hi

[forgottenalarm]

My daughter loved a rocket that someone launched at her school so i bought a beginner level estes kit with the little sky dart and farside rockets.

So needless to say i picked up a new hobby while my 2 year old cried about the bugs in the field :rofl:

Im not into making the rockets, as i am launching them. Its more of the engines/altitude for me oint:

Anyone else from md belong to any local clubs? I seen one for md/va and another for md/de but id preffer something closer to baltimore county/harford county if there is one.

 

[WillMarchant]

Welcome on board! https://www.narhams.org/ flies in Mt. Airy, MD and (limited) at NASA Goddard in Greenbelt, MD.

 

[forgottenalarm]

Welcome on board! https://www.narhams.org/ flies in Mt. Airy, MD and (limited) at NASA Goddard in Greenbelt, MD.

i think they are limited to D engines now at goddard? i read it on the club site a couple days ago.

 

[DAllen]

Welcome to the addiction. :dark:

There are 2 national organizations most of us belong to which both have a listing of clubs (plus lots of good information):

www.nar.org

www.tripoli.org

Any questions not answered there post them here and I am sure someone can either answer the ? or post where to find the appropriate information.

-Dave

 

[Bazookadale]

If you are interested in coming to a club launch, SPAAR is holding a weekend launch Sept 3-4 at Fort Indiantown Gap - about 2 hours from Baltimore. It is both an NAR contest and a sport launch, for info check https://www.spaar.org/ramtec/

 

[Aksrockets]

A "must have for every rocketeer" is the program OpenRocketIt's probably my most used tool in rocketry. If I would have found this out then I was just starting, I would have saved an estimated $25 on rockets/engines that were unstable. It will also help you print fins and do a bunch of other helpful stuff.

 

[powderburner]

Welcome to model rocketry, and to TRF!

I can understand if you prefer to spend time launching instead of building, that is a very reasonable approach!
I would like to recommend some designs that you might like a little better, namely the Fliskits line of beginner kits. Check out the Thingamajig and Whatchamacallit and Doodad, they are all very quick and simple to assemble. Fliskits has lots of great products for folks just like you who want to get started without having to build something complicated.

And no, I don't own any stock in Fliskits, and he isn't my brother-in-law. They just offer good stuff.

One other idea, if there is a Hobby Lobby near you; this week they are offering their 40%off coupon again. You can print as many as you like but you can only use them one at a time. Most HobLob stores carry a pretty good assortment of Estes kits including many beginner designs (skill level 1) and ready-to-fly stuff. They also usually carry a decent assortment of motors.

 

[Micromeister]

My daughter loved a rocket that someone launched at her school so i bought a beginner level estes kit with the little sky dart and farside rockets.

So needless to say i picked up a new hobby while my 2 year old cried about the bugs in the field :rofl:

Im not into making the rockets, as i am launching them. Its more of the engines/altitude for me oint:

Anyone else from md belong to any local clubs? I seen one for md/va and another for md/de but id preffer something closer to baltimore county/harford county if there is one.

Welcome too Model Rocketry!
Both you and the kids are more then welcome to come out and fly with the Oldest Model Rocket club in the good Ol'e USA. That is NARHAMS (in continuous operation since 1965) you can find out all about us at www.narhams.org
We meet monthly at College Park Airport (the oldest still operating Airport in the USA) on the 1st saturday of the month 5-10pm. usually starting with a build session 5-7 and the business meeting 7-9+.
We fly at Old National Pike Park in Mt Airy, Maryland generally on the 3rd Saturday of the month. Unfortunately this months launch had to be scrubbed. but next month is our annual day/Night Launch starting at noon - til 10PM Check the web site for up to the minute info on Launch activities.

Again Welcome to the Hobby it is addictive weather your into just flying, building or somewhere in between
Hope to meet you folks soon.

 

[forgottenalarm]

ill look into the fliskits coming up. i dont have a hobby lobby near me, just a hobby works, which may have them. thanks for the offer bazookadale, but thats a bit far and that is a bad weekend anyway.
I looked into that openrocket program and it will be on my list of things coming up. I used the nasa program which was pretty cool, and even though i can fix and work on almost anything, my math skills are a bit lacking in the engineering side.

 

[powderburner]

I used the nasa program which was pretty cool, and even though i can fix and work on almost anything, my math skills are a bit lacking in the engineering side.

Plowing through the basic performance equations involves more physics than actual engineering. If you have any patience (or interest), I posted a whole buncha stuff about how to do this for another guy....who apparently gave up and left. So, if you really want to learn this stuff and it needs more explaining, please don't feel bashful about PMing me, I'll be happy to walk you through it
https://www.rocketryforum.com/showthread.php?t=22871

 

[forgottenalarm]

Plowing through the basic performance equations involves more physics than actual engineering. If you have any patience (or interest), I posted a whole buncha stuff about how to do this for another guy....who apparently gave up and left. So, if you really want to learn this stuff and it needs more explaining, please don't feel bashful about PMing me, I'll be happy to walk you through it
https://www.rocketryforum.com/showthread.php?t=22871

thanks, ill keep that in mind. next week i will have alot of spare time to look into this stuff more.

 

[forgottenalarm]

Im now a NAR member. expensive as hell, but for the insurance, its all good.

 

[DAllen]

Im now a NAR member. expensive as hell, but for the insurance, its all good.

:rofl:

Wait 'till you start wanting to go through the certification process.

 

[forgottenalarm]

:rofl:

Wait 'till you start wanting to go through the certification process.

well, i paid for 3 years (wifes not here to yell at me and i can hide it )

It did say free HPR certifications though. Was that a line that i will regret not looking into?

 

[DAllen]

well, i paid for 3 years (wifes not here to yell at me and i can hide it )

It did say free HPR certifications though. Was that a line that i will regret not looking into?

Oh you didn't miss a thing. You think 3 years of NAR membership is salty just check out how much it costs to build an L1 rocket...motors and everything. Then look at the same thing for the L2 stuff...Then just check out how much an L3 motor costs. Yeah, you'll see what I mean then.

But seriously though, the most important thing to remember here is that this is JUST A HOBBY. So have fun with it. If you're operating within the safety rules and it makes YOU smile, run with it.

 

[Zeus-cat]

If you are into altitude then you may want to consider an altimeter. For a beginner I recommend the Perfectflight Pnut altimeter or the Altimeter Two.

The Pnut costs about $55. You will also want the data cable to download the flight data (altitude and velocity at 20 samples per second) to your PC. The cable costs an extra $25. You will need to add an altimeter bay to your rockets to use this altimeter. I plot my data on an Excel spreadsheet.

An alternative to that is the Altimeter Two. It can be placed in the parachute compartment of any rocket that is at least 18mm in diameter. I have flown mine several dozen times and it is nearly idiot proof. I have only screwed up once with it so it is not completly idiot proof. The altimeter reports peak altitude, peak velocity, peak acceleratioon and several other pieces of info.

 

[forgottenalarm]

k thanks guys. The high power rocketry will be a long term goal. mid power will be where its a short(ish) term goal, low power at the local schools with my daughter untill she gets into it.

As far as the altmeter goes, the local club i will be joining tested the different kinds in the same rocket, and most came up with different numbers. So for now i will learn the old fashioned math way, and then eventually i will invest into one when i get into the hpr's.