Hello everyone! After a 40+ year hiatus from the rocketry world, I find that I am once more returning to the hobby. In order to provide assistance to my oldest son who is working on a high school physics project, I retrieved my rocketry gear from a closet in my parent's house. Dusting off both the boxes and my memory, I was amazed to see what I still had after all of these decades. Of course, I remembered the finished rockets with their now crumbling shock cords, but I had forgotten about a number of kits that I had that were never assembled. The packages were opened, but complete -- apparently I had either run out of time or interest. Like discovering a time capsule, I gazed upon the long-forgotten Estes kits -- Scrambler, Sprint, Saros, Aerobee 300, X-Ray, EAC Viper and others.
Since we were working with a deadline, I picked up an Alpha III kit and a pack of motors in order to expedite my son's project. After assembling the old orange Porta Pad and slapping some batteries in the Solar Launch Controller (circa 1977), we were soon sending the Alpha skyward. My two boys and myself had a great time on a beautiful September afternoon, and I am quite confident that we will have many more outings in the future.
Now, as an adult looking back to my childhood hobby, I can't help but think about going higher and faster! What have I done???
Since we were working with a deadline, I picked up an Alpha III kit and a pack of motors in order to expedite my son's project. After assembling the old orange Porta Pad and slapping some batteries in the Solar Launch Controller (circa 1977), we were soon sending the Alpha skyward. My two boys and myself had a great time on a beautiful September afternoon, and I am quite confident that we will have many more outings in the future.
Now, as an adult looking back to my childhood hobby, I can't help but think about going higher and faster! What have I done???