob Kaplow]

How do I remember the exact day. Probably the same way as every one else here. I've got those old Estes log sheets for all my really old models. Eventually I switched to a spiral notebook and logged everything from 1964-1975 or so. When I started flying competition, I foolishly stopped logging.

In the mid 80s I resumed logging on one of my PDP-11 computers, and transferred that file to various VAXen over time. It's still archived somewhere on a tape, but I haven't had a way to touch it for about 5 years now. There were over 2000 flights in that electronic log.

More recent flight logs are memos in my PDA.

=====

Some more background...

As kids living in the city of Chicago we made all sorts of "rockets" probably starting with Alan Shepard's flight on 5/5/61. Our rockets were cardboard tubes, stuffed with crumpled newspaper. Cardboard fins were taped to the tube and nose cones rolled and taped. A string attached the rocket to the back of a bicycle. We lit the newspaper, and towed the "rocket" around the neighborhood. We tried all sorts of crazy stuff, from baking soda to boric acid to who knows what else, but fortunately never had access to anything dangerous enough to hurt ourselves with.

Then in 1963 we moved to the suburbs. On one of my visits back (my grandfather continued to live in the city) my best friend across the street showed me these Estes Rockets he'd got. We went to the park and he flew one. Never saw it, but a while later someone found it and brought it back to us. Been hooked ever since.

My dad thought they were dangerous, until I showed him the ad in Boy's Life. He was a life long Scouter. So he contacted the company on Adler stationary, and Vern sent him the samples. That winter we built that rocket, and a couple more I'd ordered. Didn't get around to flying them until the fall. But I've been flying them ever since.

That first rocket that Vern sent my dad was an Astron Mark. It's still 100% original, as built the winter of 63/64. It was the 2nd rocket I flew, starting with the Streak I'd ordered that winter. The Streak was lost a couple years later after it's third flight when we think it landed in tall weeds.

The Mark was given to Bill Stine when he started collecting items for the Model Rocket Museum. Might have been NARAM-42 in Canon City. It was the oldest rocket I had, built with the help of my dad. And the Mark was designed for Estes by Bill's dad G Harry Stine. I thought it was a fitting tribute to both our fathers for that particular rocket to be preserved.

The other two rockets from that winters building are a Scout and a Sky Hook. I still have both. The Scout has flown once in the past decade. The Sky Hook hasn't flown since I was a kid. I'm sure the original rubber shock cord wouldn't hold any more. Both were shown at the ORR last year.

Those who remember rockets of this vintage, the "engine block" in the Mark & Sky Hook were actually balsa nose blocks with a hole drilled through the center. The paper rings we use now didn't come until a few years later.

[tbzep]

I couldn't even remember what year it was until I found a picture with the date written on it. I did remember that it was a Scout and that's what's in the picture.

I remember because I loved rockets, space exploration, etc. for as long as I can remember...and I remember stuff that happened before I was five a lot more clearly than I remember stuff from last month. :eek: I remember watching Armstrong and Aldrin, even though I was only 3 at the time. The only reason I don't know the exact day I received my package is because I never knew what the exact date was in the first place. I wouldn't know right now if I hadn't looked at my watch as I typed this post. :rolleyes: :p

I can tell you it was the summer of 1978, after begging my parents for two years after seeing my cousins' rockets. I can tell you that it was between 1:00 and 3:00 pm, partly because I remember the shadow direction and partly because our postman usually came during that time frame back then. I can tell you the name of the postman that gave it to me, and I can even remember some of the conversation between us that came from him realizing how excited I was. It was a week day, not Saturday. It was hot and sunny, the postman was wearing shorts and no hat, and I had only made about four or five rounds on the side of the house and had a boatload of mowing left to do. When I finally got to open the package, I had my Challenger I starter set, one blue tube of C6-5's for the Red Max my cousins gave me, and a Star Trek starter set that my neighbor ordered with me. IIRC, I think we owed about 25 cents on the order because of a price increase on one of the items. I know I didn't mess up on the math. :eek: :rolleyes: :D

[GregGleason]

Some more background...



Thanks Bob for the background. I found it very interesting.

Greg

[hcmbanjo]

Okay, here's a little too much rocketry history from my end.
I'd built plastic models since I was five-years-old. But they just sat on the shelves, not very exciting.
But everything changed looking over the shoulder of a classmate in eighth grade. He was studying his 1969 Estes catalog. The Space Race was on and I wanted to be a part of it.

I could order all the kits I wanted, but being from California the fire regulations restricted engine purchases by mail. You had to have enough property and get it approved by a Fire Marshall before a permit was issued.

