New to the Rocketry Forum. Just Sayin Hello.

I flew Estes rockets when I was a kid. Fast forward the clock about 40 years and last spring I decided the pick up the hobby again.

I got bit by the rocket bug really hard. Over the course of last spring, summer and fall I ended up buying over 50 Estes rockets. I have rockets as small as Generic E2X going up to as large as Eliminator XL.

My fleet is not as impressive as MALBAR 70's but I think I did pretty well for one season. I must admit I am impressed with MALBAR 70's fleet because most of his rockets are skill level rockets. I do not have a large field near my home. However I do have one park close to my house which has a perfectly flat and wide open space that is roughly 1200ft x 600ft. Unfortunately the long end of the field is rarely directly down wind.

Because I don't have a large field close to my house, I made some decisions:

1. I would stick with nothing larger than LPR D engines.
2. I would stick with RTF, ARF and E2X rockets because I did not want rockets that took days to build to just end up hanging in trees. Even so, I lost a Helios and a Flying Colors to the trees. Good thing I didn't pay much for them...
3. I came to the conclusion that Estes generally ships rockets with parachutes that are one size too large. I have downsized the parachutes in most of my rockets.
4. That I would try to save as much money as possible and shop Estes "specials" page often. For example, I ended up buying four Firebolts and three Maxi Alpha 3s (along with many others) from the Estes specials page.
5. I found a couple of discontinued rockets on eBay such as Blue Ninja for good prices.

Anyways, I am happy to find this forum. I am hoping to learn a few things and hopefully make a some positive contributions.

Rick

Welcome!

Just remember "Rules are made to be broken". :wink:

Oh... and photos are meant to be shared.

Welcome to the Forum Rick.
Skill level 1's and 2's come pretty cheap too, and they don't take weeks to build.
Scratch building your own designs or out of production kits is also habit forming.
And trees are not your friends. But deserts are.

You can always cut the center hole out of those plastic parachutes to make the rockets come down faster.

welcome. if you have a few you might want to check out this website: https://www.mn-rocketry.net/masa/ I would invite you down to launch with Woosh...however after looking at the map that would be a long trip.
Rex

K'Tesh said:

Welcome!

Just remember "Rules are made to be broken". :wink:

Oh... and photos are meant to be shared.

Click to expand...

Thank You K'Tesh,

I have been known to push boundaries. I get your point.

I will take some pics of my fleet when the snow melts, when my fleet comes out of hibernation and flying season returns.

Woody's Workshop said:

Welcome to the Forum Rick.
Skill level 1's and 2's come pretty cheap too, and they don't take weeks to build.
Scratch building your own designs or out of production kits is also habit forming.
And trees are not your friends. But deserts are.

Click to expand...

Thank you Woody,

You bring up a great point. I love to fly rockets but I may seek new challenges as well.

FYI, no deserts in Minnesota but my mom lives in Yuma, AZ

Zeus-cat said:

You can always cut the center hole out of those plastic parachutes to make the rockets come down faster.

Click to expand...

I have read about this mod and I intend to try it. But I haven't decided which of my rockets I want to turn into a test bed. Trust me, I have plenty of 18" parachutes available for modifying and testing... LOL

Welcome back to the hobby Rick. Like you, I've been building quite a few since last summer, but I've also got a couple of MPR rockets. I belong to an R/C airplane club also that uses an old, closed landfill for a flying site and a few of us launch rockets there. This past Saturday I drove a few hours away to attend a launch with some bigger rockets and got to meet some new people and fly my stuff too. And like K'Tesh said... Photos man! :wink:

Welcome! When I started off (again), I thought I would just build some mini-engine rockets. Well, then the bug bit...and then I figured, if I'm going to have to drive x hours to launch, I might as well build some big ones!

You can also look at micro-maxx (MMX) rockets too, as they are a hoot, cheap, and definitely can fly in your field. Check out the MMX forum here, as well as sites such as fliskits.com for more great rockets (MMX and otherwise).

Have fun!

There's definitely no need to exclude yourself from builder's kits. Just go for ones that are well-suited to a small field. I especially recommend the Quinstar, which you can launch on a D and have it come down within 20 feet from the pad. The Twin Factor looks like a lot of fun as well.

You also may want to build a few nicer birds and just hold them until you have an opportunity to fly a bigger field. But it all depends on where you get your fun. For me, the building is more the fun, so I'd rather build something and never fly it then not build it at all.

