Goonies... who would have thought?

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Phred

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I am just stunned.....stunned that this category exists.

When the Goonybirds originally appeared in 1973, I wanted a Star Snoop...REALLY BADLY. My Dad nixed it however, telling me "Those aren't real rockets". I never got one.

Years later, I became a BAR, and of course, I started buying those original Goonybirds I never had as a kid. And cloning them...
I soon found that as appealingly strange as they were, they flew like pigs. Even the A10 barely got them going.

One day, I was building a Baby Bertha, and I had a set of fins on the table from a Goblin clone I was working on. For some reason, I was compelled to buiild the model with the Goblin fins. Once the model was painted, I added bits from the Goblin decal sheet. I suddenly realized, that I had a dwarfed, Goonybird version of the Goblin. Even better: the model flew well on an 18mm motor. Far better than the originals did on an A10.
It was all downhill from there... next was the Goony Max, then the Goonybird Zero.

I am tickled pink to see how so many modelers are building Goonies. I am also VERY impressed by the large variety of Goonified designs that have appeared on the forum. You guys have made Goony versions of designs I never thought could be Goonified!!

Get Goony!!

Phred
 
I am tickled pink to see how so many modelers are building Goonies. I am also VERY impressed by the large variety of Goonified designs that have appeared on the forum. You guys have made Goony versions of designs I never thought could be Goonified!!
So let's see 'em!

Yours too, Phred!
 
When the Goonybirds originally appeared in 1973, I wanted a Star Snoop...REALLY BADLY. My Dad nixed it however, telling me "Those aren't real rockets". I never got one.

My favorite rocket of all times is the Zoom Broom. As much as anything, because it reminds me of the one I had as a kid.

Of course, now, I have a full set of originals. I need to get them all built and cloned!

-Kevin
 
I had the same experience you did.
The EMRR "Family Photo" Contest came up. I had 3 Goblins but needed a new member for the extra point in the 2009 challenge.
I had a Thundergoon almost to the point of painting. It just didn't do anything for me and sat on a shelf.
I started pulling parts from older models and the Franken Goblin was built.
It flies great with a B6-4. It wouldn't have made it on a A10.
Check out the logo attachment -

Goblin&F.Goblin.jpg
 
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...One day, I was building a Baby Bertha, and I had a set of fins on the table from a Goblin clone I was working on. For some reason, I was compelled to buiild the model with the Goblin fins.

... next was the Goony Max, then the Goonybird Zero....


See, that is how the addiction starts. You start out building "just one goony", then the next thing you know you are upscaling, and then moving to MPR, then HPR....Before you know it, you are completely out of control...:D:D

:roll::roll:
 
The first model rocket launch I ever saw was a Zoom Broom back in the summer of ‘74. The neighbors were some mighty big kids, I’d say sixth or seventh graders and their Dad was the neighborhood “know it all.” I had just completed my Alpha with a brush pained red and white scheme and it didn’t look that bad compared to their goofy zoom broom. They launched first of course, but only after the dad had titled the rod and made many highly technical adjustments to ensure a perfect flight. Needless to say it went whoosh- sputter-sputter, taking off at quite an angle back over our heads and ejecting right in front of a tree by the ditch bank, where it immediately became entangled abut 30’ up. The dad used words that my eight year old ears had never heard before. I thought “is this really how model rockets fly?” While their dad stormed off I opened my diamond pack of C motors and launched the Alpha straight up and out of sight. The older kids really got a kick seeing it rip off the pad and thought for sure it was lost. After a few tense moments I picked up a tiny red spot in the sky which slowly drifted down back towards the pad. Upon my return from recovering the Alpha I noticed their dad had also returned with a football and was trying to knock the zoom broom out of the tree. Again and again he would hurl the ball up with his best Broadway Joe impression only to meet with utter failure and more swearing. Now as a BAR I have gained more appreciation for the Goonies and will have to build a zoom broom, load up the football and try to recreate the special magic of that day.
 
Now as a BAR I have gained more appreciation for the Goonies and will have to build a zoom broom, load up the football and try to recreate the special magic of that day.

Forget the football and bring more motors.

Football is just for those who can't make it in the band!;)
 
I am currently building a 4" goony, I remember as a kid seeing a two tubed one fin rocket, I have the basic rocket done in Rocsim. Kind of goofy builing it though, it has 3 separate fin sets, one is a fin, the others each are one tube.
It was the only way to get it setup correctly.

I am pretty excited on doing this, need to get a nose cone and I will have all the parts, best of all,, it is all spare parts, except the nose cone, that I will have to buy.