I did get my first engines (illegally) from the Johnson Smith Novelty Company. The first time I got their 1969 catalog I saw they they carried MRI rockets and engines. At the end of the product description it warned: Engines cannot be shipped to New York City, New Jersey, California and Washington states.
But in next year's 1970 Catalog, they dropped the state listings from their restrictions. It had to be a mistake, there was still heavy restrictions on engine shipping into the state.
I ordered - and received three A3-2 engines.
We night launched a Streak. I held that button down for too long. Not really knowing how to make an igniter from bare Nichrome, it finally lit, scaring the heck out of all of us. I remember running for cover under the school hallway awning.

I was fortunate growing up, my grandparents had 150 acres of farmland just outside of town. A few months after that first launch, my Mother had called up the Fire Marshall in Sacramanto. He drove 3 1/2 hours to check out the farm for rocket launches.
We got the permit! I still had to drive 75 miles to the nearest hobby shop that carried engines.
On the first trip to that hobby shop, the owner told us we had more than just a launching permit - it was signed by the assistant Fire Marshall - a Mr. Mullins. He gave us a permit to buy and sell engines, the same permit the hobby store had!

[Bob H]

I just remember it was 1967 when I first heard about model rockets. I lived next to the Junior High School athletic field and a neighbor was launching rockets with his dad and one came down in our back yard. I borrowed his Estes catalog and ordered some rockets.

I was 18 years old and this was a secondary hobby. I had been building free flight rubber powerd airplanes and glow fuel powered control line airplanes since I was about 10 or 11 and that was my main interest. I had a real job and lived with my parent so I had plenty of money to support both hobbies.

I remember that Estes had a special box for shipping engines when you ordered a lot of them. It held 9 of the blue mailing tubes and I usually ordered enough motors at a time to fill one of those boxes. I still have one of those with a postage sticker from 1969.

I built and flew model rockets fairly regularly until about 1972 - 73 when I became interested in R/C airplanes but I took the rockets out for a launch on a sporatic basis for probably another 5 or 6 years.

I do remember that my first rocket was an Astron Sprite and I still have it.

[Mark II]

There was another thread earlier in the week that said something about people who flew in the 60's to 80's not being able to build rockets any more. I would have replied to it but I was too busy building rockets.I'm building more rockets now than I ever did when I was a kid. And I'm building them much better now, too, if I do say so myself. :D (I had choice but to improve... I couldn't have done worse!) Also putting in much more flight time now. And in contrast to what it was like back in the '60's, now I actually know more than two other people who fly rockets!

MarkII

[Mark II]

The age of 11-12 must have been the age to become interested in rocketry in the 60's. I flew my first rocket at age 12 in July 1968. I remember the month because I have a very good memory but not the exact date 41 years ago.I was 13. But I had gotten the "bug" several years earlier, before I ever knew that such a hobby actually existed. For years I had dreamed of flying my own miniature rockets.

This is not directed at Bob or anyone in particular, just a general comment but I have to ask, how is it that so many rocketeers remember the exact day they flew their first rocket from decades ago? Did I miss something back then? Was there something in the kit instructions that said "write down and always remember the day you make your first flight?" While I remember many details from my first launch very well, it was just something to do on a hot summer day like swimming or playing baseball, not a life altering event like getting married or a firstborn. Let's see, when was it that I got married... :confused: ? ... So many years ago...Who can possibly remember the exact date of such an thing after all these years? :mad: :chuckle:

As momentous as it was, I can only remember the approximate date of my first rocket launch, as I described in my earlier post. :o







(BTW, my wife and I were married on July 14, 1976. :D )

MarkII

[Bob H]

... now I actually know more than two other people who fly rockets!
MarkIIWow, you knew twice as many other people who flew rockets than I did.

I knew the neighbor kid that got me started and in the 5 - 6 years that I flew regularly, I knew no one else that flew rockets.

[Mark II]

Wow, you knew twice as many other people who flew rockets than I did.

I knew the neighbor kid that got me started and in the 5 - 6 years that I flew regularly, I knew no one else that flew rockets.Well, they were in different cities, on opposite sides of the state (Grand Rapids and Detroit, in my new and old neighborhoods). I had gotten both of them started in the hobby.

MarkII

[Mark II]

I flew my first model rocket. Back then my dad was working at the Adler Planetarium in Chicago. Vern sent him a sample rocket (Mark) and an A.8-3 and some literature. Dad brought the stuff home for me...
The funny thing is last year my parents gave me a set of old pictures. In that group of a few pictures, there was a photo of my first launch. I was ecstatic to see that!

