Most Impressive Rocket Stories

[trogdor]

Since a few of us have shared embarrassing stories in another thread (but many more stories are going untold I believe!!), I thought I should share a positive one as well! Other than my CERT1 flight almost hitting someone's tent but standing up on its fins after a successful flight last year...

Back when I was really getting into midpower (about 95?) with all the Aerotech stuff up to G's, my wife and I (then just engaged I think) went to visit her aunt and uncle and cousins in Penn. The kids had flown one or two little estes kits but were excited by the bigger rockets I had. I wasn't sure what my wife's aunt Patty was expecting but after a couple large Estes kits like the Broadsword on an RMS E, I loaded up a LOC Legacy on an F50. Just after pushing the button, I heard Patty yelp (surprised by the noise I s'pose) as that rocket shot almost out of sight. I knew the landing was going to be good as it was coming back toward us but as it got closer I just took one step back with the controller still in my right hand and grabbed the Legacy out of the sky with my left hand.... that was so cool... and so planned! hehe

They were all very impressed! and I think I quit while I was ahead!

 

[jflis]

awwww, what the heck, i'll pitch one in...

We were setting up the range for one of our NEMROC launches. We had gotten into the habit of launching some high altitude "throw-away" rocket very early in the set up to try to get a feel for the early high altitude winds.

I prepped some min-diameter FSI F-100 bird and Chris Travares hit the launch button.

VVVRRRRROOOOOMMMMM! GONE! Never saw it leave the pad, never saw the flight other than the smoke trail disappearing into the sky.

Well, one wasted rocket, back to setting up the rest of the range....

Had to be 4-5 minutes later we hear ***Flutter***...

Down she comes, on her streamer, to land not 5 feet from the launch pad.

Scared the BP right out of us! LOL

 

[Mike]

I once launched a modified payload rocket to about 350m on a C motor and when it came back the small plastic nosecone was missing, I beleive it came off at ejection and because it was windy the pad was steeply angled so the parachutes were ejecting a long way off.

Almost 6 months later I was launching again in the same place and one rocket weather cocked badly. I went to recover it and only a couple of metres away was the black plastic nosecone from the rocket I had launched all those months ago. The great thing was it was in pretty good condition, so good that it's being reunited with the original rocket and I'm planning on flying it again soon.

 

[sandman]

I got one!

At NARAM 43 in Geneseo, NY I was walking proudly up to the RSO table with my pride and joy. It was my completely scrachbuilt (including all 9...NINE!... hand turned nose cones) copy of the Astron Trident.

I was concentraiting on where I was going and didn't notice an older gentleman walking up to me with his hands reaching out for my rocket.

It took me a second to realize that this was...MR. VERN ESTES!!!! ...

I almost dropped down on one knee with my head bowed as if to offer my sword to the king.

"What is Thy bidding my Master?"

He asked for a marker pen so he could sign it and I was absolutely giddy. After he autographed my Trident I began walking AWAY from the RSO table to permanently "retire" my Trident.

He firmly grabbed my sholder and said "Where are you going with it? Get back here and launch it."

He helped me prep the chute and install the igniter. It flew a pefect flight...OK it did land on the RSO tent but that was OK too!

After about an hour JimZ asked me if I could possibly STOP smiling so hard! I couldn't...and my face was getting sore!

My NARAM was an absolutely a PERFECT experience!

sandman

 

[rocwizard]

I have one!

At LDRS 20 last year, my family was in the front row of cars, but we were about 1/4 mile from the rangehead (it was a REALLY long flight line!). I prepped my Estes Big Daddy with an E15 SU and made the trek to the RSO. I got it on the pad and it took about 45 min. to finally get launched. It had a good flight, but the winds ended up carrying it to right in front of our campsite about 10 feet in front of where my parents were sitting.


rocwizard

 

[n3tjm]

There are 10 kinds of people in the world, those that understand binary and those that don't.

11 plus 11 equals 110

I love your signature

 

[Fishhead]

After several failed attempts at building a clone of a Centuri Mach 10, I finally finished one that I thought might just fly as advertised last February. At a freezy, breezy launch north of Cincinnati one Sunday, only two of the collected die-hards that had gathered were watching, (the others were hunting rockets a good way off courtesy of the wind.) Making a fool of myself would have been nothing new, but I had learned that it stung a lot less if there were fewer people around who could remind me of it later. I loaded the Mach 10 up with an Estes B4-2, waited for a lessening in the gale, and fired that mother up. The rocketwent up in a big loop, but stopped looping just as it faced off into the wind. The delay was only two seconds, but it seemed like ten as the rocket slowed to a stop heading into the wind about twenty feet above the pads. When the ejection charge fired, the nose weight ejected, the rocket exposed it's belly to the wind and performed a textbook fighter roll, just like something out of Black Sheep Squadron. It raced back past us in the opposite direction before skidding to a stop on the soccer field about a hundred feet downrange. Needless to say, I made sure all eyes were on it for it's second flight, this time on a B4-4. It was a big deal for me after two previous failures. (One was made of basswood. Who knew? The other had it's engine tube glued in upside down.)

 

[LampertRocketry]

Most Memorable Launch/Flight:

At NYPOWER or BRS INVITATIONAL this past summer, one of the larger rockets got stuck on the launch rod during launch. Not to be deterred, it ripped the launch rod right out of the rack, flew a short ways into the air (maybe a hundred feet or so) at which point the motor finished burning. The whole shebang fell to the ground, where the launch rod STUCK into the ground perfectly vertical with the rocket still attached. As everyone began to applaud, the ejection charge fired the nosecone WAY UP into the air, pulling out the chute , for a perfect flight and recovery. Most impressive.

Murray Lampert
Toronto