Where was your first flying field?

[smstachwick]

Mine was in my hometown (and current residence) of Poway, just south of one of the main roads running through the town. It was a vacant lot at the time, but now there is an Amazon distribution center on the site.



I think it’s kind of interesting to me to think that if I were to order kits or supplies from them, they would likely pass right through the birthplace of my model rocketry activities some 15 or 20 years ago.

 

[Kelly]

In my elementary school schoolyard, an area about 400' X 500' of grass. Back then, the entire area circled in red was grass - no trees or buildings.

 

[Fishhead]

It looks completely different now, but we flew from this approximate location in 1977 when this was still a step up from a community college. It was an asphalt parking lot then. I remember repairing everything I flew multiple times just from the landings.

 

[DigBaddy]

I grew up on a farm. So, yeah

 

[Antares JS]

Wedgwood Park of Florissant, MO. Looks like its still there. It was my field from 1997-1998. I'd probably think it's too small now.



From 1998-2001, my field was the PE field behind Lakeside Elementary School in Orange Park, FL, where I went to 6th grade. My mom worked at the nearby Andromeda pre-school and my brother and I would sit in her classroom after school to do our homework, and the three of us would go home together at the end of her work day. When I was anticipating there not being much homework I could bring a launch kit and stash it in her classroom during the day and fly after school.



When we moved to Wisconsin, I flew in Buttermilk Park in Fond du Lac from 2001-2005.



After that I was 18, went to college, and started flying with Tripoli Quad Cities and Tripoli Wisconsin at their respective fields until 2012, then moved to California and couldn't do rocketry for a while, then moved here in 2017 and joined MDRA.

 

[tsmmiller]

My front yard. As a youth there was nothing between our house and the foothills other than lots of open range land. In the 70's the construction of I-84 put a block in between us and the hills.
The red circle was where I grew up, now vacant lots, the roads marked in red were there, but there were no other homes until the mid 80s. It then took of like wildfire and looks like this now. What is now Legacy Park used to be gravel pits.
Launching rockets, at times we would chase for considerable distances and never worry about somebodies yard, much less trees. Tons and tons of sage brush to hide those rockets though.

 

[Grog6]

When I was yound, there was this huge field we used to use for rockets, airplanes, gliders, and all manner of toys.
SAIC built a huge building there, and recreation is not allowed. There are several places in OR that would be great, but their Govt installations that handle classified stuff, so you get arrested for trespassing.

 

[shockie]

My 1st launch field was a corn field next to our house.

It's the large green field in the photo, with the red pointing to our house.

It was approx 750x 750 ft.
I usually launched during the fall to spring.
The rest of the time I just launched in the back yard.

It's no longer a corn field. It's basically a grass field now.

 

[BigMacDaddy]

1st and only launch as a kid was the same place I took my kids back for their 1st launch 30 years later...

 

[NateB]

I first launched in an area that was empty grass and a couple of soccer fields at a local college. It is all built up now as a formal athletic complex with too many buildings and lights for a model rocket launch.

 

[Re-Bar Ricky]

My first launch site was my high school grounds outside of my ROTC room. They've totally demolished the old school and put up a new one including a football stadium, track, etc. The highlighted area is about 4x what my actual area was.


Near my house, we used an open field that was awesome. There is now a subdivision that wasn't there before. There was also an open softball field down the street from me that I would use but I had to keep it on the low-side (A and B-engine launches only). It's now someone's homestead.........so much for the 80s....

 

[JamesS]

Polo Field in Golden Gate Park SF

 

[kuririn]

My middle school athletic field.
We lost a lot of rockets to the trees and power lines.

 

[Huxter]

Enjoy hearing your stories!

For me - Elmendorf AFB Alaska 1970 - big field near officers quarters (cannot find on google now tho?) I cannot remember anything else in that field - no playgrounds, trees.. nothing but grass! We flew rockets, Cox planes (Good 'ol PT-19, Stuka), Cox Shrox, Kites, Some kind of electric airplane that used little plastic disks to tell it how to fly - I had the 'Just fly in Circles' disk in it and lost it to the wind Gods...

Recovered most rockets, albeit in pieces many times. Most rockets did Not look like the card stock - only had paint dad had left over... Pretty ugly rockets, but many lessons learned!

 

[teepot]

I launched at our house. We were on 5 acres with another 5 acres on either side of us. Never lost a rocket. 1966 to 1974.

 

[SCooke123]

Wow! I grew up not too far from that Wedgewood Park in Florissant Antares! We flew at Dunegant Park by Derhake and St Anthony in Florissant (back in the late 60's)

 

[Sooner Boomer]

Here's one place. We launched on the lower left corner of the field. Less trees than I remember. If you listen closely, you can still hear the echos of D13s CATOing...



