I got interested in model rocketry as a kid, around 8 years old or so, when I discovered a copy of Stine's Handbook at the local library. I must have checked that book out many times over the course of the next year or so, because I remember my mom rolling her eyes at me every time she saw me bringing it to the check out counter! When I was 9, we took a trip to Florida, and knowing that we would be near Kennedy Space Center, my mom bought for me the National Geographic film For All Mankind, about the Apollo program. For me, that was what clinched the deal. In Florida, we spent a day at KSC, saw a shuttle launch, as well as a Atlas II and a Delta II launch, and I remember being in awe of everything. That was summer 1992. When we got back home to Washington State, I started reading everything I could on spaceflight, and as a result, also started reading books on aviation. In the spring of 1993, my mom told my sister and I we were moving to Florida that fall, and we would be living on Merritt Island, home to the Space Center! Following another summer trip to Florida that summer, and witness a couple more launches, my mom finally relented and let me buy a model rocket. I was 10 years old when in August of 1993, she had my oldest sister's husband (who was a middle school science teacher) take me to a hobby shop and help me pick out a rocket and everything I would need to fly it. Over the course of that weekend, he helped me build my first rocket, an Estes Thunderhawk (Kit No 2002). I flew it maybe four times with him before it was time to pack up our house and move to Florida in late September 1993. Once In Florida, I continued to build estes kits for the next two years or so, building a fleet of maybe 10 rockets, before I gradually lost interest in the hobby.
My passion for space flight and aviation never went away, though. I won a scholarship to Space Camp in 1995, and still read every book I could find on the subject, as well as on aircraft. Fast forward to 1998, and my mom bought me a Christmas gift of an introductory flight lesson when I was 15. When I was 16, I started actively flying once I had a job, and flew at least two or three hours a month, slowly building my time. When I was 17, I got a job working at the Kennedy Space Center Visitor's Center. By chance, my first month on the job was the 20th anniversary of STS-1, and the day of the official NASA ceremony, I was one of the employees asked to work the event. I happened to be answering questions about one of the exhibits for an attendee when the director of the tour guides happened to overhear me. She pulled me aside and offered me a job working for her on the spot. All of the reading and research I had done for years paid off: I was the youngest tour guide on staff at the time, and the only one without an education degree, any work experience in the aerospace industry, or a college student studying a related field, which was a requirement for the job at the time. Then came September 11, and I lost my job due to the center being closed for security reasons, and as a result, couldn't afford to fly and finish my pilot's license. That when I remembered that at the Patrick AFB airshow that spring, the local NAR section did a display of high power rockets, and even flew a couple. I was hooked. I got back into rocketry, and bought a PML Tomahawk. I flew it on an failed L1 attempt in August 2002 at the Spacecoast Rocketry Association (I think that was their name!), and failed when the rocket drifted beyond a canal, and I couldnt recover it. Shortly after, I moved back to Washington State, and joined the local club, WAC, and certified L1 for the first time in Orting, WA in April 2003 on a BSD Sprint. I then built a PML Blank Brant X for a L2 attempt, and failed miserably when a coupler failed (I didnt use enough epoxy) on the flight. Being a poor college student, and with the BATFE issues at the time, I got out of the hobby for the next 13 years, but stayed on our local email lists, commenting on various threads once in a blue moon.
In November 2016, after a rough year personally, I decided that I was in a place where I could afford to get back at it, and purchased a Binder Excel, and a few mid power rockets. I started back flying at the local FAR101 launches locally last year, and then recerted L1 at Fire in the Sky in May 2017. Since then, I certed L2 a year ago, and have flown many great flights, culminating with many firsts a couple of months ago, when I flew my first 54mm motor, my first K motor, and broke a mile for the first time. Its been an interesting journey, and a very fun one! Sights are now set on L3 in the near future!
Oh, and that interest in aviation? its still there! I never did go back and get my pilot's license, but I did go to school and got my FAA Airframe and Powerplant mechanic's license. I now work for a living as a quality inspector with Boeing. And that interest in reading all I can get on the topic? I have a vast library of books on aviation and spaceflight in my home office, and I am a freelance aviation historian specializing in the aerospace industry of the former Soviet Union and CIS states.
