Zaphod
Well-Known Member
- Joined
- Aug 9, 2012
- Messages
- 60
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Hi everyone. This is my first post here although I've been a member for a few weeks. I flew model rockets as a young teen (including that awful Estes X-Wing Fighter) but lost interest as I got older and beer and girls got more interesting. That was a mistake. I recently re-introduced myself to the hobby, and initiated my six year-old son, and we're both having a blast. This is way more fun than I remember.
We started with a lauch kit that included the Astrobeam - my son liked that we could fly it in the dark. From there I built an Estes Space Eagle which, for obvious reasons, I consider my first real build. Next came a Fusion X-25 which disappeared into the clouds, never to be found, during an ill-advised flight on a C6-5. But I wanted to build something bigger. I never got past C engines as a kid, and I couldn't wait to launch something D or E-powered. Next stop: Vagabond.
I spent four days meticulously airfoiling the fins, which is a challenge with each fin coming in three pieces. Either you glue first and then sand into and around glue joints, or you sand first, trying to avoid the areas you'll need to glue together. I tried both ways and preferred the former. The end result was awesome regardless - Beautifully rounded leading edges, blending perfectly from one piece to another, and trailing edges that fell away in a real teardrop. I have a very keen eye for minute detail, and these were near perfect. They also went onto the airframe bolt straight. I was so proud I showed my wife, and that was the first time (of a few so far, and many more I'm sure) that she thought I was insane when it came to rockets.
Maiden flight! My son is with me, as well as my neighbour and his three kids. I chose a D12-5, because the launch site was a schoolyard, which is big as schoolyards go, but apparently not quite big enough. Should have gone with the C11. Still, this flight justified every bit of pride I felt in my work, because all the other rockets displayed some kinid of flight anomaly which betrayed my imperfect contrsuction - minor things like slow arcs in one direction or another, or a gentle twisting and wobbling. The Vagabond, however, went up straight and true like a bloody laser, probably 800-1000 feet. All of us stood there, stunned at the awesomeness of it all, and watched the chute deploy flawlessly and the rocket start to gently float down. Then I realized I'd badly misjudged the wind, or maybe it was moving in a different direction up there, but as I began to give chase, I could tell that it wasn't coming down in the schoolyard.
So I run like an idiot across the schoolyard, trying to keep my eyes on the (blue? really Estes?) chute so as not to lose it in the sky (the blue sky... the sky is blue, Estes). As I get to the edge of the schoolyard, I see it go down behind one of the houses across the street. So I start ringing doorbells and checking in backyards, walk around the block and check the houses behind, look up in trees... No dice. I'm forced to return to the launch site empty handed. My neighbour heads home, and my son and I pack up and get in the car. Then he says to me "is the rocket gone forever dad?"
"Not bloody likely!" I think to myself. So we take another drive around the block, carefully tracing the path of the rocket, and yes! We find it! But... NO! It's hanging 40 feet up in a pine tree in someone's backyard.
The people who owned the house were amazing. They let me into the backyard, and even offered a painters pole to try and dislodge the rocket, but at 12 feet, it was nowhere near long enough. Climbing the pine was out of the question, but there was a smaller maple beside it, so up I went. But even with me 20 feet up in this 30-foot maple, I didn't have enough reach. So... off to Home Depot. The longest branch trimmer they have is 14 feet - not enough and impossible to operate while up in a tree. I figured my best bet was a 16-foot painters pole with a long-handled mini roller attached. That gave me 18-20 feet of reach. I returned to the house the next day, and no one was home. But they told me to let myself in, so I did. I propped the pole up against the tree trunk, and clambered back up, a few feet higher than the previous day. Then I hoisted up the pole, weavng it carefully through the maple branches so I could reach the pine branch, and this time, I was able to hook the shock cord and pull until it snapped, sending the airframe down to the ground. And as I looked down at it, 25 feet below me, with my left arm hooked around a branch and my right arm trying to maneuver an 18-foot painters pole that must also weight 20 pounds, I thought to myself:
"You're out of your fcuking mind! You're hanging 25 feet up in a tree, waving around a huge pole to try and recover a cardboard tube! If you fell, no one would know and you would die here in this strange backyard."
So I decided to take the partial victory, and abandon the chute and nosecone. I got the important part, and of course it's not the tube, it's the fins. I'll buy the kit again and use the leftover parts on some scratch builds I have in the works.