Greg
An acquaintance of my father, with a son about my age, had given Dad an Estes catalog, 1968 or 69 vintage, and we ordered an Alpha starter set for Christmas. I... I finally went in the house to warm up while my dad, uncle and cousins stayed at it a little longer. I couldn't even remember what year it was until I found a picture with the date written on it. I did remember that it was a Scout and that's what's in the picture.
I was fortunate growing up, my grandparents had 150 acres of farmland just outside of town. A few months after that first launch, my Mother had called up the Fire Marshall in Sacramanto. He drove 3 1/2 hours to check out the farm for rocket launches.
We got the permit!
I just remember it was 1967 when I first heard about model rockets. I lived next to the Junior High School athletic field and a neighbor was launching rockets with his dad and one came down in our back yard. I borrowed his Estes catalog and ordered some rockets.
So many of you had the support and approval of parents or other adults for your participation in model rocketry. I didn't, though. My parents were convinced that I would go to prison if I ever got caught with model rockets. I always had to place my mail orders in secret, and then sneak the packages into the house, even after they found out that I was pursuing it. There are no pictures of my rockets from those days, because if anyone took one, my folks would eventually learn about it, and I would catch hell. And I did catch it when they finally found out. But by then I was old enough that they didn't immediately confiscate my stuff. I still had to build my kits in secret and sneak them out to launch them, though. My parents waited until I went off to college and then took all of my rockets, engines, launch pad, etc. and tossed them into the trash. I didn't find out until I came home on break.

MarkII

[billspad]

Wow, you knew twice as many other people who flew rockets than I did.

I knew the neighbor kid that got me started and in the 5 - 6 years that I flew regularly, I knew no one else that flew rockets.

He knew infinitely more people than I did when I started.

[accooper]

1966 For me. I was in England visiting my grandmother and happened upon some guys flying of all things model rockets!

Andrew From Texas

[Gus]

I don't remember my first rocket flight but I know it was probably 1967. I was fortunate to grow up in Phoenix and there were 3 good hobby stores all within easy bicycling distance of my house. All the hobby shops carried a full line of Centuri products and it wasn't until I'd been in the hobby a few years that I first saw an Estes product and was amazed that somebody would have the gall to just flat out steal Centuri's idea and make their own line of model rockets and motors. The local hobby stores were so well stocked that I never ordered anything by mail.

I had a couple of friends who flew rockets occasionally but I never knew of any organized group that launched rockets. That's especially ironic considering that Bill Stine grew up not far from me and the Piesters occasionally shopped in my parents drugstore (facts I only recently learned).

Bob, like you, I've had a lifetime of fun from model rocketry.

[accooper]

Ol' Vern Estes had a great business model back then. Sell some kid a launch controller (remember the controller that had the four "D" photo batteries in it?) a streak kit, and 3 A.8-3 engines? If the controller worked and you actually flew the Streak you would probably lose it after the first flight. Then you had to go back and buy more from Estes.

That was a sales plan.

That is how I got started. I put everything together, went to a little open field behind my house, my mom and two sisters were watching, I counted down, and swoosh, there it went never to be seen from again.

I think I got maybe 4 or 5 launches out of that launcher before I got so frustrated I decided to build my own. Those photo D batteries just could provide the power. Of course this was way before alkalines came about.

Good Time, Good Times.

Andrew From Texas

[von Braun]

My oldest brother turned me on to rocketry. He built an Estes Aerobee 300 the very Saturday that Apollo 13 lifted off. The next day we flew it in the field behind our house. On the other side of town was "Krantz Hobby Shop",a small Mom and Pop hobby store that was in Mr.and Mrs.Krantz's garage. The first rocket I purchased there was a Streak (because it was cheap.) I remember painting multi-colored stripes on it,(it looked uglier than hell), and lost it on it's first flight with a 1/4A3-2. The first kit I ever mail-ordered was the Astron Spaceman,because Krantz's didn't carry it. Mrs.Krantz said "We don't sell that one,honey. It flies apart." It never came apart on me,but I only flew it a couple times. Back then,you could send currency and coins in the mail.

[Mark II]

Ol' Vern Estes had a great business model back then. Sell some kid a launch controller (remember the controller that had the four "D" photo batteries in it?) a streak kit, and 3 A.8-3 engines? If the controller worked and you actually flew the Streak you would probably lose it after the first flight. Then you had to go back and buy more from Estes.

That was a sales plan.

That is how I got started. I put everything together, went to a little open field behind my house, my mom and two sisters were watching, I counted down, and swoosh, there it went never to be seen from again.

I think I got maybe 4 or 5 launches out of that launcher before I got so frustrated I decided to build my own. Those photo D batteries just could provide the power. Of course this was way before alkalines came about.

Good Time, Good Times.

Andrew From TexasI made plenty of launches with my Electro-Launch pad back in the '60's. (All of them, actually. :chuckle: ) And I never lost a rocket. I never ever felt taken advantage of by Estes Industries when Vern ran it. In fact, I felt that it was possibly the most honest and ethical company that I had ever dealt with. I always felt that the company in Penrose was my ally, friend and teacher.