Anyway, welcome!

Welcome aboard.

Welcome! Looks like you're off to a good start. I second the suggestion of cutting the spill hole on Estes chutes. I do this to almost all of mine now. They come down much more stable and a bit quicker.

Plenty of fun in LPR. Feel free to share any pictures or videos you have.

Friends, thanks for the nice welcome and words of advice. I have my eyes on a couple of skill level 2 rockets. I will probably add a few to my fleet before flying season returns.

Welcome Rick!

If you have a Hobby Lobby store in your area, they do sell some rockets and engines. Download the Hobby Lobby app and get 40% off of 1 item!

RickGr4 said:

Friends, thanks for the nice welcome and words of advice. I have my eyes on a couple of skill level 2 rockets. I will probably add a few to my fleet before flying season returns.

Click to expand...

Welcome, I joined a year ago. This forum has been an amazing tool. Everyone is very helpful even when I have asked some ridiculous questions. Never be afraid to ask. Good luck this season, may the wind be always in your favor.

Huxter said:

Welcome Rick!

If you have a Hobby Lobby store in your area, they do sell some rockets and engines. Download the Hobby Lobby app and get 40% off of 1 item!

Click to expand...

I am fortunate to have a few really good hobby stores within about 10 miles. I have a couple of small, private stores along with a Hobby Lobby close by. One store in particular, Hub Hobby in Richfield, MN has a great selection of Estes products and they occasionally have good deals. I just found an "old school" hobby store in St. Paul that has some vintage stuff.

I bought most of the stuff I currently have from the Estes specials page (great prices and free shipping on orders over $50) and AC Supply (they offer at least 40% off Estes products and free shipping on orders over $100).

RickGr4 said:

I am fortunate to have a few really good hobby stores within about 10 miles. I have a Hobby Lobby close by. One store in particular, Hub Hobby in Richfield, MN has a great selection of Estes products and they have good deals occasionally.

I bought most of the stuff I currently have from the Estes specials page (great prices and free shipping on orders over $50) and AC Supply (they offer at least 40% off Estes products and free shipping on orders over $100).

Click to expand...

Hub Hobby in Richfield! I remember that place! That's where I(my Mom) bought my Estes kits when I was a kid. I grew up across the river from you in Bloomington. Great store from what I remember. Last time I was in the Twin Cities I took advantage of the Hobby Lobby 40% coupon to get a pack of E16-6s. Can't beat that 40% off stuff.

RickGr4 said:

Friends, thanks for the nice welcome and words of advice. I have my eyes on a couple of skill level 2 rockets. I will probably add a few to my fleet before flying season returns.

Click to expand...

Hi Rick,
Welcome!

Check out Tripoli MN.

https://www.tripolimn.org/

We fly out of North Branch on the second Saturday of every month from around May-October, sometimes November depending.
It's about an hour drive for you, but I know people that come from farther away.

We fly off a sod field, with a waiver to 10,000 feet.

Dave

dvdsnyd said:

Hi Rick,
Welcome!

Check out Tripoli MN.

https://www.tripolimn.org/

We fly out of North Branch on the second Saturday of every month from around May-October, sometimes November depending.
It's about an hour drive for you, but I know people that come from farther away.

We fly off a sod field, with a waiver to 10,000 feet.

Dave

Click to expand...

Dave, I heard about your club and I have every intention of making it out your way at some point. My mom has a summer place in Wyoming (Wyoming, MN that is) so I have no excuses...

I will see you sometime this summer!!!

I am a new born again rocketeer too. Wow you got bit by the bug hard.

Kelley said:

I am a new born again rocketeer too. Wow you got bit by the bug hard.

Click to expand...

A man gotsta have his hobbies. I love being outside, walking and figuring out the best flights.

HOWEVER my highly significant other is not real excited about all of my rockets hanging around the house and garage.

I need to figure out a rocket storage system...

K'Tesh said:

Welcome!

Just remember "Rules are made to be broken". :wink:

Oh... and photos are meant to be shared.

Click to expand...

Pictures of my "fleet". Every rocket pictured has flown at least twice. Black Diamond, Spirit and Show Stopper have flown at least five times each. I have at least one spare (I now have five Firebolts, four Maxi Alpha 3s and three Blue Ninjas...LOL) for every rocket pictured.