It is a 4" blue tube, .062 fin, and two 1.5" x 4" tubes. I am going to get an elliptical nc for it.

Tom
 
I am currently building a 4" goony, I remember as a kid seeing a two tubed one fin rocket, I have the basic rocket done in Rocsim. Kind of goofy builing it though, it has 3 separate fin sets, one is a fin, the others each are one tube.
It was the only way to get it setup correctly.

I am pretty excited on doing this, need to get a nose cone and I will have all the parts, best of all,, it is all spare parts, except the nose cone, that I will have to buy.

It is a 4" blue tube, .062 fin, and two 1.5" x 4" tubes. I am going to get an elliptical nc for it.

Tom
TRF Rules: Ya Gotta Post Pics!

Looking forward to seeing them.
 
In honor of the 40th... here's my Goonie Saturn "G" flying at yestreday's FoxValleyRocketeers launch....

5971_1102673925635_1190334185_30296522_1337759_n.jpg
 
I am surprised, myself, that there has been this much traffic for just GooneyBirds. Who woulda thought? When there was a request to add a “Gliders” forum, one of the answers as to “NO” was if they did that, they’d have to add a GooneyBird forum too. I did not take that to mean that a GooneyBirds forum was ever really being seriously considered, only that was another piece of ammo for shooting down adding a Gliders forum.

So now there are both, and both are doing quite well, as is the Scale forum.

What I do think would have been more appropriate would have been an “Oddrocs” forum.

Since having a GooneyBirds forum is sort of like having an Apollo Scale model forum which excludes all other scale models that were not Apollo-based, and no forum for any other Scale models.

Or, if there was not a general Gliders forum as now exists, but an “Estes Glider kits before 1970” forum instead, no forum for any other gliders.

Anyway, it is true that I never suggested, before these were created, to create an Oddrocs forum, instead of calling it Gooneybirds. Because, again, I thought that was more of a joke threat than an actual serious thing (and besides, the answer had been no, no, no, and NO to a Gliders forum. Because if there was a Gliders forum there would have to be a Gooneybirds forum......so neither one of those was ever going to actually happen...... but they did).

If anyone had indicated a very serious consideration of some new forums, and not using Gooneybirds as an example that came across to some as a joke threat, but one seriously considered, maybe someone might have picked up on the fact that Gooneybirds seemed far too specific, in leaving out all other Oddrocs, and suggested Oddrocs rather than being too specific about one type of Oddroc.

When the new forums were added , I did suggest changing the name from Gooneybirds to Oddrocs, but it seems it was too late. The time for that input was during the “shut up, we are not going to add these forums” timeframe, I guess.

And so there is no place for Oddrocs except for the Oddrocs that are Gooneybirds.

[shrug]

Unless those Oddrocs glide.....
Yeah, I know I beat somebody to that too-easy one-liner reply. :)

- George Gassaway
 
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I had a look at it. Pretty cool looking Goonie.
Here is a screen shot export. I thought this angle showed it best.
Len B

Thanks Len, but now looking at it,, it needs to be shorter, I'll fix that. This is why I like rocsim.

Tom
 
I am surprised, myself, that there has been this much traffic for just GooneyBirds.

Yes, but Goonies are different. There's an approach, a look about them that make them a sub-class of your "typical" oddroc.

Might have a new one ready for NARAM. Stop by for a peek. . . .:roll:
 
Kerry Quinn,

Oh, tell me you didn't...

In honor of the 40th... here's my Goonie Saturn "G" flying at yestreday's FoxValleyRocketeers launch....
You did! :y: Is nothing sacred anymore? :confused2:

Apparently not! :D :roll:

A Saturn "G" astronaut might look like this...


ray-gun-9.jpg


MarkII
 
Here is my Saturn "G" on my obsessively neat workbench.
It is powered by 4x C6-5s. The front is a baby bertha, that aft section is a mailing tube. The original design had a launch tower on top, but it kept coming off, so now it has the traditional plain bertha nosecone.

On the maiden flight I proved that if you only fly with 2x C6-5 and forget to block the other motor positions that you have a recipie for lawndart. Fortunately it was into a freshly plowed farm field, and after digging it out from a 5+" hole it was completely flyable. This was due in part to the nose cone being filled with 35g (!) of epoxy to move the CG forward.

satG.jpg
 
On the maiden flight I proved that if you only fly with 2x C6-5 and forget to block the other motor positions that you have a recipie for lawndart

Don't be confused by this stuff, folks.

Kerry and I are in a razor tight race within the Fox Valley Rocketeers for "Lawn Dart King" this year. He's leading 5-4 right now, but I have no doubt that I can catch him by the time our November launch rolls around. . . :D
 
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