One childhood memory is..

[LtSharpe]

using heat glue for rocket fin attachment. Sometimes the rockets actually worked fine. However they also sometimes had a habit of one, two or sometimes all fins at once flying off the rocket. At which point it would happily whiz around and do quite silly things! Had one turn around and come back at me once, obliterating itself in the ground. I think the majority of my childhood launches had varying levels of disaster. I know there were successful launches, I just don't remember those!

Also started a very small grass fire once,, the vigorous stomping of little 10 or so year old feet solved that problem.

Also had a habit of packing the whole mess(parachute, wadding) inside too tightly,, too much wadding or not seperating the squares I suspect. Rockets would often blow apart at ejection, sometimes catch fire.

One took off with the launch rod because I left the cap on. I only did that once at least. Rod actually went up a little ways.

17 or so years later and I'm doing much better! Some accumulated wisdom, patience and real world experience help a lot..

 

[KermieD]

Biggest lesson I learned at a young age: A Mosquito does not fly straight with only 2 of the 3 fins. I swear it was following me! That was one of those occurences where Mom would roll her eyes and say "Yep. Just like the principal said. My kids are gifted." Man, what a rush!!!!

 

[sandman]

When I first started in model rocketry when rockets were...steam powered I think???....I started turning nose cones 'cause I had no money.

I'd scrounge scrap balsa pieces from the local control line airplane guys and some of it was very hard so that when you turned it on a drill and pushed down too hard you would burn the wood.

Hard balsa when it burns has a very distinctive smell.

Now when I turn a nose cone and press just a bit too hard I get that same smell and the memories suddenly get triggered...BIG TIME.

I love that smell!

 

[jflis]

Dude! I know what you mean I love that smell too!

 

[eugenefl]

Hmm...well, I used to build rockets out of household scrap. For a body tube an empty paper towel roll worked great. For a MMT I would take a bathroom tissue tube and size it down so that an engine would fit in it. For fins I just took some corrugated cardboard and fashioned some fins out of the material. Foam meat trays were great for centering rings. Shock cord? Pssh...I would get a shoelace and voila. Recovery was via trashbag or pink construction streamer from a nearby neighborhood development. Finally, for a nosecone I had one option that I truly enjoyed. Although mischievous and very dangerous, a raw egg fit the bill. For these "egg bomber" rockets we'd go out on my friends farm where there were no homes, cars, or anything else capable of being in harms way. The *last* time we did that stunt was when the raw egg was inbound right over our heads. Just as soon as the rocket took off we knew it was coming in over our heads so off under the oak tree we went. The last thing that happened was egg yolk showering down through the tree limbs. Admittedly it was very dangerous and stupid for the hobby but back then the hobby was about me and a couple of friends. We had no perception of "image" or "consequences" as most kids of that age do not. So where were our parents? Well, these "egg bombers" were snuck into the rocket box. We would build them under "secrecy" and even paint them flat black. I dunno...that was "bad" back then for us. The way I see it, it's not like we were smoking, sneaking alcohol, or playing with someone's gun.

Yep...memories of being a crazy kid.

BTW, there is a safe way of recovery a raw egg without a capsule. What you do is wrap an egg with 4 or 5 rubber bands so that the bulk of the egg is cradled in rubber bands. Attach a parachute to the rubber bands and ensure your landing zone is tall or soft grass. Voila...egglofter on the cheap.

 

[eugenefl]

Ok, I had to do a little diagram for the "safe" way of egglofting on the cheap. Enjoy.

 

[jflis]

hey, i done did that! Something very similar (i'll have to see if I can find it again). The way I did mine was to have a very small secton (dot) of ping pong ball glued to a nose block. Then you would have another small ball section for the top of the egg. There would be little wooden channels glued to this top section and I would run two elastic bands from hooks in the shoulder up and over the egg, with the wood channels keeping the elastic over the egg.

I even entered it in egg loft duration contest. I was DQd because the Contest Director (CD) felt it was in violation of the rules. bummer cuz i got a pretty good time too

man, i forgot all about that thing! LOL

 

[North Star]

Living in a paper bag in't middle of t'street and having to lick the road clean with our bare tongues.

try telling that to the kids of today, they wouldn't believe you!

(sorry- couldn't resist it)

 

[Miss Riley]

You 'ad a paper bag!??!?

LUXURY!

There were seventeen of us under a soggy slipper on the side of the motorway.

Angela

 

[GL-P]

When I was a kid, I walked to school up hill both ways in my dad's pyjamas and my mom's army boots!!!

Wait, I am still a kid!!

 

[CTimm]

During the Evel Knievel/Snake River Canyon time (mid 70's), I re-enacted the event by building a stand-off scale replica of the sky cycle by kitbashing a Cherokee-D kit and decorating it to resemble a "Miss Budweiser" motif which was popular in most racing events.
I also built a rail/ramp for launching the model to fly over the river that bisects city downtown. I launched from Sears parking lot, over the river, and landed well safe onto a cluster of baseball diamonds on the other side. I had my oldest sister do some quick physics calculations for a trajectory/distance plotting.
I'll try and dig out the model and snap a pic.