Back In The Hobby After Almost 50 Years

[ArthurAstroCam]

I built Big Bertha with my late father, who was a NASA engineer on Apollo 11, Have fond memories of going through the 1969 and 1970 Estes Catalogs. So much so that I have copies of both catalogs arriving tomorrow in the mail. Hope to build another BB this winter.

Back in the hobby with an Estes AstroCam Starter Set, it has been a pure joy. Have been launching with B engines, hope to trust my skills soon to try a C engine.

You can see a slow motion video of my latest launch here-

 

[Hobie1dog]

Welcome back, 1969 and 1970 were the years I got started too.

 

[boomtube-mk2]

I was going to get into rocketry back when I was a kid, but fire hadn't been invented yet and it is hard to light rocket motors without it.

 

[Enocelot]

I am back too, though this time I actually hope to launch some rockets.... in the mid 70s early 80s my Dad and I built a lot of rockets and planes for a wind tunnel I built for the science fair. I completed the air tunnel around '78 and we used it together for about 10 years.... though we NEVE launched a rocket!

I wonder why, though I believe it must have been that we wer sort of paternal about our creations and didn't want to risk busting them up or losing them.

This time I am determined to see some lift-offs, with my grandson!

 

[brockrwood]

I built Big Bertha with my late father, who was a NASA engineer on Apollo 11, Have fond memories of going through the 1969 and 1970 Estes Catalogs. So much so that I have copies of both catalogs arriving tomorrow in the mail. Hope to build another BB this winter.

Back in the hobby with an Estes AstroCam Starter Set, it has been a pure joy. Have been launching with B engines, hope to trust my skills soon to try a C engine.

You can see a slow motion video of my latest launch here-

The hobby is just like you remember, except that you get your own range box from Home Depot, instead of using the cardboard one from Estes.

 

[Blast it Tom!]

Welcome! We are curious as to your father's role in the Apollo missions (or at least I am). It may have been non-glamorous, but it wasn't non-essential, I'm sure. I was 13 when Apollo 11 succeeded so wonderfully. I was similarly launching back then, but then life happened and now I'm back at it after a similar 50 year hiatus!

 

[ArthurAstroCam]

Welcome! We are curious as to your father's role in the Apollo missions (or at least I am). It may have been non-glamorous, but it wasn't non-essential, I'm sure. I was 13 when Apollo 11 succeeded so wonderfully. I was similarly launching back then, but then life happened and now I'm back at it after a similar 50 year hiatus!

He helped in the design and engineering of tracking systems.

 

[Blast it Tom!]

He helped in the design and engineering of tracking systems.

Thanks! Now that I'm back into it, I find myself drawn to the same sorts of things. It is, to be honest, flabbergasting that we were able to accurately enter Lunar orbit after a main boost some 240,000 miles away with only a couple of minor mid-course corrections, and your Dad helped with that amazingly accurate work! Kudos to him!

 

[SkyFire]

Like you, I got into building and flying Estes rockets in the late 60's.
Just got back into the hobby when the pandemic hit.
My dad was a high school chemistry teacher in the 60's.
Science fairs were big back then. He had a student who designed and partially built a liquid fuel rocket capable of going into orbit. (Some helpful NASA engineers assisted him with his design.) Won the local and state Science Fairs and went to the Regional Science Fair with his project.
I decided to try my hand at building and flying a high power rocket. Now I have 10 and am hooked again!
Here's a couple;