What was the first rocket you ever launched?

[Tech 68]

I've slept since 1964, but I'm pretty sure it was a Centuri Arcon on a B3-7... never to be seen again.

 

[Swany]

I tried to fix it.
View attachment 581226

That looks great! Much closer to reality than the original faded photo. I still have the rocket and had Vern sign it at NARAM-61.

 

[loopy]

Estes Sizzler...the one that came in the starter set in the mid '80s. I still have it, and it still flies. I love that rocket so much, I did an upscale of it for my first HPR scratch build, doing a 3x upscale with a 38mm MMT. Love it!

 

[SPStorm]

I think my first rocket was the Estes Big Bertha. I remember my Dad bringing my four older brothers and I to the hobby store near Oak Park Illinois. We didn’t know why till we got there. The two things I remember most: how excited I was and how jealous I was of my oldest brother who picked the mean machine!

 

[allensmith]

The Original der Big Red Max was my first. Only available in the starter set with the Bigfoot Launch Pad. Had lots of others, more exotic looking, but always came back to this one.

Long since gone, but rebuilt and flying great since I got back into the hobby.

 

[burkefj]

Wizard about 1976

 

[smstachwick]

I’m thinking of having a “Cert Wall”. The Alpha III for L0, my in-progress Astrobee D for L1, and whatever I get for L2.

But yeah, this thing is special. It probably flew a dozen times between 2004 and 2005 until the motor hook started coming loose.

 

[Simon_betts10]

My first was a scratch build of my own design called HF-004 “Pink Panther”

 

[brockrwood]

The “Viper” rocket that came with the Estes Aerospace Club membership. It was 1976 or 1977.

Ah. Childhood. To be a kid again.

 

[jazzviper1]

Estes Citation Patriot, over 40 years ago.

 

[Dane Ronnow]

I started launching rockets when I was 10 or 11, but I can't remember which rockets (that was 60 years ago). The first rockets I do remember were the Estes two-motor Gemini Titan, and the four-motor Saturn 1B, both when I was 15 (1966).

 

[Art Upton]

View attachment 583002

I’m thinking of having a “Cert Wall”. The Alpha III for L0, my in-progress Astrobee D for L1, and whatever I get for L2.

But yeah, this thing is special. It probably flew a dozen times between 2004 and 2005 until the motor hook started coming loose.

My L1 TRA Cert rocket [that back then in '89 was called HPR confirmation and then I could buy an M motor] was a North Coast Rocketry Big Brute ; loved that rocket it was on an AT H70 29mm Single Use motor.

Decades later it got road flared torched when a LMS motor I built in the cold winter of the launch field suffered forward closure blow thru.

Later my L2 rocket was a door prize at Danville Dare the '90 LOC -I Roc they had just announced. So I got the rocket from Ron and Deb as the first one. Decades later I was flying it at Skybusters with Barry who then owned LOC was LCO and proclaimed it the oldest I-Roc still flying. My H CTI Blue motor did not eject and it was destroyed. He got me a brand new one.

My LOC Super 7.5" Bruiser with 98mm motor mount was my L3 cert rocket after flying it on 2 K motors, A full L and then the Might M 98mm moon burner. Great flight.

At LDRS25 in Texas, it sheared on a 98mm N motor that I had used the wrong Rocketsim motor file on it. I used the one provided by rocksim instead of the one on CTI's website. Learned from that one; only use engine files from the manufacture.

So the story is to keep flying your cert rockets, not put them on a shelf. Edit: I am not that fat anymore

 

[John Kemker]

After the decal fiasco on Der FiberMax, I installed the rail buttons, successfully applied decals on the Pro Nuke Maxx, and shot some Createx UVLS Clear Polyurethane over the decals.

 

[Handeman]

An Estes Alpha in 1969 of course.

 

[MAT2000]

Estes Challenger-1. It was the starter kit that had the launcher affixed to the end of a lantern battery. Eventually upgraded to a Porta-Pad and other rockets, but I still have my original Challenger.

 

[Dane Ronnow]

@Art Upton - I'd never seen actual fin flutter in flight until I watched your video. Interesting.

 

[Art Upton]

@Art Upton - I'd never seen actual fin flutter in flight until I watched your video. Interesting.

Before this forum lost it's database, I had supplied the onboard data from the accelerometers to a few Air Flow CFD scientists that also analyisted the video and using the G10 flat fins that LOC used, and they posted up "stress graphs" that showed why the flat plate fins flexed like that going thru mach.

Lesson learned? If going Mach you need Tip to Tip tapers like Nike Smoke fins do. The RocketSim motor file did not show the rocket going near Mach at all. The Big Spike on ignition was missing in the curve and the CTI motor file did show it doing what the accelerometers showed on the flight.

Lots of stuff from the past was lost in that database issue, including a famous unboxing or two of mine.

Also here is a good set of software for that CFD stuff:

AeroRocket simulation software for rockets and airplanes

AeroRocket, source for AeroCFD, AeroDRAG, VisualCFD and other aerodynamics software.

www.aerorocket.com

 

[Joekeyo]

An Estes Alpha in 1969 of course.

Real flying rockets! Count me in.

 

[Dane Ronnow]

Also here is a good set of software for that CFD stuff:

I had a 2.6" MPR scratch build come in hard with a fouled chute. Two of the fin fillets were cracked. Later on, a closer inspection revealed spider web cracks in the paint on all fins. That was my first experience with flutter. I couldn't lay my hands on the finsim software, so I contacted John Cipolla by email. He pointed me to the NACA TN 4197 flutter analysis spreadsheet, and explained a tweak for measuring the semispan of an ultra-swept fin. Turns out they were fluttering at 410 mph.

I've used that spreadsheet during the design phase of every rocket I've built ever since.