How old are you?

[r1dermon]

Yeah just like it says. Trying to see the makeup of this forum and hobby in general, age is just a number, but, as most of the older generation knows, life sort of compounds itself into stages, not unlike rocketry and hobbies in general.

 

[Wrightme43]

fitty

 

[cwbullet]

Our hobby is very heavy on the older end of the spectrum.

 

[Rob Campbell]

Of enough to remember the transition from black and white TV to color TV.

 

[r1dermon]

Our hobby is very heavy on the older end of the spectrum.

no surprise there, I think that applies to most hobbies. Do you think its exclusively older folks? is there a presence in the hobby of middle aged people or is it so small as to be effectively insignificant?

 

[Spacedog49Krell]

I've been flying rockets for 69 years.

 

[tim cubbedge]

Do you think its exclusively older folks? is there a presence in the hobby of middle aged people or is it so small as to be effectively insignificant?

My club is primarily 60+ but we get a lot of younger flyers who are pretty regular attendees at our launches. A lot of college kids who stayed in the area after graduation still fly.

 

[dr wogz]

Of enough to remember the transition from black and white TV to color TV.

I remember that! and that we only had 4 channels.. and TVs had knobs.. the 'remote control' was the youngest in the family (who could walk)

I was about a month old when the Apollo 4 was launched..

 

[rharshberger]

I was born before the last Apollo moon landing but not by much.

 

[Hobie1dog]

67, but physically 90 due to having CMT disease

 

[jsdemar]

I'm a little older than NASA and a little younger that the NAR.
I watched Alan Shepherd's and John Glenn's flights on a 1950 RCA Victor TV. I still have that TV.
Our phone was on a party line when I was a kid. Only needed a 4-digit number for local calls.
I played with Lincoln Logs and an Erector Set. And had a real chemistry set.
My parents got me a subscription to the Science Service books on different subjects. One came with a Mercury Redstone plastic model which I still have "somewhere".

 

[AHansom]

I'm in the majority

 

[Bravo52]

I watched the Apollo 11 launch live in person.

 

[kuririn]

I'm so old my blood type was discontinued.

 

[cerving]

no surprise there, I think that applies to most hobbies. Do you think its exclusively older folks? is there a presence in the hobby of middle aged people or is it so small as to be effectively insignificant?

Hobbies in general are something you do with "excess income", most younger people don't have any, or what they have gets spent on the kids. After the kids get older and move it is when hobbies start to resurface.

 

[Voyhager3]

From what I have gathered, a majority in general is made up of you older folks, in person, and on the forums. But there are more "short term" fliers in the younger category, (HPR/MPR wise) mainly around the highschooler/college group. Who might be in it for a bit then leave, as in our club, we have quite a few fliers who will do their L1, but have no other experience, but I hear that they just end it there.

There some of us plan to stick around and go all the way, and we have multiple L3/L3 prospectees (?, idk if that's a word) in our club/team. Including myself. But many don't pursue rocketry, and the ones that do often don't go past L1 *from what I hear*

Then there are a handful of young fliers who will fly the Estes stuff at the field, which is kind of what everyone outside of the know associates the hobby with.

But I feel that this hobby will be vastly made of the older age group for as long as I foresee, as like has been said, that hobbies are typically for those with extra income and time.

 

[bjphoenix]

When I started building rockets the biggest motor Estes made was a "B", and the Big Bertha didn't exist yet.

 

[NateB]

Im 41, sounds like I'm in the minority here much like my blood type.

 

[Wrightme43]

I do want to say, I had absolutely no idea I could build and fly High Power rockets a year ago. I only built estes kits, and would launch them at the school fields in the summer, and the fair grounds when no one was there. I had never met anyone else who thought it neat enough to do.
I had given away several rockets to other Dads with kids to build, but as far as I know none of them have ever even been built.

I was looking for something and saw Apogee's website, showed it to my daughter and it just snowballed from there. I think if I had known about midpower and high power rocketry years ago I would of been involved much earlier.

What I am getting at, is Rocketry needs outreach to younger people.

T/L D/R Old man yells at clouds.

 

[tsmith1315]

But there are more "short term" fliers in the younger category, (HPR/MPR wise) mainly around the highschooler/college group. Who might be in it for a bit then leave, as in our club, we have quite a few fliers who will do their L1, but have no other experience, but I hear that they just end it there.

Many of the flyers here did just that. Then came back a couple of decades later with kids/grandkids, and maybe more time and money.

 

[r1dermon]

Hobbies in general are something you do with "excess income", most younger people don't have any, or what they have gets spent on the kids. After the kids get older and move it is when hobbies start to resurface.

I don't think people my age (38) prioritize rocketry as much as they prioritize some of the other technical hobbies like RC cars, building gaming computers/gaming, or 3d printing/CNC stuff. The obvious reason is because rocketry is super niche and also not very accessible. Having to drive 3,4,5 hours to fly is a pretty big commitment when someone could invest in an RC car or a drone that they could use that day in their yard. As with anything else, there are people that have the means to prioritize what they spend their money on, there are people that don't really need to worry about it because their bucket is overfull so-to-speak, and there are people that are not in a position to take up expensive hobbies, but may have other hobbies like hiking or cooking, or whatever. I can say with authority that people in my age range generally do have the means to take up hobbies, it just comes down to which ones they prioritize.

 

[Cape Byron]

I watched the Apollo 11 launch live in person.

Me too! Well, live on the TV…

 

[GalantVR41062]

Just 41, on the young end of the group I see.

 

[Art Upton]

Of enough to remember the transition from black and white TV to color TV.

Yes, "I dream of Jennie" was in BW and then went into color as well at that time...

 

[Art Upton]

I watched the Apollo 11 launch live in person.

I watched it on my small TV under a pop up table in my room with a blanket on top so my mom said I was in a space blanket

 

[FredA]

As old as my tongue and older than my teeth.

Watched Mercury launches...............

 

[Alan R]

I watched the Apollo 11 launch live in person.

Lots of people I talk to say that, but I'm the only one who remembers the picture was upside down for the first 15 minutes or so.

In 8th grade my friend showed off a new-fangled red LED calculator. It was not cheap.

Our TV was black and white. But that was ok, because most of the shows were in B/W. Took forever to convince dad to get a color one.

My first program was saved on cassette tape and ran on Commodore 64.

I spent way too many hours on dial-up BBS's - cnet, opus, etc.

 

[teepot]

67 now, 68 in April. I remember the first time I saw a color TV. I was in the 3rd or 4th grade. My Dad worked for a dairy in Detroit. He had a home delivery route. Do they do that any more. I would go with him sometimes. I was taking milk up to a house and a lady opened the door. Past her I saw a color TV. We had a black and white. I remember seeing Bullwinkle on TV and he was purple. I thought he was grey. She gave me a brownie too. That was also when I started flying rockets. I think I have seen every launch beginning with Mercury. My mother would let us stay up late to watch some. Saw Apollo 11 in black and white . Recently I saw the last shuttle go up with my mom at one of the viewing areas in Coco Beach. October of 2022 I was in Florida again. That time Artemis was supposed to go up. It scrubbed. But I did see a Falcon 9 go up at a night launch. From where I was at I could see Artemis on the pad and the VAB. I also went to KSC for the first time. Kind of crazy since I lived near Coco Beach in 1979.

 

[burritoman1]

I'm 18.

I've messed around with MPR/HPR the last few years and launches some Estes rockets well before that.

 

[Dynamiteralph]

I'm 77

Ralph M. Reese