This weekend I had 27 perfect flights with only one slightly charred chute and two broken fins (easily fixed) on landing. Late yesterday, on my 28th and final flight of the weekend I had a rocket take a hard turn downwind off the launcher. The wind grabbed it and it is now hanging high in a tree.

RIP Orange Crush. l will think twice before I launch a mid sized rocket with a D engine on a modest sized field when I knew the wind was coming up. In your memory, I have already ordered two replacements.

dvdsnyd said:

Hi Rick,
Welcome!

Check out Tripoli MN.

https://www.tripolimn.org/

We fly out of North Branch on the second Saturday of every month from around May-October, sometimes November depending.
It's about an hour drive for you, but I know people that come from farther away.

We fly off a sod field, with a waiver to 10,000 feet.

Dave

Click to expand...

Best rocketry thing I ever did was join a club. A great group of guys. OK, there is one guy I could do without... :wink:

Welcome to the forum Rick:
I'm surprised no-one has mentioned when flying from small fields ( we call it "flying the Field") many of us switch our supplied parasheets to Streamers. Streamers are a great way to keep the model within the confines of a small field.

Streamers can be from all kinds of material; 2" to 10" wide Crepe Paper, 2" to 6" Tracing Vellum, Some wide 4" to 6" ribbon, 2" to 10" wide mylar wrapping paper (sheets are 20" x 30" and can be taped together to may whatever length you like), 1" surveyor's tape, 2" Caution tape, Strips of Space Blanket (about 2mils thick), even rip-stop nylon on some of your larger body models. Lenght's can be whatever you need to reduce the decent rate to under 12ft/sec. (calculators available on-line).
As a Starting Point (designed for Crepe Paper & Tracing vellum back in the 1960's) the Length to width starts at 10-1, but don't think that is always the best length, depending on the material used the length could be 20 or 30-1. I regularly fly my Goblin on a 2" x 144" rolled orange crepe streamer. I've flown my BT-80 Optima with a 1'-0" x 16'-0" light rip stop nylon streamer. If your flying over Grass or sod streamer are fine and you shouldn't break many fins.

PS: One more option: a little on the pricey side but the new Chute Release being sold, Is a real Wonder, I watched about a dozen different Rockets flown last weekend in fairly breezy conditions all recovered on our not so huge recovery field. most set the Chute release at 200ft but I'm told by one of the owners it can go as low as 100ft. the little beasty fits easily in BT-60 and BT-55 with a bit of careful fold/rolling. A really KEWL option and one of the best Mod-Roc inventions since the Nano size altimeters.

Welcome back to the Hobby Rick, and TRF. Beware, the BAR bug bites hard!

And yes, join a club, even if you can only occasionally make launches. The fields and friends can be great!

Welcome, welcome Rick...
Yes, the rocketry bug certainly does bite hard..
I got a good chuckle off of your comment about sticking to D's max impulse..
I think we've all said that at one time or another..
The club thing is definitely the way to go...
Spending the day with like minded people is really cool...

Good luck with everything..

Teddy

Friends,

There is something irresistible about this "hobby" we all enjoy. Not sure I completely understand it yet. I love to be outside, walking and figuring the best flights.

I will visit Tripoli MN in May with the intention of joining the club.

Seems like there is some really good peeps hanging out in this forum.

Hey, Rick,
Welcome to TRF, and welcome back to model rocketry!
I just 'BAR'-d myself last spring, and yes, the bug bites hard. Great start on a rocket collection. Nothin' wrong with the RTFs, E2Xs, etc. They get you out to the field and flying in no time. I will add a +1 to MicroMeister's advice to use streamers if you're limited to flying on a small field.
Keep posting!

RickGr4 said:

Friends,

There is something irresistible about this "hobby" we all enjoy. Not sure I completely understand it yet. I love to be outside, walking and figuring the best flights.

I will visit Tripoli MN in May with the intention of joining the club.

Seems like there is some really good peeps hanging out in this forum.

Click to expand...

Hi Rick,
I'm a recent BAR myself. Being almost 50, my only regret is that I didn't re-discover this sooner! Speaking of Tripoli MN, I just had some email correspondence with them recently--very friendly! I'm planning on getting up there at their first launch. I also joined the club/paid membership dues. If you're thinking of joining, you should reach out to them as they may still have an early-bird membership special going on.
Best,
Tim