Basic Range or flight Box

MarkII said:

[*]Machete
[*]Pistol with 6 rounds ammo

Click to expand...

You must have really BIG snakes where you live!

MarkII said:

That WAS the short, simple list!

Oh, yeah. I forgot to add, under Personal Supplies:

• Machete
• Pistol with 6 rounds ammo

Sheesh!

Mark \\.

P. S. Now come on; obviously I'm kidding!!

Click to expand...

Only 6 rounds???

evil ed said:

Only 6 rounds???

Click to expand...

To be used as a dethermalizer...

Mark \\.

P. S.: Beginners - this is just a joke! Never shoot or hurl anything at a rocket that is descending (or otherwise)!!!

MarkII said:

To be used as a dethermalizer...

Mark \\.

P. S.: Beginners - this is just a joke! Never shoot or hurl anything at a rocket that is descending (or otherwise)!!!

Click to expand...

Mark, if I were a beginner here, I'd probably be thinking you're a dangerous glue geek.

Pippen said:

Mark, if I were a beginner here, I'd probably be thinking you're a dangerous glue geek.

Click to expand...

Well, you are one third right...

Glue? I only use it for its intended purpose.

Dangerous? No, I'm mostly harmless...

Seriously, I thought that my list was fairly simple. My intention was to show how I had streamlined and pared down my list to its essentials. Other than the rocket-carrying box, which is something different from a range box, and the motor boxes, which are also a different kind of luggage (and which will vary according to what you are launching that day), there are just three small boxes. If you go to a club launch, you don't need to bring your own launch pad or controller. The rest you can fit into a small backpack. OK, maybe you can cut back on some of the tools; I listed those that I have found useful. The CA? Well, everyone recommends bringing it, so I pack it and bring it with me, even though I have never ever actually used any at a launch. The personal comfort items can vary according to your region and situation.

I really did intend it to be a guide for beginners. When I went to my first launch after I resumed flying again a few years ago, I threw everything I could think of into the car, including the kitchen sink! I just wanted to provide a basic list here of the things that were actually important and useful to bring to a launch, based on my own experiences since then.

Mark \\.

P. S. Oh, two more things that I forgot to include in the list:

• signal flares
• shark repellent

MarkII said:

Well, you are one third right...

Glue? I only use it for its intended purpose.

Dangerous? No, I'm mostly harmless...

Seriously, I thought that my list was fairly simple. ....The CA? Well, everyone recommends bringing it, so I pack it and bring it with me, even though I have never ever actually used any at a launch. The personal comfort items can vary according to your region and situation.

I really did intend it to be a guide for beginners.

Click to expand...

Seriously, I thought it was a good and simple list. I'd just read the stuff on the glue thread and it crossed my mind that if I were brand new I might be inclined to think that dethermalizer + sealed air chamber talk = dangerous glue geek. Harmless...and of course I was three-thirds teasing...and I'd better shut up now.

We've never used superglue at a launch but I've pulled out the duct tape more than once.

P. S. Oh, two more things that I forgot to include in the list:

• signal flares
• shark repellent

Click to expand...

Everyone knows that if you launch in primeval locations, you should expect shark encounters. You'd better pack two cans of shark repellent just to be sure.

Gotta have it!!! I have an old sidewinder whose fin split in a 45, and that thing is STILL!! flying w/the duct tape on it! Duct saved the day, and I guess I was too lazy to fix it when I got home, or cuz it flew so well after I taped it, I never took it off... A Must have in the box

Sinister Mr. S said:

Gotta have it!!! I have an old sidewinder whose fin split in a 45, and that thing is STILL!! flying w/the duct tape on it! Duct saved the day, and I guess I was too lazy to fix it when I got home, or cuz it flew so well after I taped it, I never took it off... A Must have in the box

Click to expand...

Agreed -- duct tape is an essential tool, regardless of the job or activity.

It's "the handyman's secret weapon" after all...

Mark \\.

Being crazy about being Prepared, I had put a list together and it was not all that hard to get all the items together. As others have said you do not "need" all of this but it is nice to have when you do. Somethings can be left out depending on the conditions but this is my "Full List"

Launch pads (Estes, Quest and/or Custom Model mounted to a folding saw horse)
Launch Rod pack (3/4 PVC tube with a sealed cap on one end and a screw top on the other holding some 1/8”, two 3/16”, and two ¼&#8221 All are sanded and coated with Teflon spray.
Mercury Engineering Igniter Lighter 12 Volt Launch controller
12 volt sealed battery charged
Quest Launch Controller (Back Up)
Spare batteries (9 volt)
Box to hold Engines / Motors, igniters and plugs
Wadding / gallon bag of dog barf
Couple of used motors or Cast Iron extensions for a stand-off
Spare Blast Deflectors (Tomato Cans top and bottom removed, Cut length wise and then bent in half with a hole drilled for the Launch rod)
Spare parachutes and streamers on Snap Swivels
Extra Shock Cords (Walmart Fabric elastic)
Launch lugs
Screw eyes
Shroud line
Extra snap swivels
Tape disks

