Is There Such A Thing As Too Many Rockets?

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Wm Reid

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Building model rockets has been a life long hobby...it has gotten more serious in the last 10 years as my kids and I have spent hours building common ground as well as rockets. Over the years we have been careful as to the flight conditions before we role out our gear and go flying. As a result, we’ve only lost two ships and our collection has grown to an enormous size...at least it looks enormous but I lack perspective. I love building them, it’s one of the few ways I decompress from the day or week at work. It seems that I have something in one stage or another at any given time on my work bench...by doing it this way it seems to slow me down and I can take my time with them vs just pumping them out.

All my builds are low powered and I would say 80% of our builds are scratch built birds of various sizes. Since I’ve joined this forum, my mind has been blown away with the untapped wealth of knowledge...despite the number of rockets I’ve built over the years...I feel like a total amateur in a room full of seasoned experts. The idea of building bigger and more complex rockets intrigues me...but when does a hobby become an obsession? When is enough enough? I’m reaching out to hear what you have to say...what’s your story?

I started out with an Estes Patriot kit we painted white with Curious George decals because my daughter loved Curious George at the time...10 years and 95 or so rockets later, I still have a passion for creating and build ships of various sizes and shapes.

What are your thoughts?

Thanks,

Reid
 
If you feel obligated to do it, don't.

If you're spending more money than you set aside, stop.

If you're neglecting responsibilities, take a sabbatical.

Other than that, have you heard of Black Friday Sales? :-D
 
Hobbies in my mind become an issue when they take resources away from other 'more important' responsibilities. Like spending time in the garage working on a kit when the kid(s) have asked you to do something else with them. Or not having extra fun money for a vacation because it was spent on a hobby. This applies to any hobby of course, not just rockets. Or if you spend so much time on them that you ignore household chores, etc.

Other than that, if you enjoy it and it's not interfering with other aspects of your life, then keep on building. You may find you have to give some away or sell some to make room, but that's not a terrible problem to have.


Tony
 
If you feel obligated to do it, don't.

If you're spending more money than you set aside, stop.

If you're neglecting responsibilities, take a sabbatical.

Other than that, have you heard of Black Friday Sales? :-D

I LOVE the Black Friday sale [emoji6]

My wife is pretty supportive and my bank account is still in the black...so far so good!
 
Hobbies in my mind become an issue when they take resources away from other 'more important' responsibilities. Like spending time in the garage working on a kit when the kid(s) have asked you to do something else with them. Or not having extra fun money for a vacation because it was spent on a hobby. This applies to any hobby of course, not just rockets. Or if you spend so much time on them that you ignore household chores, etc.

Other than that, if you enjoy it and it's not interfering with other aspects of your life, then keep on building. You may find you have to give some away or sell some to make room, but that's not a terrible problem to have.


Tony

Thanks Tony,

I would like to spend more time but kids, wife, & life come first... I usually tinker after everyone has gone to bed...

I think I may end up selling a few to make room for future builds.

Thanks again [emoji1360]
 
My take;

Stop doing it when no longer fun...otherwise full speed ahead!

Throttle speed determined by current funds at hand....lol:)
 
If you have an excess of built rockets that dont get flown often, consider giving them to new club members or spectators coming to check out the fun.

Helps pay forward to continue the hobby
 
I don't care for clutter so weeding down any hobby boils down to giving things away at Starbucks or simply chucking them. I don't care for clutter. Even my car's interior reflects this.
 
Several answers have been to the question "Is my hobby getting out of control?" The answers seem sound, but that's not what you asked.

Do they get in the way? Are you getting complaints? If not then you're OK.

If there are to many, or you are near the limit and still building...
If you have an excess of built rockets that dont get flown often, consider giving them to new club members or spectators coming to check out the fun.

Helps pay forward to continue the hobby
Absolutely this! Especially, take them to club launches and give them to kids.
 
If you have an excess of built rockets that dont get flown often, consider giving them to new club members or spectators coming to check out the fun.

Helps pay forward to continue the hobby

Great idea!
 
Hobbies in my mind become an issue when they take resources away from other 'more important' responsibilities. Like spending time in the garage working on a kit when the kid(s) have asked you to do something else with them. Or not having extra fun money for a vacation because it was spent on a hobby. This applies to any hobby of course, not just rockets. Or if you spend so much time on them that you ignore household chores, etc.

Other than that, if you enjoy it and it's not interfering with other aspects of your life, then keep on building. You may find you have to give some away or sell some to make room, but that's not a terrible problem to have.


Tony

Well said. I'm just the opposite. I never have time for my building, but I try to set aside some time. Too busy with work and other aspects of life.
 
Just make sure you spend just as much time launching them. What I do with the ones I have, few that may be, is I run simulation in RockSim to see what motors work best and then keep a list of the motors for each rocket so it's just away to fly the right for the right rocket.
 
Hang on a minute. They all fit on one shelf and she's still smiling. Why are you even asking the question? There may be such a thing as too many, but you're miles away from it!

[emoji23][emoji23][emoji23]

Glad to know others have a good size fleet!
 
If you have an excess of built rockets that dont get flown often, consider giving them to new club members or spectators coming to check out the fun.

Helps pay forward to continue the hobby

I enjoy building as much as I love flying - and since I got my L-1 last year , most of my smaller projects have fallen by the wayside- The last few launches I have made it a point to gift those to club members that not only will appreciate them, but more importantly - fly them. I especially like gifting to the boy scout clubs that show up and fly, I feel like im giving back for all those that did for me along the way.
 
I'm not quite at the point of needing to give stuff away yet but I actually look forward to it. Giving away some of my kit builds will be pretty easy; giving away the scratchers... well, I'll deal with that if and when the time comes. Right now I have room for at least a few more years of building (at my snail's pace).
 
if you're asking the question, I doubt you'll understand the full answer. :>

we'll just leave it as "no"
 
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