Poll: How long-time Rocket Enthusiasts got their start
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Estes Alpha Circa 1978...
boomtube-mk2
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As opposed to Rock Bottom sidekick and henchman for The Professor arch nemesis of Felix the Cat.
Fishhead
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Mine was one from each of the two companies at the time: Astron SkyHook from Estes and a Micron from Centuri. The year was 1964.
Don't think either model was over a buck fifty
Great times!
Don't think either model was over a buck fifty
Great times!
Gary Byrum
Overstable By Design
It all started when I went into my father's cousins house. Her son, (my 1st cousin, once removed) had 3 rockets displayed on an end table. An Astron Alpha, Mark and a Drifter. I had never seen model rockets before. "Woah! COOL!!" Nuff said. The rest is history.
Gary Byrum
Overstable By Design
I suppose, since I got started around 1966, our local HS didn't carry the Centuri line. Estes was the given. I didn't know about Centuri till years after. I wrote them off as a "spin-off" rocket manufacturer and went with the given supplier. The HS did have all the parts available in those days. It was just too easy to get caught up with Estes. Those available parts made it easy to scratch build also.
foamy
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The local hobby store carried Centuri rockets—no Estes. Didn't find out about Estes until some time later when a friend showed me their catalog.
My first two rockets were the Centuri Astro-1 and Snipe Hunter. Purchased and built in 1969.
Became a BAR in the early nineties. An Estes Geo Sat and Camanche 3 were the first two.
Re-BAR, found some stashed kits in 2010: A '69 Centuri Javelin kit and an Estes Nova Payloader got me started again. Then I discovered Semroc.
My first two rockets were the Centuri Astro-1 and Snipe Hunter. Purchased and built in 1969.
Became a BAR in the early nineties. An Estes Geo Sat and Camanche 3 were the first two.
Re-BAR, found some stashed kits in 2010: A '69 Centuri Javelin kit and an Estes Nova Payloader got me started again. Then I discovered Semroc.
I said E2X just because I got into it when I bought a bulk pack of Estes "UP Aerospace" rockets for my Cub Scout den. At the same time I bought an Estes Crossfire ISX and the Estes Amazon in the Tandem-X launch set (so I would have a launch pad for the Cub Scouts you understand).
luke strawwalker
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Alpha III starter set, Christmas of 84 IIRC...
Back when you had to build the rocket, build the controller, assemble the pad, all of it... NO RTF/ARF/E2X "shove a motor in and push the button" nonsense like now...
Later! OL JR
Back when you had to build the rocket, build the controller, assemble the pad, all of it... NO RTF/ARF/E2X "shove a motor in and push the button" nonsense like now...
Later! OL JR
Estes Screamer. One of the min-brutes. As part of a science camp I went to in my youth. I'm guessing it was mid to late 1970s.
Marc
Marc
Alpha III starter set received for Christmas 1972. A few odd things about my start, though.
First, the kit in the starter set was an error of some sort. The fin unit and nose cone were not red as the Alpha III was supposed to be, but kind of a translucent white. I painted them red. The other thing was that the fin tips were flat rather than pointed...pretty much the same as the Citation Quasar :
https://www.ninfinger.org/rockets/catalogs/citation71/71cit08.html
I understand that there were some white plastic versions of that model in addition to the silver so perhaps that's what was put into my starter set. I didn't know at the time although when I did have my first flight, it was a drag race with a good buddy of mine that we did in front of our 6th grade science class and we definitely noticed that our Alpha IIIs were different from each other.
My first flight didn't happen until school was back in session in January 1973. I'd tried to get off a launch a few times but the 6 volt lantern battery just wasn't getting the igniter lit in the cold. Our science teacher in our little upstate NY elementary school agreed to let us do a launch for the class. My buddy, Dennis, had already tried to do a demo launch for the class before break but he had a misfire and nothing happened. Anyhow, we both loaded up A8-3 motors (mine was a Centuri motor for some reason....I still have the casing believe it or not). The class watched through the windows while we launched. At zero we both hit the buttons and both rockets took off. Dennis' went pretty far up there (or so it seemed) and landed on the school, breaking a fin in the process. My rocket made it up a bit less than 10 feet before spectacularly ejecting the parachute, breaking the shock cord and landing a few feet from the pad. I didn't know it at the time but it looks like I had a CATO on my first launch. Seeing as the inside of the casing has no delay residue at all, it was either that or I had a mislabeled booster motor.
Dennis later got into Ham radio big time and gave me all of his rocket stuff. Wish I knew whatever happened to that Electro - launch pad he had! (I still have my original Porta Pad).
Dennis went on to go to Cornell and got his BS and MS in electrical engineering and had a very successful career and dabbled in racing cars with his brother who lives near me in Mass now. I did my degree in aerospace engineering, never lost the rocket bug but took a detour after college and ended up in the financial services industry for the past 30 years.
