What were your "Firsts" in terms of rocketry?

[MAD]

(I am sure there is another post like this hidden in this area, and I looked and looked for it so I could resurrect it. I'll just start a new one.)

Specifically 3 things:

1: What was your first exposure to the hobby?
2: What was your first rocket that you built/owned/launched?
3: What was your first failure? (Crash/Cato/Orbit/Lawndart/Coresample etc)

For me:

1: One of my dad's friends was a serious model builder, and had a very impressive collection of WW2 models, (literally a small museum of them) and decided to try building a model rocket for whatever reason. (I think it was an Estes Alpha. I don't remember all that well because I was 4)
We launched it at Bear-Creek park in Houston Texas. I do remember chasing after it as it landed, with the adults all laughing as I did.

2: This would be an Estes Sprint. I was very young, and was in a rush to get it done so I could fly it. No patience at all! It was a sloppy rush job and painted all red, (I didnt like the suggested white and yellow paintjob, red was "cooler") regardless I loved that rocket.

3: This also involves the Red-Sprint. After many successful launches, I let an older "Friend" convince me that duct-taping an oversized engine to the back of it was a good idea. We did and launched it. It went very high very fast, and we lost sight of it. I spent hours looking but it was never found. I was NOT happy... I have always been bummed that I couldn't find another one just like it. The XL version just isnt the same. One day I might kitbash something and clone it though =)

 

[Scotty Dog]

1: Sent for Centuri catalog from back of comic book.
2:Not sure..Centuri something(late 60s early 70s) Arcon?
3: Centuri "Little Joe" .... Tree ate it.

 

[thobin]

1. Brother had a rocket so I wanted one.
2. Dad bought me Estes Alpha, I painted it purple.
3. With the same Alpha on the first launch I used a C6-7 and lost it, so I would like think it's in orbit.:headbang:

Its been all down hill from there. For many years there in my youth I was burning a blast off pack or two every summer. Back then spring meant rocket season to me, in fact it still does.

TA

 

[Rich Holmes]

1. I must have seen ads for model rockets, at least, in my 1960s boyhood; I know I was aware of the names Estes and Centuri. For whatever reason, though, I never got into the hobby or witnessed a launch. Hazy and probably inaccurate memory tells me that in 1990 when we were visiting my sister's in-laws for Christmas, her husband's father got a model rocket set as a gift and we watched him go out and launch it. Third exposure was in the last decade when my son went to a private elementary school, K through 6 with 20-odd kids altogether, and they do a launch every spring where each pupil has a rocket they've helped make. That was what finally, a bit indirectly, got me into it.

2. I helped my son build several rockets, and the first he and I launched was an Estes Snapshot. The first that I consider partly mine and that was largely my work, but still shared with my son, was an Estes Eggscaliber, built in August 2012. The first completely-my-own rocket was an Odd'l Rockets Squatty Body closely followed by a Sky Rocketry Condor, September 2012.

3. That would be the Squatty Body. On its first flight (September 2012) it came down hard and broke a fin off. I repaired the fin and replaced the stock streamer with a longer one. The second flight (July 2013) was successful. On the third flight (same day) I put in a C6-5; it disappeared before apogee and was never seen again. Deployment failure seems likely.

 

[cruzsergio]

1. I was introduced to rocketry in the 7th grade I made one of those Pitsco rockets but never flew it in class nor did i pay attention.
2. That was my first one, but two years later i built an Estes Wizard and "modified it" to an SR-71.
3. the same wizard we launched it and lost it to a rocket eating forest. I wonder if the nosecone is still there.
Since then I've had a taste for scale models

 

[GuyNoir]

NARAM-6, Wallops Island, VA.

 

[Fishhead]

1. Neighbor launched an Estes Scout from his back yard, I believe on a C6-5. (Keep in mind that this was the absolute SOUL of suburbia.) It recovered up the street with a broken fin, but every kid that saw the launch wanted a rocket of his own. I'm sure the manager of the JC Penney Toyland wonder what was up when he sold seven or eight rockets on a weeknight after 7 pm.
2. My brother and I both bought Estes Beta's. I painted mine like the facecard. Dave did his in white with metallic lime and burgundy stripes. Pimpin'!
3. Not sure. I had two happen at the same time. An Estes Goonybird Cloudhopper rod whipped and hit the underside of the freshly painted eaves of our house. It was destroyed, but I still have one of the leg fins. I managed to drag out the old Cincinnati Bell ladder and paint the "Rocket Red" smudge that was left on Dad's paint job. Otherwise it would have likely been the end of me and rocketry. The other was a scratch build that caught in a kink on the homemade launch rod (a straightened coathanger) and set itself on fire when the backblast ignited the fins/paper towel tube. All that was left by the time I got the water was part of the nose cone.

