BARs, What Was Your BAR Moment?

I'm sure that there's a thread for this (I may have started it)... But, I have no idea how to find it, and it's quite likely fairly necroed. So... What brought you back into the fold?

For me, it was the discovery of the 808 #16 camera. My rockets had been hidden in boxes for years, and while cared for, they weren't an everyday thought. Then I was looking for cameras that could be mounted to my helmet, and my bicycle. I found techmoan's youtube videos on the 808 cameras, and thought to myself, "Wow! These are so small they could be used to fly on rockets... I wonder if...". The rest (11,382 posts on TRF alone) is history.

While, Semroc does produce an OMEGA rocket, its not an exact clone. The fins are different, the motor mount is different (better IMHO actually), it has a decal on the body tube (Estes catalogs had them, but the kit didn't), and the "camera" isn't a camera. I'm still working towards my goal of the CinerocDV. I've had successes (we're really close), but still not quite there (life keeps getting in the way).

Never successfully participated in a rocket launch as a kid, although I did have a mosquito with no motors or launch equipment.

A few years back I had a wild notion to experiment with different shapes of ultra long-range bullets, but a) several miles of range are required and b) the cost of equipment to precisely machine and measure was going to be very high.

So I saved money by switching to rocketry. Or at least, that's what I'm going to need you all to tell the missus

My boys' after school program launched Vikings behind the school.
It wasn't enough.

And then LDRS 33 was held at Bong - a mile away from my Cidery.

And then my elder boy went to a summer program at MTU and came home with a frackin' FIBERGLASS rocket. (A Wild Child)

Inspired.

After a 30 year absence from rocketry I was watching TV one night and a Honda Ridgeline commercial came on touting that the truck was for everyone work and play. Right at the end it shows a dad and his son arriving at a desert launch site and rockets were going up as they grab theirs from the ridgeline's in bed storage compartment and now I'm back........

This YouTube video did it for me. I flew a lot of Estes stuff as a kid on our farm, but I had no idea that HPR even existed until a few years ago. Now I'm addicted!

1999 while cleaning my parents attic. Finding a box of rockets I built,going back as far as 1965.
They were in perfect flyable condition.

Having my daughter and wanting to introduce her to flying toys. I had a box of rockets from when I was a kid so we pulled those out. Then I ordered a rocket I wanted as a kid but never got, then another.........then one day, I drove out to Tri Cities for a high power launch, and it was all over from there.

dhbarr said:

So I saved money by switching to rocketry. Or at least, that's what I'm going to need you all to tell the missus

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$50 USD, and I'll tell her exactly what you want me to say...

You can also tell her that I'm a (former) weapons expert (from MK109 practice bombs all the way up to nukes).

I had flew a couple of times with my son prior to 2005 but it drifted to the "I do not have enough time for it" pile.

In 2005 when I returned from Iraq and realized my family was drifting apart. Rocketry was a means to do something together. It has enhanced my marriage.

Recently, we have returned to rocketry once a again. Heck, my son is using his college programming training to develop a sound to LED beep program to convert the beeps of a WilsonFX system to light pulses for us deaf guys. He also came up with an idea to use a thermometer and Arduino to measure hybrid overflow exhaust from a Hypertek.

The hobby is unlike any other. The degree of collaboration and comradery is rare.

Was going to the local 4H Fair every year with my daughter. They usually had a model rocket launch, hosted by the Radical Rocketeers, around lunchtime; I always wanted to go but timing was usually bad. One year we finally got there, and it was awesome. I had never seen anything like the MDRM; even though they didn't launch it, it made an impression. I started looking Googling and found out what was actually going on in the hobby, and it (a) re-lit the fire inside me, and (b) kind of blew my mind.

The next year I went to the launch again, and decided that I was going to try to get back into it. Then I attended a RadRocks launch and that pretty much sealed the deal for me. I didn't necessarily expect to become this obsessed however.

Took my kids to GSFC gift shop, and asked, "Hey, kids, you want to launch a rocket?"

Found an Estes RTF Patriot launch set on clearance at Walmart. Still have that rocket somewhere...

Launched initially in the heyday of the 60's but it faded, then did it again in the late 70's but it faded again. Around 2005 the wife told me to either do something with that box of rockets or get rid of them. The rest is history...............

Watched my kid's high school struggling with TARC because of inadequate time and support at school lunchtime meetings. Got together with another parent and said, "If these kids are going to be successful, we need to help them organize and give them more time to build." That quickly went to "I need to learn a lot more" and "Let's go to the big regional launch" and "I'll cert L1 on a scratch build." The rabbit hole has only gotten deeper.