Unfortunately in January 2010 Dennis was found deceased in his apartment by his girlfriend; despite his being thin and kind of small of stature, he had an apparent heart attack...perhaps his chain smoking was to blame. He was 3 days older than me, 48 at the time of his death. I last saw him in 1999 at our 20th class reunion. I did trek out to our little village in upstate NY to attend his funeral and his brothers and I had some great reminiscing about Den together and talked about the times we flew rockets together.
My Alpha III went on to have many successful flights, even surviving a prang onto a road from a high altitude C6-5 flight. One day, though, the body tube gave out and the parachute came out the side of it. I never considered just replacing the tube but kept the parts...although like much of my rocket stuff it seems to have disappeared when I went off to Indiana to go to college, though I still have the box from the starter kit as well as the launch pad, launch controller and the guide book that came with it. A few years ago I bought another old Alpha III from Bill Spadafora....it had the red pointy fins instead of the white clipped ones that mine had...but I built it and put the decals on just like the old one....
It's funny how I can remember those days just like it was last week.
First, the kit in the starter set was an error of some sort. The fin unit and nose cone were not red as the Alpha III was supposed to be, but kind of a translucent white. I painted them red. The other thing was that the fin tips were flat rather than pointed...pretty much the same as the Citation Quasar :
https://www.ninfinger.org/rockets/catalogs/citation71/71cit08.html
I understand that there were some white plastic versions of that model in addition to the silver so perhaps that's what was put into my starter set. I didn't know at the time although when I did have my first flight, it was a drag race with a good buddy of mine that we did in front of our 6th grade science class and we definitely noticed that our Alpha IIIs were different from each other.
My first flight didn't happen until school was back in session in January 1973. I'd tried to get off a launch a few times but the 6 volt lantern battery just wasn't getting the igniter lit in the cold. Our science teacher in our little upstate NY elementary school agreed to let us do a launch for the class. My buddy, Dennis, had already tried to do a demo launch for the class before break but he had a misfire and nothing happened. Anyhow, we both loaded up A8-3 motors (mine was a Centuri motor for some reason....I still have the casing believe it or not). The class watched through the windows while we launched. At zero we both hit the buttons and both rockets took off. Dennis' went pretty far up there (or so it seemed) and landed on the school, breaking a fin in the process. My rocket made it up a bit less than 10 feet before spectacularly ejecting the parachute, breaking the shock cord and landing a few feet from the pad. I didn't know it at the time but it looks like I had a CATO on my first launch. Seeing as the inside of the casing has no delay residue at all, it was either that or I had a mislabeled booster motor.
Dennis later got into Ham radio big time and gave me all of his rocket stuff. Wish I knew whatever happened to that Electro - launch pad he had! (I still have my original Porta Pad).
Dennis went on to go to Cornell and got his BS and MS in electrical engineering and had a very successful career and dabbled in racing cars with his brother who lives near me in Mass now. I did my degree in aerospace engineering, never lost the rocket bug but took a detour after college and ended up in the financial services industry for the past 30 years.
Unfortunately in January 2010 Dennis was found deceased in his apartment by his girlfriend; despite his being thin and kind of small of stature, he had an apparent heart attack...perhaps his chain smoking was to blame. He was 3 days older than me, 48 at the time of his death. I last saw him in 1999 at our 20th class reunion. I did trek out to our little village in upstate NY to attend his funeral and his brothers and I had some great reminiscing about Den together and talked about the times we flew rockets together.
My Alpha III went on to have many successful flights, even surviving a prang onto a road from a high altitude C6-5 flight. One day, though, the body tube gave out and the parachute came out the side of it. I never considered just replacing the tube but kept the parts...although like much of my rocket stuff it seems to have disappeared when I went off to Indiana to go to college, though I still have the box from the starter kit as well as the launch pad, launch controller and the guide book that came with it. A few years ago I bought another old Alpha III from Bill Spadafora....it had the red pointy fins instead of the white clipped ones that mine had...but I built it and put the decals on just like the old one....
It's funny how I can remember those days just like it was last week.
billspad
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Yes, but can you remember last week?
DavieRockets
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It was summer 1964. My best friend's father bought him an Estes Sky Hook and we flew it in the golf course behind his house. I then mail ordered an Astron Scout and an Astron Mark from Estes and flew them on 1/2A 8-2 motors. I lost the Mark when I put an A8-3 in it. I remember I was really upset. A few weeks later I bought the Astron Ranger and Astron Cobra. Then I started scratch building. And more than 50 years later I'm still hooked.
PS My avatar shows me at the local hobby show with my rockets and model airplanes in October 1964.
PS My avatar shows me at the local hobby show with my rockets and model airplanes in October 1964.
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