Needle Nose Pliers
Small slip joint pliers
Some lead weight.
Motor adapters like E to D spacers
White and CA glue
5 minute Epoxy
Good 3M masking tape, Scotch tape, Duct Tape
Extra leads/clips for launcher
Clip whip
Baby powder
Sandpaper, Green Scotch-Brite Pad, steel wool.
Teflon spray
Tundra Fire extinguisher
X-Acto #1 knife and spare #11 blades
Scissors
Pack of Baby Wipes
Band Aids

Pens and Sharpie
Small notebook with information on your rockets and for notes

Garden Sprayer full of water
Small Metal can for spent motors.

That's about it

Greg

GNaroz said:

That's about it
Greg

Click to expand...

I just gotta ask: do you remember what you took with you your first time launching? When we were kids we'd walk out to the back yard with a rocket, launch pad and controller, engines and wadding and launched the thing. We didn't even have parents along.

Pippen said:

I just gotta ask: do you remember what you took with you your first time launching? When we were kids we'd walk out to the back yard with a rocket, launch pad and controller, engines and wadding and launched the thing. We didn't even have parents along.

Click to expand...

As I was reading this I had this nostalgic feeling wash over me as I remembered when I was a kid...

My range box was a brown paper lunch bag.

My first couple of launches I didn't bring anything with me at all, which meant several trips home for a new igniter or tape or something. (I flew in my neighbors yard)

After that I came up with the idea of carrying stuff in the bag. It was years before I moved up to an actual "box".

It was years before I found a box that really met my needs. It's the same box I am using today and is about 25 years old. (it's that blue box with all the range box stickers on it )

jim

I was kind of the same way. As a kid, it didn't take too long and I was carrying a lot of stuff along. I used the "Range Box" the Alpha starter set came in.

MarkII said:

Agreed -- duct tape is an essential tool, regardless of the job or activity.

It's "the handyman's secret weapon" after all...

Mark \\.

Click to expand...

Hey, anything that can save three astronauts and the mission is worthy of being included in our range boxes...

If it weren't for duct tape, Apollo 13 would still be out there somewhere!!!

OL JR

Pippen said:

I just gotta ask: do you remember what you took with you your first time launching? When we were kids we'd walk out to the back yard with a rocket, launch pad and controller, engines and wadding and launched the thing. We didn't even have parents along.

Click to expand...

Didn't launch in the back yard, but walked to the end of the street and flew in the "vacant lot" -- more like a dozen vacant lots. Where did all those open fields go? (Speaking for us city dwellers, you folks living out in the "country" have it made!)

I remember having one of the long, narrow shipping boxes from Estes to carry all my stuff in. It was mostly mail-order when I started in '63. I was flying for several years before we had any hobby stores carry model rockets.

My first "rocket range" was a bike ride away (a little too far for a walk) at the opposite end of the neighborhood from where I lived, but my friend's (and fellow rocketeer's) house was right on the way, so I would stop there before heading over.

My first range box was my bike, as I described earlier in this thread:

https://www.rocketryforum.com/showpost.php?p=7262&postcount=19

We had very large yards in my neighborhood, but they certainly weren't large enough to fly a rocket in, plus they contained obstacles like power lines, trees and older siblings.

MarkII

MarkII said:

We had very large yards in my neighborhood, but they certainly weren't large enough to fly a rocket in, plus they contained obstacles like power lines, trees and older siblings.

Click to expand...

Older siblings! I thought they were targets!

Pippen said:

...We didn't even have parents along.

Click to expand...

I talked about this in a post awhile back, but my parents never approved of my model rocketry activities. They always saw it as being just this side of criminality, and thought that the next step for me would be to start building pipe bombs. Even after I showed them the literature that I received from Estes Industries, they never really accepted it. I had to sneak my stuff out of the house whenever I went to launch my rockets. I also had to keep watch for the arrival in the mail of any of my orders from Estes, so that I could rush out to the mailbox, grab the package and smuggle it back into the house and down to the basement before anyone saw it. My folks knew that I had the stuff (because they demanded to see it), but I learned quickly to be very discreet and keep it out of sight, and to never talk about model rocketry when I was at home.

The reason why I don't have anything remaining from those days was because once I had left for college, my parents, without my knowledge, went in and took all of my model rockets, supplies and accessories, and threw them in the trash.

jflis said:

...
It was years before I found a box that really met my needs. It's the same box I am using today and is about 25 years old. (it's that blue box with all the range box stickers on it )

jim

Click to expand...

I still haven't found one!

