What is the worst part about the hobby?

[tHoagland]

This morning, I found myself sitting at my workbench, with a sterilized X-acto knife and tweezers, looking through a high power microscope, trying to remove a (nearly) invisible, fiberglass splinter from my finger. As I'm working on this, I think "fiberglass splinters have to be the worst part of rocketry", and I then realized, maybe it's not.

What do you think? What is the worst part of the hobby for you?

 

[neil_w]

In before everyone else says "sanding".

But my answer is: finding a place to fly.

 

[MJW]

The rising cost of AP and HTPB! TRA+NAR need to file another case and get KNSB listed as a standard propellent for the hobby to survive.

 

[David Schwantz]

Flying only once a month. And by the way, fiberglass slivers are nothing compared to carbon fiber ones

 

[4regt4]

In before everyone else says "sanding".

But my answer is: finding a place to fly.

Ditto. There is a private airfield nearby, but I'm having trouble making contact with anyone who can give me a yea or nay.

Hans.

 

[Antares JS]

For me, it's painting. Sanding is second worst.

 

[justforfun]

Being in your seventies and knowing you probably won't be flying for another 50 years.

Roy

 

[cerving]

Cleaning motor cases.

 

[NateB]

I can fly LPR and smaller MPR all I want near home, but balancing the family and work schedules along with club launches and good weather makes launching bigger rockets difficult.

 

[Bill S]

Sanding/priming etc, is the worst to me. Next worse is dragging my son along; he is 14 and losing interest in rocketry, but I can't leave him at home an hour+ away for 6-9 hours at a stretch. If the wife is off work she wants to attend and fly. So we get to drag him along and he sulks and moans, etc, making it a less than enjoyable flight day.

 

[dhbarr]

Milo Silage

 

[Grog6]

Not being able to order batches of materials big enough to get discounts. Us plebes are limited to 1 lb/year.

 

[Blast it Tom!]

Sanding/priming etc, is the worst to me. Next worse is dragging my son along; he is 14 and losing interest in rocketry, but I can't leave him at home an hour+ away for 6-9 hours at a stretch. If the wife is off work she wants to attend and fly. So we get to drag him along and he sulks and moans, etc, making it a less than enjoyable flight day.

Youth is wasted on the young... I wish my dad would've dragged me out to launches!

ETA: Yeah, finding a field is tough. I just hope I can get permission at my current candidate - it's probably the largest field Western PA has ever seen.

 

[Hobie1dog]

Having to go through this BS of re-certification, doing something over again that you've already proven that you have done the first time. What is the difference between this and not driving a car for 2 years? What happens, do they make you take a new driver's test all over again? There's a heck of a lot more liability for damage and accidents when you're driving a 5,000-lb car 70 mph. The people on the board of the organizations that make these rules are obviously doing very well financially, and it doesn't hurt them one bit... and the vendors obviously love it as they're going to get to sell more motors this way.

 

[Grog6]

My bad never had to drag me to anything that involved burning anything; We used to go shooting every saturday morning. We'd go to the city dump, and shoot rats.
As an adult, I ran into one of my dad's friends at a bar, and his first comment was"Do you know how much money you've cost me over the years? I didn't realize my dad was betting on my shooting.

 

[dvdsnyd]

Easily the rising cost of AP and HTPB. Rising costs of other commodities aren't going to help either, but HTPB and AP are going to get tough...I hope I'm wrong.

 

[dvdsnyd]

Having to go through this BS of re-certification, doing something over again that you've already proven that you have done the first time. What is the difference between this and not driving a car for 2 years? What happens, do they make you take a new driver's test all over again? There's a heck of a lot more liability for damage and accidents when you're driving a 5,000-lb car 70 mph. The people on the board of the organizations that make these rules are obviously doing very well financially, and it doesn't hurt them one bit... and the vendors obviously love it as they're going to get to sell more motors this way.

I guess I don't get this sentiment. A certification is for the most part any other flight. Especially if you've already been certified. The L2 test isn't anything to fret about. Maybe I'm missing something. Depending on the time away from the hobby, recertification isn't a bad thing. Lots of things change over the years. All of this becomes moot as long as one keeps their membership current (Tripoli). There are other ways to avoid this too - transferring TRA to NAR...

Dave

 

[David Schwantz]

I haul Milo, and we feed silage to the cows as kids. But what in the world are you talking about ???

