Getting a Friend Interested in HPR

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lowga

A.K.A. 'Mr. HoJo'
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I have a friend in his early 50's, who is an engineer. He flew model rockets as kid and enjoyed it, but has been out of the hobby since. He's aware of HPR, but hasn't seen a lot of it personally. He's a big reader, so I wanted to buy him a book that might renew his interest in the hobby. He lives several hundreds miles away, so coming to see my stuff is out of the question. I'd also like to find a good quality video either on DVD or YouTube that would help introduce and excite him.

I've seen the Discovery Channel Stuff at LDRS, but I don't a collection of odd rockets is going to do the trick. He just needs to see good quality video to introduce him to the hobby.

Here are my questions:

1.) What single book would you recommend to introduce him to HPR?

2.) What DVD or YouTube Links would you recommend sharing? I'd like to avoid the super large stuff, and confine videos mostly to Level 1 and Level 2 sized rockets. I want the hobby to see accessible with room to grow.

Help is much appreciated!

Les Rayburn
 
1.) What single book would you recommend to introduce him to HPR?
M. Canepas' book is good, but the classic is Harry Stine's book. Covers the whole gamut of basic principles:

https://www.amazon.com/dp/0471472425/?tag=skimlinks_replacement-20

2.) What DVD or YouTube Links would you recommend sharing? I'd like to avoid the super large stuff, and confine videos mostly to Level 1 and Level 2 sized rockets. I want the hobby to see accessible with room to grow.

For the range of small to big, I think Point 39 Production's videos by Earle Cagle of all the LDRS meets were very good...(I have most of them on VHS...not sure if anything is on DVD).
The modern DVDs focus on the state of the art of the hobby - so they tend to show a lot of large projects.
Rockets magazine has some great DVDs....
https://www.libertylaunchsystems.com/apps/wpisa.dll/LLS/Videos/CoolFlights

As for YouTube links, there a lot of good ones...but I'm very bias to anything uploaded by Jerry O'Sullivan under "Vahpr":
Quality video and sound...

[video=youtube;SxHaNL_c-nA]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SxHaNL_c-nA[/video]

[video=youtube;cLI9SI3KjHs]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cLI9SI3KjHs[/video]

[video=youtube;3QXpyxne_DQ]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3QXpyxne_DQ&t=213s[/video]

[video=youtube;EwvjPPOR3IM]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EwvjPPOR3IM&t=25s[/video]
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Forget the book, just take him to a launch.

Agreed. But... this video always get people to say 'wow':

[video=youtube;AobWlGX-h7Y]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AobWlGX-h7Y[/video]

I know you didn't want to go full tilt HPR, but... when I saw this I caught the bug hard.
 
This one also is epic:

[video=youtube;bDoh8zQDT38]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bDoh8zQDT38[/video]
 
This one also is epic:

[video=youtube;bDoh8zQDT38]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bDoh8zQDT38[/video]

.But edit to add: just bring him to a launch. Watching a big I or bigger always makes people say 'whoa'.
 
Is there a way to watch the older Gates Brothers Rocketry videos in their original quality? At the time there was no other at that level of complexity, motor size, and quality.

You could also just send him a inexpensive LOC IV or something along with any book.
 
another good one if not posted

[video=youtube;owWuX0tm97g]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=owWuX0tm97g[/video]
 
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