Where was your first flying field?

[ThirstyBarbarian]

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.View attachment 500832

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

Even though you didn’t explicitly say the location, I recognize EXACTLY where that is because that was my childhood launch field back in the 70s, before DART was a thing. My family used to go there and launch rockets starting when I was about 8 years old.

 

[smstachwick]

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.View attachment 500832

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

Hey, that’s my current field! I love running into locals on the forum.

 

[Woody's Workshop]

My back yard a mile North of Reed City, MI.
I would post a pic of Google World, but I don't know how to do that.

 

[g.pitts]

Welcome Elementary School in Greenville SC circa 1968. It looks very different now... those roads had half the lanes (or fewer) than you see in today's image.

The area circled was where I launched, and usually where the rockets were recovered. "Back in the day", that area was a crude baseball field with monkey bars behind it. Back when life was much simpler and we didn't have the litigious society that we have today.

 

[smstachwick]

Welcome Elementary School in Greenville SC circa 1968. It looks very different now... those roads had half the lanes (or fewer) than you see in today's image.

The area circled was where I launched, and usually where the rockets were recovered. "Back in the day", that area was a crude baseball field with monkey bars behind it. Back when life was much simpler and we didn't have the litigious society that we have today.

View attachment 500958

“Litigious” depends on one’s perspective and societal standing. There are many, many things that weren’t allowed in the 60s, enforced by the full weight of the law, that are permissible and even encouraged today, although I won’t list examples in this post so we can avoid a “third rail” discussion.

I will agree that rocketry has for the most part gone in the opposite direction. It’s fun seeing what has become of all these old sites but it’s sad that many of them have either shrunken or disappeared. That’s what happens with unchecked urban sprawl.

 

[g.pitts]

“Litigious” depends on one’s perspective and societal standing. There are many, many things that weren’t allowed in the 60s, enforced by the full weight of the law, that are permissible and even encouraged today, although I won’t list examples in this post so we can avoid a “third rail” discussion.

I will agree that rocketry has for the most part gone in the opposite direction. It’s fun seeing what has become of all these old sites but it’s sad that many of them have either shrunken or disappeared. That’s what happens with unchecked urban sprawl.

Wow. Just wow.

The word "litigious" was used in reference to monkey bars, nothing more. Try putting up today the kinds of "playground equipment" we had in the 1960s!

 

[icyclops]

De Anza Junior College (Cupertino, CA.) parking lot….wasn’t good on the fins or paint jobs. Flew with BAYNAR….long gone.

 

[lakeroadster]

Grandpa's Hayfield.... most of the cool stuff, when I was a kid, was happening over at Grandpa's.

 

[tab28682]

I lived in Shreveport, LA, when I started flying rockets. The first site (one launch only), was a field that I do not remember the location of that was out in the country south and west of the Shreveport airport. I also flew at the old Oak Terrace Jr High school out on West 70th in SW Shreveport.

Most of my flying was at a field at the intersection of W. 70th and Mansfield Rd, in the field NE of the intersection, shown on the map.

When I lived there in 1968-1971, the Ashley Home store and the Fox Creek apartments were not there. Amazingly, a lot of the field is still there and you could still fly low power there.

Also flew free flight model aircraft there. (carefully)

Great times!

 

[UhClem]

Baseball diamonds at Ellsworth AFB. A SAC base at the time with B52's of the "we shall niether confirm nor deny" variety on alert about a mile away.

 

[jqavins]

For nostalgia value I would have to pick Bedford Park in Kendall Park, NJ, about a quarter mile walk from home.

But I was only a spectator at a friend's launches in the mid '70s. Launches of my own didn't occur until much more recently, club launches with NARHAMS, no nostalgia value.

 

[Back_at_it]

James Park on the corner of Oakton and Dodge in Evanston IL. Back then it was just an open park with two baseball diamonds and some soccer fields. Everything else was flat and open. Flew there for maybe 10 yrs in my youth.

 

[Doug Holverson]

Neighbor's pasture across the road. It has cycled in and out of cropland a lot of times in the past 49 years.

 

[teepot]

Mount Trashmore? Interesting name. Was it a trash pile at one time?

James Park on the corner of Oakton and Dodge in Evanston IL. Back then it was just an open park with two baseball diamonds and some soccer fields. Everything else was flat and open. Flew there for maybe 10 yrs in my youth.

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