 

[MadRocketer]

It used to not be an issue, but now it’s the
fire ban season.

 

[Scott_650]

Figuring out the best glue and paint…hah, hah, hah!

Seriously, paying hazmat shipping is my personal hangup - I know it’s a minor price component of the total I spend on rockets and it’s a necessary evil for the vendors but it still stings.

 

[jqavins]

It seems like a spoonerism: silo mileage. But I still don't get it.

Anyway, the worst part for me is myself. I have all these nifty ideas and half done projects and the only reason I don't do more is myself.

 

[fyrwrxz]

I would say carving out the time (and now fuel budget) for getting to a test range. I have to make arraignments to get a weekend off. In the 60's, I could literally walk 5 minutes from my house and fly all day. Developers and population pressure now make this a dedicated trip due to distances. The suppliers we have available now provide a much wider range of dedicated products ( now 3d printing has grown up) than we ever had before. Yes, costs are going up as they always do. Somehow I could afford to fly making 1.25/hr. Someone else is always going to have that unlimited checkbook, so I try to maintain a little sanity, but I'm still crazy around the edges. When my wife saw a check Scotty Bartel handed to Eric Gates (R.I.P. buddy, thanks for the certs) for two motors back in the day that was more than our mortgage, she put her foot down hard. "You are NOT going to do that to us, and you know I love you". Thus the promise to this day of never going to level 3. Yes, I could afford it easily now, but a promise is a promise. If luck holds, maybe I can fly a couple more years, it's getting too hard on the old airframe for, well, everything.

 

[TheTank]

The worst part of any hobby… guys/participants that feel their way is the ONLY way to do something and the attitude that follows such a mindset.

 

[smstachwick]

Having to go through this BS of re-certification, doing something over again that you've already proven that you have done the first time. What is the difference between this and not driving a car for 2 years? What happens, do they make you take a new driver's test all over again? There's a heck of a lot more liability for damage and accidents when you're driving a 5,000-lb car 70 mph. The people on the board of the organizations that make these rules are obviously doing very well financially, and it doesn't hurt them one bit... and the vendors obviously love it as they're going to get to sell more motors this way.

I can’t tell you how many times I’ve wished people had to take all the driving tests again every 10 years. I bet 25% would fail.

 

[ewomack]

The hobby, especially HPR, can require significant space. I don't have a workshop or a dedicated room for working in, so I have to make due with a pretty limited square footage. That makes spray painting and having a well-ventilated area for noxious fumes challenging and annoying, but not impossible. I get workspace envy looking at some of the pictures posted on this forum. Some of those work spaces look absolutely amazing.

 

[K'Tesh]

Re-entering the hobby and finding out that I could have been in contact with some of the movers and shakers that designed the stuff I love or had tons of info that I'd have loved to have learned passed away not long before I came back. I could have been in touch with them for years, but "Life"... You know..

 

[smstachwick]

A couple things about rockets that frustrate me, in no particular order:

• Painting
• Waterslide decals. Hate ‘em.
• Packing streamers in BT-5s.
• Swollen reload linings.
• Loss of flying sites over time
• The amount of work that would go into getting fire department and parks/rec permits I’d need to fly in the club’s off season
• Digging soggy paper motor casings out of motor mounts after water landings

But none of those things will stop me. You know what will? Not having the cash for the things I want to do.

 

[fyrwrxz]

Being in your seventies and knowing you probably won't be flying for another 50 years.

Roy

Well, I certainly plan on it! I have to get an off-road wheelchair, understanding nurse with defibrillator training (and maybe a more understanding wife..) and brush up on wantum physics (you know, where you want something to happen and it does..)

 

[Cape Byron]

LPR motor prices in Australia. Actually, the price of rocketry in Australia...

 

[ewomack]

I guess I don't get this sentiment. A certification is for the most part any other flight. Especially if you've already been certified. The L2 test isn't anything to fret about. Maybe I'm missing something. Depending on the time away from the hobby, recertification isn't a bad thing. Lots of things change over the years. All of this becomes moot as long as one keeps their membership current (Tripoli). There are other ways to avoid this too - transferring TRA to NAR...

Is recertification a TRA issue? The NAR L1 and L2 websites say: "NAR HPR certifications, once earned, are valid whenever NAR membership is current, and are reinstated upon request after membership lapses." While preparing and studying for L1, I have yet to come across anything regarding need for recertification. I'm asking just in case I'm missing something.