Newbie returning to hobby after a very long time

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Klatuso

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Joined
Jan 18, 2018
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When I saw my first model rocket flight at age 13 I was hooked. My brothers and I bought rockets and slapped them together with duck tape and bad paint jobs. Back then the goal was to fly them.

When my sister told me I should get a hobby I immediately remembered those model rockets. Now at age 54 I bought an Apogee Aspire and decided to make it right. papered the fins, wood filled the gaps, sanded and sanded again. Now I enjoy making the rocket more than flying it!

Now I have an Apogee Blue Streak on my workbench and am learning that smaller rockets are not easier than big. Small fins, gluing becomes hard, filleting the fins are super small and very difficult. I am having a blast though and I haven't even launched a rocket yet.

I attended my local Albuquerque club launch (without a rocket) and was warmly received. One guy launched a rocket over 15,000 feet and used a GPS tracker to retrieve it. There were kids launching 18mm motors and having many parachute failures which taught me to pack the recovery system well. I was amazed by one two stage rocket over 1,000 feet that returned within 30 feet of the launch pad.

Here is what is lined up on my workbench:

Apogee Blue Streak 18mm
Orion Transort 24mm
Atlantis 24mm
SA-14 Archer 29mm
Orbital Transport 18mm
Aerotech Initiator 29mm

Ordered a wide variety of engines. bought a dremel, various sandpaper, spray paints, adhesives and set up my workbench. Wow.

If you have any advice for a returning newbie let me know and happy to be a member of Rocketry Forum.
 
Also ordered the
AEROTECH MANTIS LAUNCH PAD
but is on backorder with the Initiator. Should come by the end of the month. But I will launch my first rockets on the launch pads of the Albuquerque rocket club.


 
When I saw my first model rocket flight at age 13 I was hooked. My brothers and I bought rockets and slapped them together with duck tape and bad paint jobs. Back then the goal was to fly them.

When my sister told me I should get a hobby I immediately remembered those model rockets. Now at age 54 I bought an Apogee Aspire and decided to make it right. papered the fins, wood filled the gaps, sanded and sanded again. Now I enjoy making the rocket more than flying it!

Now I have an Apogee Blue Streak on my workbench and am learning that smaller rockets are not easier than big. Small fins, gluing becomes hard, filleting the fins are super small and very difficult. I am having a blast though and I haven't even launched a rocket yet.

I attended my local Albuquerque club launch (without a rocket) and was warmly received. One guy launched a rocket over 15,000 feet and used a GPS tracker to retrieve it. There were kids launching 18mm motors and having many parachute failures which taught me to pack the recovery system well. I was amazed by one two stage rocket over 1,000 feet that returned within 30 feet of the launch pad.

Here is what is lined up on my workbench:

Apogee Blue Streak 18mm
Orion Transort 24mm
Atlantis 24mm
SA-14 Archer 29mm
Orbital Transport 18mm
Aerotech Initiator 29mm

Ordered a wide variety of engines. bought a dremel, various sandpaper, spray paints, adhesives and set up my workbench. Wow.

If you have any advice for a returning newbie let me know and happy to be a member of Rocketry Forum.

Welcome back to the hobby. One thing don't be in a big hurry to move up to bigger and bigger rockets and motors. Have fun there are so many things you can do in the hobby no matter what level your at. Its great you got hooked up with a club. Flying with a club makes it so much more fun. One of the best thing about the club is meeting new people who will be your friends and will help you when ever you need it.

Have Fun & Fly Safe
 
hi, welcome back to the hobby. you can tell folks that you are a Born Again Rocketeer (BAR). Top Flight parachutes are a nice upgrade from most stock plastic chutes that come with many of the smaller rockets. don't really need a lot of types of glue; white and yellow(pva) and some epoxy will handle 95 - 98% of all rocket needs :). the Estes 'Big Bertha' is a versatile kit, it can be built stock (great demo bird), with a 24mm motor mount (D - small F motors), and with few extra parts (tube coupler and bulkhead, and 24mm mount)a payload version. a Bertha on D-power can get over 1000' even with a 4 oz payload.
Rex
 
If you have any advice for a returning newbie let me know and happy to be a member of Rocketry Forum.

A) Welcome back!!! You're in with a pretty good crowd here.

B) Advice? Ok... Post pics! We love nothing better than Rocket Porn! Sounds like you've got the beginning of a nice collection.

If you have any questions, please feel free to ask!

Pointy Side Up!
Jim
 
Welcome back! I've been a BAR since I attended my first club launch in 2009. I'm having more fun now than I ever did as a kid. I started with LPR, then built bigger and bigger kits. Now I'm mostly into scratch building, and digging it!
 
You're among friends here- being a BAR seems far more common than not. I found the apogee website to be very valuable when I was re-entering the hobby- they're not the cheapest, but as you probably saw, they have terrific customer support and, if you haven't found them, very useful articles! https://www.apogeerockets.com/#content-how
 
You're among friends here- being a BAR seems far more common than not. I found the apogee website to be very valuable when I was re-entering the hobby- they're not the cheapest, but as you probably saw, they have terrific customer support and, if you haven't found them, very useful articles! https://www.apogeerockets.com/#content-how

Most of the companies (sadly, not all) that are out there have pretty good customer support. Including Apogee... Binder Design, Estes, eRockets/Semroc, Aerotech/Quest, BMS, and Tango Papa Decals... are companies that I have personal experience with that I'd gladly recommend. I've yet to try my hand at Flis, Dr. Zooch, and a few others. Only two companies that I've had dealings with have left a bad taste in my mouth (both no longer support TRF), and I'll leave them out of the list.
 
Hi :) Advice? Use the little rockets to learn the skills needed for the larger Hi Power rockets. Obviously you're heading in that direction.