Trident said:

...
I remember having one of the long, narrow shipping boxes from Estes to carry all my stuff in. It was mostly mail-order when I started in '63. I was flying for several years before we had any hobby stores carry model rockets.

Click to expand...

I got all of my model rocketry stuff via mail order back when I started in 1967, too, and did so right until I put it all away for awhile in 1971. No hobby shops where I lived carried any model rocketry supplies back then; in fact, when I started, no one where I lived had even heard of model rockets!

I used to keep all of my supplies in those long shipping boxes... and I still do! (See attachment)

MarkII

MarkII said:

I talked about this in a post awhile back, but my parents never approved of my model rocketry activities. They always saw it as being just this side of criminality, and thought that the next step for me would be to start building pipe bombs. Even after I showed them the literature that I received from Estes Industries, they never really accepted it. I had to sneak my stuff out of the house whenever I went to launch my rockets. I also had to keep watch for the arrival in the mail of any of my orders from Estes, so that I could rush out to the mailbox, grab the package and smuggle it back into the house and down to the basement before anyone saw it. My folks knew that I had the stuff (because they demanded to see it), but I learned quickly to be very discreet and keep it out of sight, and to never talk about model rocketry when I was at home.

<snip>

Click to expand...

Wow. Anyone else have this problem? I had just the opposite reaction from my parents. My dad bought me my first rocket (Sky Hook) and my mom (the crafty one) taught me how to use tools and such to aid in my building skills. While they never actively involved themselves in my building and flying, they certainly encouraged it (this is back in the early/mid 1960's).

Even my Grandfather (on my mom's side) encouraged me to bring my models up to Schroon Lake in the summer and go flying with me

jim

jflis said:

Wow. Anyone else have this problem? I had just the opposite reaction from my parents. My dad bought me my first rocket (Sky Hook) and my mom (the crafty one) taught me how to use tools and such to aid in my building skills. While they never actively involved themselves in my building and flying, they certainly encouraged it (this is back in the early/mid 1960's).

Even my Grandfather (on my mom's side) encouraged me to bring my models up to Schroon Lake in the summer and go flying with me

jim

Click to expand...

Both my parents were right off the boat from Sicily! Actually my mom came over in 1922 and my dad came over in 1924.

They both agreed that my rocket hobby was the dumbest thing a young man could be interested in.

Knowing this attitude when I went to college I boxed up all my old rocket stuff and took it with me!

sandman said:

Both my parents were right off the boat from Sicily! Actually my mom came over in 1922 and my dad came over in 1924.

They both agreed that my rocket hobby was the dumbest thing a young man could be interested in.

Knowing this attitude when I went to college I boxed up all my old rocket stuff and took it with me!

Click to expand...

Good thinking... I wish I had done that. While my mom appreciated my craft work, she wasn't thrilled with my stuff laying around so she got rid of it all in a garage sale...

My dad (1 generation from poland) didn't understand my fascination with rockets (or any craft for that matter), but he did support it. My grandad (Elmer) simply LOVED it. He, like me, was all caught up in the space race

Well, it definitely wasn't an "immigrant" thing in my case, because both of my parents' families had been here in the US for generations. I think it was more of a "city" (Detroit) thing. My folks also tended to underestimate me, and, for anything that I was involved in, to always assume the worst. It was the '60's, and there was that generational thing going on. That explains part of it, but not all of it. BTW, I was 13 years old when I got started in model rocketry.

My parents (especially my father) were enthusiastic supporters of the US space program, but they didn't see anything space-related, or even science-related, in model rocketry. They thought that it was more akin to pyrotechnics and bomb-making, and saw it as being ultimately destructive in nature. What is ironic is that I never showed or voiced any interest in building fireworks or bombs, either before or since that time, and that I was attracted to Estes Industries precisely because of its emphasis on safety.

I had become keenly interested in building tiny model rockets that could fly several years before I actually got started (and several years before I even knew that model rocketry existed as an actual hobby), but I had not pursued my ideas because I didn't know how to go about building and propelling tiny rockets safely and legally. When I finally saw the ads for Estes Industries and Centuri Engineering in the back of Boy's Life magazine in late 1966, they looked to me like they would finally provide me with such a way.

MarkII

Pippen said:

I just gotta ask: do you remember what you took with you your first time launching? When we were kids we'd walk out to the back yard with a rocket, launch pad and controller, engines and wadding and launched the thing. We didn't even have parents along.

Click to expand...

