For something fun to do with my nephews, I picked up a rtf kit (Estes, Riptide) a few weeks ago. The kids loved it and I had a blast, as well. After that, I started thinking about building a rocket.
While my wife was out having lunch with her girlfriends, I opted for a trip to a nearby hobby store and found an interesting kit that I thought would be easy enough for a guy with nearly zero model building experience. It was a level 2, Quest, Striker AGM.
I built the darn thing in hurry, I probably should have done some online researching first. (It would have helped with the finishing.) Anyhow, the building was easy, and the painting... well, let's just say that the kit instructions for finishing were less than adequate for someone whose never painted a model in their life.
Anyhow, with it all together and roughly painted, my buddy and I went out to the neighborhood park and launched it three times.
It was a bit windy, so the first launch I aimed the launch rod, a few degrees into the wind. It was nearly perfect as the rocket landed withing 30 yards of where we launched from. However, it did land in a bit of hardpan at the perimeter of the field and the rocket sustained some slight damage (small crack to a tail fin)
After deciding that I would have a broken heart if the rocket was additionally damaged in a second flight, we launched it again, aiming it to hopefully avoid the hardpan. The second launch was successful and landed even closer to us and no additional damage. Sweet!
The third launch, we opted for aiming the rocket straight up in hopes that it would land closer to where we parked our vehicle. The third launch was absolutely beautiful. Easily the highest of the three flights and just pretty to watch. However, it did not land anywhere near where we parked and it landed poorly crashing sideways into a berm that divides the park's field areas and breaking off the tail fin that was slightly cracked in the first flight.
The good news is that the cracked fin was a super easy fix. With a little super glue, and the poor paint job that I did, you can't hardly tell that it was broken. Sweet!
Anyway, I wish I had pics, but the only one we have is of a puff of smoke around the launch pad. Next time I'll bring my video camera instead.
Good stuff!
While my wife was out having lunch with her girlfriends, I opted for a trip to a nearby hobby store and found an interesting kit that I thought would be easy enough for a guy with nearly zero model building experience. It was a level 2, Quest, Striker AGM.
I built the darn thing in hurry, I probably should have done some online researching first. (It would have helped with the finishing.) Anyhow, the building was easy, and the painting... well, let's just say that the kit instructions for finishing were less than adequate for someone whose never painted a model in their life.
Anyhow, with it all together and roughly painted, my buddy and I went out to the neighborhood park and launched it three times.
It was a bit windy, so the first launch I aimed the launch rod, a few degrees into the wind. It was nearly perfect as the rocket landed withing 30 yards of where we launched from. However, it did land in a bit of hardpan at the perimeter of the field and the rocket sustained some slight damage (small crack to a tail fin)
After deciding that I would have a broken heart if the rocket was additionally damaged in a second flight, we launched it again, aiming it to hopefully avoid the hardpan. The second launch was successful and landed even closer to us and no additional damage. Sweet!
The third launch, we opted for aiming the rocket straight up in hopes that it would land closer to where we parked our vehicle. The third launch was absolutely beautiful. Easily the highest of the three flights and just pretty to watch. However, it did not land anywhere near where we parked and it landed poorly crashing sideways into a berm that divides the park's field areas and breaking off the tail fin that was slightly cracked in the first flight.
The good news is that the cracked fin was a super easy fix. With a little super glue, and the poor paint job that I did, you can't hardly tell that it was broken. Sweet!
Anyway, I wish I had pics, but the only one we have is of a puff of smoke around the launch pad. Next time I'll bring my video camera instead.
Good stuff!
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