Two different BAR times, sorta:

Some of you will remember Estes' "A rocketeer's guide to avoid suicide" leaflet. Either that, or one of the catalogs, said about motor making; "Don't attempt this unless you have a college degree and laboratory", something like that. Took that to heart but forgot about it when I discovered cars and girls, not in that order.

In 88 I had just started at Murray State, was leafing thru a Popular Science, and there was the ad for a book on how to make motors. And I suddenly recalled the statement above, and realized, "Hey, I have those now!"

Ordered the book and began to (whisper it!) make BP motors. That was my first BAR, but I guess it doesn't really count because I was Doing A Bad Thing...

Couple years later, looking at Popular Mechanics, and there was the ad, with a photo of a couple of guys working on a HUUUUGE rocket. Ye gods, it must have been five or six feet tall and four inches in diameter! I think it was PML that ran the ad, which said "Flights to 50,000 feet!"

Well of course, instantly, I was back. Finally was able to go to a launch in Manchester TN, mouth agape and drooling over these rockets. (Well, not the big Aerobee, it was like half or two-thirds scale, and came down in flames.) Pestered everyone I could with questions, met Jim Mitchell, Dennis Lamothe, Bruce Kelly, and other notables. Won a Starburst(?) kit in a raffle, swapped the two 24 mm for one 29 mm. That was 1994. Wow...I've been doing crazy s#*t for 25 years! Who'd a thunk it?

Best -- Terry

I've Re-BARed a couple of times. I started when I was about 10 or 11 in the early 80's (80'-81'). My Dad had purchased an Estes starter set at one point and I think we flew an Alpha and a Sky Hook a couple of times. The rockets and launch equipment sat in his workshop for a few years. When I got tired of static plastic models. I asked dad if I could start "doing rockets" and he handed down his rocket stuff (I still have the pad and controller) and ordered a couple of rockets for me to build. That phase took me through Estes, Centuri and some MPC kits and lasted until (like most of us) I discovered girls and cars. Fast forward to 1993. After a tough break up with a girlfriend, I needed time to myself and building rockets seemed like good therapy. It was. During that period I built an Estes Mercury Redstone, a Solar Sailor II and one of my favorites the Pathfinder, among others. Good launch sites at that time were hard to find due to a development swing in our area. Not being able to fly easily put a damper on my enthusiasm and I put the balsa and cardboard tubes away. A few more girlfriends,an apartment, a wedding, a house, an exceptionally expensive hobby (reef aquarium keeping) and then kids (twins at that!) and I found myself looking for something to do with my boys. About that time I I wandered into the local mom and pop (RIP) hobby/silk screen/embroidery shop in town and spotted their rocket section. The Custom Rocket co. Ion Pulsar caught my eye and I picked up copies of the Estes and Custom catalogs and drooled over them for a few weeks. During that time I stopped by my Dads and grabbed all my old stuff only a few rockets survived storage, but it was enough to get me hooked again. A year or two later I discovered CMASS held launches on a regular basis and talked the family into checking out a club launch. It was really all over after that, once I witnessed my first composite motor launch. Now several years later and a L2 Cert , I can safely say that this is truly a great hobby that I am proud to pass on to my children.

I was working with a homeschoolers support group in Maple Valley, Washington - teaching a once-a-week classed called “Aerospace” that was part history, part science, part current events. I wanted to do a design project with the kids and had had mixed results with “foamy” electric R/C airplanes. In the third or fourth year of this class one of my students suggested rockets and I thought “oh, yeah, I used to do that.” It had been over 30 years since I had flown one.

I went over to WalMart which at that time had starter sets and picked up the RTF Patriot set. I took it out to a field where I had often flown electric RC airplanes and launched it. Immediately I thought “I forgot how much fun this was”.....and from there to here has been about 10 years, dozens of rockets (and hundreds of kits), two trips to NARAM (winning one event at NARAM-56 and becoming reserve meet champion (second place) at NARAM-60), TARC and Seattle Museum of Flight involvement, and more. I tell people that the rockets pretty much have taken over my life and it’s true.

I'll ask the stupid question: what does BAR stand for? Big Adult Rocketeer? Bad-Ass Adult Rocketeer?

jmuck78 said:

I'll ask the stupid question: what does BAR stand for? Big Adult Rocketeer? Bad-Ass Adult Rocketeer?

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Born Again Rocketeer

K'Tesh said:

... So... What brought you back into the fold?.....

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Cool topic for a thread K'Tesh... thanks for the reboot.

For me, I retired. My goal was to find a hobby where I could use my CAD skills to design stuff that I could build in my home shop. But build something relatively inexpensive.

LPR / MPR fits that goal nicely and the memories of rocketry from my youth are all good.

I was cleaning out the truck of the car and discovered a small launch kit and rocket.