The other place, nearer my house, was a large vacent lot with a bunch of bike paths through it. It was developed into apartments and condos, named "The Trails". That still brings a tear to my eye.

About 20 years ago, I started hanging out with the current group of mental institution escapees. We launched at Lloyd Noble, at the south edge of the parking lot. When most of your rockets land on concrete, you build them tough!

 

[Neutronium95]

My dad got me into the hobby, so I started flying with the local NAR club almost immediately. The field location is really convenient, since it's in the middle of the city, and is a short drive from my house.

I think that I only lost one or two rockets to the bay over the years.

 

[GlenP]

Grandma’s farm in Brown Summit, NC

 

[Ronz Rocketz]

Lummi Reservation. I convinced my step dad to buy the Alpha kit from the back of Boy's Life. We launched it from the road and didn't understand the effect wind has on the chutes so it landed in the bay. My step dad waded out waist deep in the water to retrieve the soggy rocket. It was several years before tried it again.

 

[RocketRev]

High School athletic field, Hinckley, Illinois. Just went on Google maps. Looks mostly like it did when I first flew there in the summer of 1967.

Great memories.

 

[teepot]

And I thought the dry lake bed was hard. But it's not as hard as a parking lot.

Here's one place. We launched on the lower left corner of the field. Less trees than I remember. If you listen closely, you can still hear the echos of D13s CATOing...

View attachment 500819

The other place, nearer my house, was a large vacent lot with a bunch of bike paths through it. It was developed into apartments and condos, named "The Trails". That still brings a tear to my eye.

About 20 years ago, I started hanging out with the current group of mental institution escapees. We launched at Lloyd Noble, at the south edge of the parking lot. When most of your rockets land on concrete, you build them tough!

View attachment 500820

 

[Danomite45]

My first flying field is over 3,600 miles from my current one. Lincoln Middle School in Gainesville, Florida. Was in the Young Astronauts Club with my science teacher Dr. Varner. I’ve got Astrocam 110 photographs if that field somewhere. Here’s the current Google maps photo. I don’t remember those trees around the baseball diamond, and many of the buildings are new to me too. A lot has grown up in 3 decades.

 

[John Kemker]

Bayou Rifles Addicks Dam Range, back in the '70s. My sister shot a lot of small-bore target rifle.

 

[tfrielin]

Mine was the McElwain Elementary School yard in Birmingham, AL. Circa 1965 onwards.

The school straight ahead, a horse pen on one side, the Baptist church and graveyard to the right, and the Methodist church on the other side. Plus the houses on the other side of the fence.

Now the horses are gone, the school, too. Even the Methodists. It's now the parking lot of a Winn Dixie grocery store.

I sure wish I could fly there one more time as it was...

 

[tsmith1315]

I don't remember life without occasional rocket launches. Up until '75, we launched from the lot next to our house. It seemed big to us at the time, and the trees on it were fewer and smaller on it. Neatly, nothing south of the main road has changed since then, except foilage growth.



We moved to the country when I was 8. Dad built the house on a small cornfield and planted it with grass. I thought 8 acres of grass was a limitless rocket launch area. In the 70's, there was nothing but cornfields or woods for a couple miles around us, and when the fields were plowed, we could actually fly those big D engines.



The red arrow is the grass strip Dad prepped back in the late 70's for his 152, but Mom never did let him land there. Obviously, he's never given up on the idea, as it's still there. The suburbs have crept in to cover most all of my childhood wandering grounds.

 

[Marc_G]

There was a great field for A to C motors in the late 1970s near the Mount Washington Swim Club in Baltimore, kinda around the back; never was sure who owned the fields. It was my first field, and I still dream about launching there. It was sectioned off and ringed by trees but it worked well. If I lived there now, I don't think it would be a good place to fly anymore:

 

[T-Rex]

We launched from the high school parking lot. I launched a couple times from a field at the edge of town, until somebody called the police and I was told "Not inside the city limits!" Don't remember where I went from there, maybe on hiatus.

 

[les]

Local School yard within walking distance


Occasionally, my Father would drive me to a local mall where we would launch in the parking lot. Back then due to "Blue Laws" the mall was closed on Sundays. Sometimes Security would stop by and watch a few before continuing their patrol. Not certain if they added buildings, but the parking lot was much bigger than the school lot.

 

[boomtube-mk2]

Early 1970's, at a baseball diamond with a big open field beyond the outfield not far from the Covina CA. Drive-In Theater.
Flew with the Covina Sky Lighters model rocket club.