 

[Gary Byrum]

My cousin had a few rockets on the end table when I visited. I asked about them. It was like looking at your future knowing what would possess you for the next few generations. So I bought an Alpha and one of those wooden porta pads (I think it was called) like what was available back in the 60's. Had the battery powered launcher. Piece of crap really. My modeling skills were lame and I got fin shear on the 1st flight. Hmmmmm! Maybe I should READ the directions better. Next bird up was a Big Bertha. I wasted no time getting to larger rockets. I have one as a shelf queen
these days that's never been launched as a reminder of my first successful rocket. I never ever built another Alpha....hmmmmmm

 

[krusty]

I'm going to answer this as a BAR -

1: What was your first exposure to the hobby?

Youtube & the Internet. I watched endless numbers of rocket videos and surfed all the rocketry websites - before I knew it I was building one!

2: What was your first rocket that you built/owned/launched?

Here's my first rocket (a scratchie, too!)



Hand rolled body tube, balsa fins, nose cone turned on a lathe.

and it's launch -



This was an RCandy launch. I started making RCandy before I bought commercial motors.

3: What was your first failure? (Crash/Cato/Orbit/Lawndart/Coresample etc)

I guess it would be my Fliskits Flea



The day I launched that, I learned two things - a C motor can push a rocket like this REALLLLLLLLY and wind causes your rocket to float away, never to be seen again....

Yup, that was the first and last flight I got for the Flea!

---

I remember as a kid having a rocket that my father had bought. From memory, we only got to launch it a couple of times before it landed on a road and was run over. I think it probably went a lot higher than either of us expected and we were in a park that was too small LOL. That would have been about 30 years ago! I don't remember enough to be able to relate them to the questions above

Krusty

 

[TopRamen]

My first exposure was at the Hanover Mall in Hanover, Mass. The Year was 1986, and I was 9. My Mother was shopping for Art Supplies, and my Brother took me to the Hobby Store. We bought an Estes Rocket Kit that came with a Rocket, Launch Pad, and Launch Controller. We also bought Motors. It was a side of my mean older Brother I had not seen before.
My Father had just barely died, so it was nice of him to give me this distraction. We built it all together, and promptly lost our Rocket in Trees near the Marsh, in Marshfeild, Mass.
I was hooked on the LPR, because I did'nt know that there was MPR and HPR, but it was awesome, and it was the only nice thing my big Brother ever did for me. My Mom spoiled me, and where we ended up living just happened to have a Feild across the Road big enough to handle everything from Estes except for the Comanche 3 and a few others. I spent quite a bit of time in that feild launching Rockets. My Mom has got some good pics', granted, they were taken on 35mm Film, but I could go take Pictures of Pictures with my Digital Camera, and comeback and share them here. I literally did hundreds of 1/2 A through D Launches.
I'll go visit my Mom, and take some Pics' of me as a Kid, with nothing else to do but launch Rockets. I can upload them to Photobucket and post them here. I had all the Classic 80's Estes Rockets. Back then, I did'nt even know there were other companies making Rockets. I was an NAR Member for one Year.

 

[JimZNJ]

Cool topic!

1. My first exposure to model rocketry was back as a kid with my dad. He would take all of us kids out for Sunday drives just about each week. Just he and the 4 of us kids to get us out of our mom's hair for awhile. One of our frequent destinations was a park in the Watchung Mountains of northern NJ. One Sunday we were there, and there in the field was a rocketry club putting on a demonstration. I was in awe of the rockets. My dad was too! We both went home with a seed planted.

2. The first rocket we built was an Estes V2. The version from the early 70's which flew on 18mm motors. It was my first rocket and my pride and joy. Living in NJ my dad had to apply for and pay $2 in those days to get us a permit to allows us to buy model rocket engines. We quickly became a frequent mail order customer of Estes. Especially after we got hold of their catalogs. I even joined the Estes Aerospace Club.

3. My dad was as excited about flying as much as I was, if not more. He knew if we were to fly in any of the local parks, we needed to get there realllly early before too many people came out. He'd get me up at the crack of dawn many a Saturday morning to head to one of the local parks, or one of our favorite larger spots, the parking lot of the old Roosevelt Stadium in Jersey City. It was at that last location that I lost my first rocket.