My earliest Model Rocket experience happened with my BSA Troop & ScoutMaster. Our Troop meetings were held in Far Southwest Washington DC at a very small City park called Bald Eagle Rec Center. I don't believe the entire park was more then 5 to 8 acres if that. Each of the troop members placed an order for an Alpha Starter kit with Estes all sent to our Scoutmasters house. On arriving Mr. Carpenter sent out the call through our telephone tree that the next weeks meeting would be a building session and maybe launch. None of us, Including Mr Carpenter had any idea of how long or what would be involved with getting our Alpha's ready to fly. It was a grand experience, I don't recall how far we got at the 3 hour long meeting but I do recall with everything else that had to be done at our weekly meetings we did not complete our models or fly that evening.
As I recall our starter sets came in those Nifty "range box" cardboard containers, including just about everything needed. All in all it was a great experience for our two patrol troop. I don't recall why, but I never built that model, it may have been given it to another Scout, I was the JASM at the time and knew I had another model already on the way. My first model rocket was a Centuri Javelin recieved by mail the following week after the troops Estes order arrived. Mr. Carpenter and I went on to do a Bunch of rocketry intertwined with Scouting from that meeting on.
To this day we still stay in contact with one another still enjoying both Scouting and MR

Micromeister said:

My earliest Model Rocket experience happened with my BSA Troop & ScoutMaster. Our Troop meetings were held in Far Southwest Washington DC at a very small City park called Bald Eagle Rec Center. I don't believe the entire park was more then 5 to 8 acres if that. Each of the troop members placed an order for an Alpha Starter kit with Estes all sent to our Scoutmasters house. On arriving Mr. Carpenter sent out the call through our telephone tree that the next weeks meeting would be a building session and maybe launch. None of us, Including Mr Carpenter had any idea of how long or what would be involved with getting our Alpha's ready to fly. It was a grand experience, I don't recall how far we got at the 3 hour long meeting but I do recall with everything else that had to be done at our weekly meetings we did not complete our models or fly that evening.
As I recall our starter sets came in those Nifty "range box" cardboard containers, including just about everything needed. All in all it was a great experience for our two patrol troop. I don't recall why, but I never built that model, it may have been given it to another Scout, I was the JASM at the time and knew I had another model already on the way. My first model rocket was a Centuri Javelin recieved by mail the following week after the troops Estes order arrived. Mr. Carpenter and I went on to do a Bunch of rocketry intertwined with Scouting from that meeting on.
To this day we still stay in contact with one another still enjoying both Scouting and MR

Click to expand...

John, You provide a perfect example of what I have said in other threads about teaching rocketry to our youths... The teacher will remember the day for months, perhaps years. The student (you, in this case) will remember it for a lifetime...

jflis said:

John, You provide a perfect example of what I have said in other threads about teaching rocketry to our youths... The teacher will remember the day for months, perhaps years. The student (you, in this case) will remember it for a lifetime...

Click to expand...

Without Question Jim:
I couldn't agree with you more!
I've tried hard over the year to continue that philosophy. Teaching Scouting and MR is truely a joyous way of paying forward, long before the term was ever coined.

While I no longer remember the exact date I can say it was the 3rd Thrusday of April 1963 Oh good grief that was awhile ago LOL!

How about Soccer Mom repellent?

John,

Could your boy Scout Troop have been building Astron Scouts or Marks at that time? Or Sky Hooks? In April of 1963, the Alpha was still four years away from being released as a kit.

The Boy Scouts were indirectly involved in my introduction to model rocketry, too. It was through ads in Boy's Life (BSA's official magazine) that I learned of Estes and Centuri. And my "rocket buddy" who I introduced to model rocketry right after I got my first order from Estes was the son of our Scoutmaster and was our leader Scout. But our Scout Troop itself had no involvement in rocketry; in fact, this friend was the only other model rocketeer that I ever met until I attended my first ever club launch in 2006.

MarkII

doh!

MarkII said:

John,

Could your boy Scout Troop have been building Astron Scouts or Marks at that time? Or Sky Hooks? In April of 1963, the Alpha was still four years away from being released as a kit.

The Boy Scouts were indirectly involved in my introduction to model rocketry, too. It was through ads in Boy's Life (BSA's official magazine) that I learned of Estes and Centuri. And my "rocket buddy" who I introduced to model rocketry right after I got my first order from Estes was the son of our Scoutmaster and was our leader Scout. But our Scout Troop itself had no involvement in rocketry; in fact, this friend was the only other model rocketeer that I ever met until I attended my first ever club launch in 2006.

MarkII

Click to expand...

yea your probly right Scout sets? Scouts for Scouts makes sense...

My parents were fairly neutral, I suppose. The only complaint I got was painting in the less than adequately ventilated basement, and when I'd ask for motors when money was short in the house.

My parental story actually ties back into the range box discussion:

I actually got my dad interested in model rocketry. After about six months of launching, he built a large wooden box that contained a simple launch control panel and enough space to carry a half-dozen smaller rockets. Bigger birds (like his Estes ARCAS or my Interceptor) were carried out to the ballfield - er, launch site by hand.

We prepped all the birds at home- motors, chutes, everything. Once flown on the range, that was it for that rocket. We never carried spare motors or tape or glue or anything!