Where I lived, mail order was the only way to go. The hobby shops in the area had never heard of model rocketry, or at least that's what they told me. The first time that I saw model rocket kits in a hobby shop was several years after I had hung the hobby up "temporarily." (Sometime around the mid-'70's.)

MarkII

[gpoehlein]

I was pretty lucky - we had a hobby shop here that had a whole endcap full of Estes and Centuri rockets for sale (and a huge selection of motors on the wall behind the counter). I got into rocketry when we formed a model rocket club at my high school (I was a junior at the time - this was 1973). My first bird was an Alpha. First launch was at a club launch in the infield of the high school track. Launched it on an A8-3 and the flight was perfect! (or nominal, as we used to say - this was 1973 and the tail end of the Apollo program after all - we had to be professional rocket men!) ;)

Greg

[Mark II]

I still say "nominal." It just seems to fit. Call me a space race geek; I don't care. :D

If you really wanted to go retro, you could describe your launch as "A-OK." ;)

MarkII


(But you probably should be launching a Mercury-Redstone in that case...)

[gpoehlein]

I still say "nominal." It just seems to fit. Call me a space race geek; I don't care. :D

MarkII

Oh, so do I. It's just that calling a good flight "nominal" has always sounded like the flight was minimally OK but could have been better. But in my flight logs, all my successful launches are listed as "Nominal".

Greg

[ghrocketman]

I first got into the hobby when I was 7 years old. My father and I built a Citation Quasar and Citation Patriot one saturday afternoon and launched the Quasar the same day in our backyard on an A8-3 and a B6-4. The Patriot launched the next weekend on a B4-2 and a C6-5. That was one year before I got involved in R/C aircraft at the age of 8.
My first R/C plane was a foamie-ARF Cox Cessna 210 Centurion powered by the Cox QRC .049. I remembered thinking that the thing would never fly with that engine as it was about 3 times the size of my Cox and Testors .049 powered control-line airplanes. Boy was I wrong. Way too fast for a decent trainer but I thought it was great because NOBODY my age had any R/C planes, just control-line. I did not realize what a lousy plane it really was until my dad and I started building R/C aircraft from kits with real "man-sized" engines in the .40 to .60 size range. I got very heavily involved in R/C after that, but continued involvement with rockets as well. I think my basement hobby room is more well stocked with R/C kits and engines than a lot of samll hobby SHOPS much to my wife's dismay. My involvement with R/C has deeply waned over the past 8 years I have been married, but have gotten much more involved with rocketry than I ever was in youth. It all has to do with ease of the hobby. I can fly rockets in my back yard up through at least "G" power as it borders a 500+ acre farm, but have zero room for a R/C runway on my land. My R/C club is 15 miles from my house and often have zero time on the weekends for that.

[AFlyingMonkey]

Well I guess its time for a youngster to get into the act now. I got my bug on Christmas day 1989. I was 10 and the Alpha III starter kit I got was a gift from my aunt and uncle. I had to wait until March in order to break it out and build it. My dad said we would launch it in the lot across the street from our house. I told my dad it wasn't a large enough field, but he said these won't go that high. LOL I loved the look on his face when the A8-3 went off. Luckily it came back down on the field. Then my dad not knowing the engine nomenclature put a B engine into it, and it sailed off into the next county.

I was so hooked I had my accelerated education class build rockets. We built several Vikings and we went out to the local park. My teacher took us to a place surrounded by trees. I again told the adult supervisor that it wasn't big enough, did they listen, nooooooo, and whoosh it flew well beyond the vision field within the trees. Because of my family moving constantly after that, I had to stop flying, but it was never too far from my mind. I got back into it after college and I haven't stopped flying since. I still have that 1/2A from my original kit.

now that I'm much older I have the choice to fly any time work and the wife permits. Which is almost every other weekend.

[nvrocketeer]

My oldest brother turned me on to rocketry. He built an Estes Aerobee 300 the very Saturday that Apollo 13 lifted off. The next day we flew it in the field behind our house....

And five years to the day after that build ... April 11, 1975 ... I flew my first model rocket, an Estes Alpha. It was an individual project I'd grabbed from the gifted program offerings. While I don't remember the motor type, I do remember being really annoyed with keeping the igniter in the motor. Masking tape squares were so fiddly.

It was a clear day, with some wind, and I flew during school hours from the playground (with the program teacher on-hand to supervise). It was a good flight, but it hung on some phone lines at the far edge of the property. Never got it back, and had to watch it dangle there and slowly disintegrate over the course of the following two seasons. If someone had pointed me at all the juicy science and math inside rocketry then, I probably would have been much more interested in keeping on flying.

(The date's easy for me to remember, apart from the Apollo association. It was my tenth birthday.)