Hi everyone,
It's great to find a place so dedicated to rocketry. First a little about myself. I have two boys who are 11 and 13 who both love rockets. I think we have about 10 rockets so far between them and 4 or 5 more still waiting to be built. I got back into rocketry about 3 years ago when their cub scout pack did a rocket launch that I ran for them. We had 20 boys launch their rockets two times each. First with a A8-3 then with a B6-4 engine if it returned. We only lost two rockets so it was a good day.
I started in the Estes Aerospace Club back near 1980. At least that's the earliest Estes catalog I can find in my old stuff. I still have two rockets from when I was a kid, but both need to be repaired before I could launch them again. One is an X-15 that I'd really like to try again. I also found some engines from that time frame as well. Any chance they are still any good?
Obviously my experience building rockets is a bit dated so I'm wondering what new tips/techniques folks have developed in the last 35+ years... LOL. Mainly I've been reading a lot about the finish on the rockets. Filling the balsa and making them smooth is something I still need to work on. For my boys' rockets we just put a few coats of sandable primer, sand and then apply the finish coat. It works but its not great. So far we've only lost one rocket, a 2-stage rocket using B engines that simply went too high for the location we were in.
Anyway I'm happy to find other folks into rocketry and look forward to reading more each day.
Thanks,
Eric Finn
It's great to find a place so dedicated to rocketry. First a little about myself. I have two boys who are 11 and 13 who both love rockets. I think we have about 10 rockets so far between them and 4 or 5 more still waiting to be built. I got back into rocketry about 3 years ago when their cub scout pack did a rocket launch that I ran for them. We had 20 boys launch their rockets two times each. First with a A8-3 then with a B6-4 engine if it returned. We only lost two rockets so it was a good day.
I started in the Estes Aerospace Club back near 1980. At least that's the earliest Estes catalog I can find in my old stuff. I still have two rockets from when I was a kid, but both need to be repaired before I could launch them again. One is an X-15 that I'd really like to try again. I also found some engines from that time frame as well. Any chance they are still any good?
Obviously my experience building rockets is a bit dated so I'm wondering what new tips/techniques folks have developed in the last 35+ years... LOL. Mainly I've been reading a lot about the finish on the rockets. Filling the balsa and making them smooth is something I still need to work on. For my boys' rockets we just put a few coats of sandable primer, sand and then apply the finish coat. It works but its not great. So far we've only lost one rocket, a 2-stage rocket using B engines that simply went too high for the location we were in.
Anyway I'm happy to find other folks into rocketry and look forward to reading more each day.
Thanks,
Eric Finn