The clouds were closing in and the wind was starting to whip. It was a cold day with a chill blowing in off of Newark Bay. Back in those days I never really grasped the distinction of A versus B versus C... I'm not sure what we loaded into my prized V2 that morning, but it went up got caught in a strong upper level current, quickly was swept into a cloud and was never to be seen again! We searched high and low downrange through the remains of the old WWII aircraft factories that were still there... Nothing! I can so vividly remember that day! It was a great time and era back then. I'm blessed now to see that same excitement each time I help a father and child get their first rocket in the air!

Jim Z

 

[JohnNGA]

1 Estes model rocket ad in Popular Mechanics 1962.
2 Scout
3 Tree got it, Used the mailing tube to make first scratch build.

 

[Odo]

1. Have always loved and been interested in everything space and especially rockets, and when I heard about SpaceX (who Im a huge fan of) Having a model of their rocket the Falcon 9, I couldnt resist but get it.
2. SpaceX Falcon 9 with Dragon
3. My beloved Falcon 9 got wrecked by a CATO but I was able to repair it with some elbow grease. It'll never be the same though..

 

[TALON]

1st exposure was about 1966/67, saw an Estes ad, probably in Boys Life magazine. Sent for catolog & wore out the pages.

1967/68, Sent off for an Estes ARCAS, free Starblazer kit, Electro-Launch, and 3 engines for each rocket.

1st failure was 1970, Estes Aerobee 300, painted BT then attached fins. Fins ripped off & zippered.

 

[RoyAtl]

(I am sure there is another post like this hidden in this area, and I looked and looked for it so I could resurrect it. I'll just start a new one.)

Specifically 3 things:

1: What was your first exposure to the hobby?
2: What was your first rocket that you built/owned/launched?
3: What was your first failure? (Crash/Cato/Orbit/Lawndart/Coresample etc)

I've probably written this ten times here. Yes, these questions get asked a lot. Probably every three months or so.

In any case:

1. Nov. 9, 1967. Apollo 4 lifts off and we have a class science fair in homeroom. My project is a 1/100 scale cutaway drawing of a Saturn V. The kid next to me has a garishly painted Estes Honest John on a Centuri launch pad. I borrow his Estes catalog and don't give it back to him for a week!

2. I ordered an Estes Honest John in February 1968, but no engines and no launch pad because my parents were still a little afraid of the concept. My dad would let me carry a shotgun in the woods by myself, but a rocket was out of his comfort zone. Screwed up the engine mount anyway. Finally ordered an Estes Deluxe Starter Kit in May 1968. First (and only) launch of my first Alpha was at 6:03PM on July 16, 1968. In my front yard. The rocket immediately went into a stand of trees above my dad's fishing worm beds.

3. Don't remember when my first failure was, unless you consider losing my first rocket a failure. I built and flew lots of rockets those first few months in the hobby. However, my most spectacular failure of that first year came at the end -- exactly a year later -- on July 16, 1969, when my Centuri Saturn V tried to take to the sky on only one C6-3!

 

[dave carver]

In '69 I was still in Junior HS and my older brother brought home a Estes catalog, that was it. I bought parts to build a scratch rocket even then so my first rocket was a design of my own. BT20 section to a transition to BT5 with a BNC5 cone on a streamer. This was when they had pre-cut pieces with part numbers. Bought a B6-4 from my brother and launched in the back pasture. It ended 150 feet away 35-40 feet up a tree

 

[Nathan]

Got hold of an Estes catalog in 1967 when I was in 6th grade. Since I was always a big fan of Mercury/Gemini/Apollo from as early as I can remember I immediately knew that this was the hobby for me.

First rocket was an Astron Sky Hook launched with an A8-3. It eventually ended up on the roof of my elementary school.

 

[Aksrockets]

All 3 were the same flight. A friend got a pack of A10s for his birthday. Us being 12 or 13, we just HAD to make rockets out of duct tape. I Made a little ductape cone and little rectangle duct tape fins and attached them right to the motor.

Of couse it was unstable and failed entirely, but I was hooked.

Alex

 

[Tarasdad]

1. First exposure would be wandering the hobby shop and seeing them on the pegs sometime in the late 1960's or early 1970's. First exposure to model rockets in action would be attending my first launch as a visitor in the summer of 2011.
2. First build and launch would be my Big Bertha.
3. First failure would be the nosecone and chute separating from my Estes V2 due to a too short kevlar shock cord. Easily fixed and has since flown again.

 

[bavspaceprogram]

1. When I was 5 or so, I was given a pre-built Estes alpha 3 for my birthday.
2. Same as 1!
3. My big Bertha, after being loaded with an at least 5-year old D12, exploded a half of a second off the launch pad!