Turns out my daughter was launching at the local park.

The rest as they say is history.

A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away...

A coworker's wife is a middle school teacher, and Al would donate a couple hundred bux to his wife's science class for Estes rockets. The FD would go out to the school and help them launch, and all had a good time. Then Al brought a few to work, and we launched in a big area out behind the shop.
Then I looked up model rocketry on the internet, bought some mid-power models and some reloadable AP motors, found the LUNAR club, and life hasn't been the same since.
But I think the truly discerning moment (for me) came at my first LUNAR launch. I thought I was a tough kid on the block with my big, bad F motors. Then someone lit an H242, and my brain melted. I've had this funny twitch ever since...

Mid 90's, wife decided to study for the MCATs and go to Med School. Asked me to find something quiet to do in the house while she studied. So I went to the local hobby shop to buy a model airplane or something. Got to looking at the magazine rack. Lo and behold there was HPR mag with a 6" Nike Smoke on the cover with a 12 foot flame launching at some desert location (later found out it was Blackrock). This was a Holy S**t moment. I couldn't believe you could buy motors that big!! Biggest I remember from my teenage years was a C.
So I bought an Estes Bullpup, found and joined LUNAR, then found and joined AEROPAC and life has not been the same since. Have now flown more M's than I can count (mostly ARLISS flights) and met so many great people in this hobby. Truly a defining moment.
William

Coincidentally, the Bull Pup was my first BAR build. It was a design I had liked as a kid, but had never owned. And the fun part about being a BAR is that this time around, it's easier to afford the kits you always wanted.

As a kid (I've posted this before; some of you might know it) I only built one rocket, and messed it up so it never got off the ground. If I'm "born again" then I was still-born the first time. That was the mid '70s. The kit was a Big Bertha. Regret lingered far in the background.

In the early 2000' a friend discovered RockSim; we both downloaded the trial version and began to play. I learned empirically some things about the design of rockets that I had only vaguely understood from reading them. (Things like bigger and bigger fins won't get you stable if they are so big they bring the CG down as much as the CP, which will happen if the leading edge is already above the CP.)

After a while, though, design and simulation began to pale (but hadn't paled much, yet) and I decided that, goddamnit, I was going to get off my fat arse and actually build something! I would start at the bottom with simple kits to build skill and work my way up. The cheap Chinese RTF Patriot was a waste of time. A couple of Skill Level 1 kits, a Level 2 or two, and so on.

Now L1 certified on a modified Big Daddy. Rocket activity has been seriously curtailed by several moves and loss of work space, but hasn't stopped entirely. With this latest move there will be space once it's unpacked and organized. Then I can resume work on my L2 bird, and the rest of my build pile (which is almost all LP).

The latest addition to the build pile is a Big Bertha, which will give me some sense of redemption.

I was in always interested in the NASA rocket launches and was glued to the TV for every one I could catch in the 60's. In the late 60's, my Junior High School (because that's what they were called back then) had a rocket club and I joined. Flew with the other kids in the neighborhood for a few years until we all stopped. Got back into it on my own in the early 80's; I wish I had some of the Estes kits from back then when balsa was still used for nosecones. As I was doing it solo, that faded.

While working at a company in New Hampshire in 1999, a coworker said he'd be in my Massachusetts town that weekend for a rocket launch. I shared my history in the hobby with him and showed up at my first CMASS launch as a spectator only. Standing there talking about it with my friend, a rocket went up, the BP smoke wafted across my nostrils and I was back in. I'm now the president of the club enjoying all that goes with that office. Even if that burns me out, I'll likely stay with the hobby as long as I can.

Estes Alpha 3 starter set with launch pad. That one box on a department store shelf reignited me.

Walked past the rockets section in Hobby Town, saw the Wizard.....my first rocket from back in the late 70s. Bought it and put it together with my son and daughters. Launched it at the local school yard, then went back to the store and saw the Leviathan and Argent. Those came home with me.....and along the way I found TRF and YORF, and discovered High Power. From there my wallet opened like a giant clam.

KennB said:

Standing there talking about it with my friend, a rocket went up, the BP smoke wafted across my nostrils and I was back in.

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There is something in that scent isn't there... Even 20 or 30 year old BP residues inside of a shelf queen can do it.

I once found a "Lost" rocket by smell. I was launching at a farm, and the rocket landed out of sight. As I was making my way between the crop rows, I got a whiff of BP... Turned myself into the wind, and immediately found the rocket.

Your nose is as good as a tricorder.

Back in May 2016, I found a tote in the basement that held my old Hornet model, A Delta II / Astrocam, and my binders of flight logs, letters, old club news letters, catalogs, photos, contest ribbons, and all the other stuff I had held on to when I left the hobby back 1985.