So am I crazy? My wife sure thinks so. Me, though, I'm not sure. Last night, me and my son (who has ADHD) sat together and built the Estes Shuttle Express. It took about an hour and he was hands-on, focused and interested the whole time. Now he can't wait to go and launch it, because, according to him, it'll be the most special because he built it himself. I'll hang from a tree for that any day of the week.
We started with a lauch kit that included the Astrobeam - my son liked that we could fly it in the dark. From there I built an Estes Space Eagle which, for obvious reasons, I consider my first real build. Next came a Fusion X-25 which disappeared into the clouds, never to be found, during an ill-advised flight on a C6-5. But I wanted to build something bigger. I never got past C engines as a kid, and I couldn't wait to launch something D or E-powered. Next stop: Vagabond.
I spent four days meticulously airfoiling the fins, which is a challenge with each fin coming in three pieces. Either you glue first and then sand into and around glue joints, or you sand first, trying to avoid the areas you'll need to glue together. I tried both ways and preferred the former. The end result was awesome regardless - Beautifully rounded leading edges, blending perfectly from one piece to another, and trailing edges that fell away in a real teardrop. I have a very keen eye for minute detail, and these were near perfect. They also went onto the airframe bolt straight. I was so proud I showed my wife, and that was the first time (of a few so far, and many more I'm sure) that she thought I was insane when it came to rockets.
Maiden flight! My son is with me, as well as my neighbour and his three kids. I chose a D12-5, because the launch site was a schoolyard, which is big as schoolyards go, but apparently not quite big enough. Should have gone with the C11. Still, this flight justified every bit of pride I felt in my work, because all the other rockets displayed some kinid of flight anomaly which betrayed my imperfect contrsuction - minor things like slow arcs in one direction or another, or a gentle twisting and wobbling. The Vagabond, however, went up straight and true like a bloody laser, probably 800-1000 feet. All of us stood there, stunned at the awesomeness of it all, and watched the chute deploy flawlessly and the rocket start to gently float down. Then I realized I'd badly misjudged the wind, or maybe it was moving in a different direction up there, but as I began to give chase, I could tell that it wasn't coming down in the schoolyard.
So I run like an idiot across the schoolyard, trying to keep my eyes on the (blue? really Estes?) chute so as not to lose it in the sky (the blue sky... the sky is blue, Estes). As I get to the edge of the schoolyard, I see it go down behind one of the houses across the street. So I start ringing doorbells and checking in backyards, walk around the block and check the houses behind, look up in trees... No dice. I'm forced to return to the launch site empty handed. My neighbour heads home, and my son and I pack up and get in the car. Then he says to me "is the rocket gone forever dad?"
"Not bloody likely!" I think to myself. So we take another drive around the block, carefully tracing the path of the rocket, and yes! We find it! But... NO! It's hanging 40 feet up in a pine tree in someone's backyard.
The people who owned the house were amazing. They let me into the backyard, and even offered a painters pole to try and dislodge the rocket, but at 12 feet, it was nowhere near long enough. Climbing the pine was out of the question, but there was a smaller maple beside it, so up I went. But even with me 20 feet up in this 30-foot maple, I didn't have enough reach. So... off to Home Depot. The longest branch trimmer they have is 14 feet - not enough and impossible to operate while up in a tree. I figured my best bet was a 16-foot painters pole with a long-handled mini roller attached. That gave me 18-20 feet of reach. I returned to the house the next day, and no one was home. But they told me to let myself in, so I did. I propped the pole up against the tree trunk, and clambered back up, a few feet higher than the previous day. Then I hoisted up the pole, weavng it carefully through the maple branches so I could reach the pine branch, and this time, I was able to hook the shock cord and pull until it snapped, sending the airframe down to the ground. And as I looked down at it, 25 feet below me, with my left arm hooked around a branch and my right arm trying to maneuver an 18-foot painters pole that must also weight 20 pounds, I thought to myself:
"You're out of your fcuking mind! You're hanging 25 feet up in a tree, waving around a huge pole to try and recover a cardboard tube! If you fell, no one would know and you would die here in this strange backyard."
So I decided to take the partial victory, and abandon the chute and nosecone. I got the important part, and of course it's not the tube, it's the fins. I'll buy the kit again and use the leftover parts on some scratch builds I have in the works.
So am I crazy? My wife sure thinks so. Me, though, I'm not sure. Last night, me and my son (who has ADHD) sat together and built the Estes Shuttle Express. It took about an hour and he was hands-on, focused and interested the whole time. Now he can't wait to go and launch it, because, according to him, it'll be the most special because he built it himself. I'll hang from a tree for that any day of the week.