 

[BEC]

1. 1966 (perhaps - not sure) or certainly 1967 Estes catalog. I think I recall the cover of the 1966 catalog, but I'm sure I remember the 1967 one with the Saturn 1B on the cover.
2. Don't recall for sure. I know I had an Astron Streak and an Astron Sprite early on...but I don't recall which came first. I also had an Alpha but am certain it wasn't the first but followed after by some short time.
3. I probably "orbited" the Streak before too many flights. I do recall within a not too terribly long time trying to fly a Cobra and getting only one motor of three lit. Even so, I later did an Eighth grade science fair project that involved a three motor cluster payloader (on three B14s!) and made it all the way to the NM state science fair with it. That would've been the 1969-1970 school year.

 

[JPVegh]

1. 1967/68 My brothers built a launch pad, controller and an Estes Saturn IB. That rocket going on a 4 motor cluster was what started it all for me.

2. Summer of '68 I sent off for an Estes Streak which I built with help from bros/dad. I hand painted it with dope.

3. Launched my new Streak on a borrowed motor and it went into orbit, never to be seen again.

I grew up in Colorado Springs and toured the Estes plant several times as a kid. I also built and launched rockets in the Cub Scouts. A couple of favorites from my childhood were the Big Bertha, Astron Starlight, Starship Vega and the Orbital Transport.

 

[shrox]

At 11 years old my mom decided I was too old for an Easter basket, I woke up to the Screaming Eagle launch set!
I didn't know about model rocketry before that.
I lost the nose cone and chute when it detached and floated away a few months later.

 

[krusty]

At 11 years old my mom decided I was too old for an Easter basket, I woke up to the Screaming Eagle launch set!
I didn't know about model rocketry before that.
I lost the nose cone and chute when it detached and floated away a few months later.

Bah! No one's too old for an Easter basket! But I like the rocket idea Was it at least an egg-lofter

Edit - nope, screaming eagle isn't!

Krusty

 

[Fishhead]

I also built and launched rockets in the Cub Scouts.

Funny, I never did rocketry in Cub Scouts. That would have been interesting. My sister is a Cub Scout troop leader and I offered to help out if she wanted to do rocketry with the kids. I explained how I could get everything we needed and all she's have to do is ride herd on the little mongrels and maybe help with the gluing. She blew it off like a bad fart. I'd have KILLED to have had the opportunity to fly rockets at that age!

 

[krusty]

Funny, I never did rocketry in Cub Scouts. That would have been interesting. My sister is a Cub Scout troop leader and I offered to help out if she wanted to do rocketry with the kids. I explained how I could get everything we needed and all she's have to do is ride herd on the little mongrels and maybe help with the gluing. She blew it off like a bad fart. I'd have KILLED to have had the opportunity to fly rockets at that age!

I guess you have to ask - is she a troop leader for the betterment of these kids or for herself?

I would have loved to do something like that when I was a Cub

Krusty

 

[JStarStar]

1. Saw the 1967 Estes catalog (the Mars Snooper edition) and asked my parents for a starter kit. I was 8-9. Botched the whole thing to pieces -- the Alpha and Electro-Launch -- all ended up in the trash.

2. About a year later I bought an Astron X-Ray kit. This time I followed the directions -- UNTIL I hit on the awesome idea of sanding airplane-style airfoils onto all four fins.

3. I launched it with a friend of mine who was supposedly an expert rocketeer (he certainly was, compared to me). I hit the button and the X-Ray climbed off the pad, into the air, entered into a tight series of loop-de-loops, and then smashed straight into the ground.

4. My next rocket was an Astron Sky Hook. This time, I really did follow the directions (ALL of them) and amazingly enough, the rocket flew fine.

 

[Fishhead]

I guess you have to ask - is she a troop leader for the betterment of these kids or for herself?

I would have loved to do something like that when I was a Cub

Krusty

Definitely the kids. I think she's just thinking like a Mom. ROCKETS!!! FIRE!!!!! DANGER!!!!!!! The idea that her brother has flown 1000+ flights and only scorched a bit o' earth doesn't enter into it. :wink:

 

[Rich Holmes]

Tell her about that school I mentioned above. All the kids get adult help with building their rockets but even the kindergardeners get involved building his or her own rocket. Of course there's a higher percentage of less-than-successful flights but the kids love it... and they've been doing this for at least a decade and probably more like 20 years with no safety problems. Pictures here: https://newschool-syr.org/rockets/.

 

[foamy]

1. A friend of mine had built a rocket. Don't remember what it was. I decided to build one.

2. The LHS had Centuri rockets in stock. I bought and built an Astro-1 (purple) and Snipe Hunter (copper and black).

3. I lost every rocket I ever built back then ('67). C6-7's were the only motor I'd ever buy. I wanted the most for my money. The irony.