Don't get in over your head with the finances. I know of one circumstance a gentleman decided he liked the rockets so much he "borrowed" some of his bosses money.......
 
Hi :) Advice? Use the little rockets to learn the skills needed for the larger Hi Power rockets. Obviously you're heading in that direction.

Don't get in over your head with the finances. I know of one circumstance a gentleman decided he liked the rockets so much he "borrowed" some of his bosses money.......

Klatuso,

Pay heed to this. Most people on the forum will tell you that you are not REALLY a serious rocketry hobbyist until you have at least your Level 2. The only real rocketry is High Power. Everything else is just child's play.

















in a pig's eye!
 
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Since the time you and I were kids, there now are available some cool rocketry electronics and keychain cameras. Take a look at the Jolly Logic Chute Release, lots of altimeters out there too, if you are in to that kind of thing. They probably had some rocketry electronics back then, but maybe not as affordable on a paper route salary budget at the time.

Did I mention the Jolly Logic Chute Release? Someone was probably using one at that club launch.
https://www.jollylogic.com/products/chuterelease/
 
Katuso,

Pay heed to this. Most people on the forum will tell you that you are not REALLY a serious rocketry hobbyist until you have at least your Level 2. The only real rocketry is High Power. Everything else is just child's play.

















in a pig's eye!

The last thing I've ever been called is a serious person :)
I'm just a big kid :)
Sometimes I wonder why I'm not crawling around on the floor playing with toy cars at age 58 LOL
 
The last thing I've ever been called is a serious person :)
I'm just a big kid :)
Sometimes I wonder why I'm not crawling around on the floor playing with toy cars at age 58 LOL
Well, I bet it would just take the right toy car to do that.
 
The last thing I've ever been called is a serious person :)
I'm just a big kid :)
Sometimes I wonder why I'm not crawling around on the floor playing with toy cars at age 58 LOL

Hell, I can't get down on the floor anymore unless I fall, and then I can't get back up. But I'd play with toy cars on a table, if I had one that was cleared off. They're all covered with rocket stuff...
 
The last thing I've ever been called is a serious person :)
I'm just a big kid :)
Sometimes I wonder why I'm not crawling around on the floor playing with toy cars at age 58 LOL

Then substitute "genuine" for "serious": "...you are not REALLY a genuine rocketry hobbyist until you have at least your Level 2."
 
Hell, I can't get down on the floor anymore unless I fall, and then I can't get back up. But I'd play with toy cars on a table, if I had one that was cleared off. They're all covered with rocket stuff...

I'd like to have one of those little electric cars you ride in! I think they call it a ...

...golf cart.
 
Then substitute "genuine" for "serious": "...you are not REALLY a genuine rocketry hobbyist until you have at least your Level 2."
Well, with all due respect sir, and I'm serious about that, so please don't take this the wrong way. IMHO, as someone who owned a hobby shop, my definition of a serious hobbieist is the ambitions one has in a hobby :)

I certainly want to go to level 2 :) so thanks to you all for this great forum and your help :)
 
Well, with all due respect sir, and I'm serious about that, so please don't take this the wrong way. IMHO, as someone who owned a hobby shop, my definition of a serious hobbieist is the ambitions one has in a hobby :)

I certainly want to go to level 2 :) so thanks to you all for this great forum and your help :)

I think LW just meant that there is a variety of goals one can have in LPR that can be enjoyed over time, whereas some people tend to think that the only way to grow in this hobby is by increasing the size of your rockets and motors. Everyone has goals, whether LPR, MPR, HPR, staging, micro, dual deployment, Mach speeds, or getting into orbit. There is no single path to fulfillment.
 
Well, luckily one's fun and seriousness for a hobby is not dictated by another person's opinion. Hobbies are meant for ones enjoyment and not what other people think about oneself. As long as you are having fun it does not matter what anyone else thinks or says.
 
I think LW just meant that there is a variety of goals one can have in LPR that can be enjoyed over time, whereas some people tend to think that the only way to grow in this hobby is by increasing the size of your rockets and motors. Everyone has goals, whether LPR, MPR, HPR, staging, micro, dual deployment, Mach speeds, or getting into orbit. There is no single path to fulfillment.

Speaking for myself I continue to be amazed at how little interest I have in going bigger. There's more than enough in LPR to keep me occupied for the foreseeable future. There is a tendency on this forum for a lot of folks to be perpetually pushing larger, and I admit I have great fun in watching these projects unfold, but I don't feel like I've experienced any sort of undue pressure to go larger myself.

Anyway, as others are saying, there are many paths to fulfillment. Do what you like.
 
I think my goal for now is to craft a well built rocket. Building something with well aligned fins, smooth fillets, and a fine paint job that will fly straight. It's my building skills I'm most interested in. Something where I can put it on the launch pad and say, "Yea, I built that!" How high or fast it goes isn't much my concern. How straight it flies is good. I don't see myself going beyond mid power rockets for now. I can always watch the guys at the rocket club launch their Level I rockets with altimeters and gps and enjoy that too.
 
I enjoy the build. Big ones can be more complex, which is interesting, but I stay within my budget. Right now I have an oop Estes Rogue on my desk that I just opened. I hope to build it nicer than the rockets I built before it went oop....
 
I have been building and flying HPR for about 2 years now, but I recently starting building an OOP Estes SR-71 Blackbird.

I thought I was a good builder....until I tried LPR again. There is plenty of challenge there!


Sent from my iPhone using Rocketry Forum
 
... How straight it flies is good...

Why does it have to fly straight, when it can boot-scoot-boogie?

https://www.fliskits.com/services/dom/2003/10-october/levison_corkscrew.htm

levison_corkscrew2.JPG
 
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