Young Old Man Just Restarting in on LPR

[McKinleyw]

Hey all My name is Kirk. Im from florida, I am 33 yrs old with 3 boys 12,11, "almost 10". I recently decided to suggest rocketry to my boys and they were ecstatic. I ordered the journey kit on amazon to start with as well as an Estes AVG bulk pack. We live on 5 acres of pretty clear land, with a 200 sq ft clearing. We are way out in the country and don't have any really close neighbors other than orange trees and cows. My plan is to not go over a B motor at home. Does this sound reasonable with what I have available? I would also love to meet any other rocketeers in my area. Maybe see about myself getting into the MPR and someday HPR. Anyway I am happy to be a part of this forum and cant wait to pick ya'alls brains

 

[Bat-mite]

Welcome aboard! By 200-sq-ft clearing, do you mean that would be your launch area, but your recovery area would be five acres? What is surrounding the 200-sq-ft clearing?

You don't need a ton of space for B motors, and you can always get a closer recovery with a streamer then a chute.

 

[neil_w]

Welcome aboard! By 200-sq-ft clearing, do you mean that would be your launch area, but your recovery area would be five acres? What is surrounding the 200-sq-ft clearing?

Yeah I was wondering that too... if you mean 200 ft square of clear ground by 5 acres of trees, then you're gonna lose some rockets fast.

You don't need a ton of space for B motors, and you can always get a closer recovery with a streamer then a chute.

+1 on using streamers if you have soft landing ground. If you use the parachute then cut a spill hole in the middle (the Estes chutes typically have some dotted lines in the middle to show where to cut).

That model (nice choice BTW) is rated to 1100 ft on a C engine, so figure around half that on a B. That's more than high enough to drift quite a long way on a parachute. Always start with small engine (an A8-3 in your case) to gauge the wind and decide if you can safely go bigger. Losing rockets is (unfortunately) a part of the hobby, but losing them right when you're starting out is no fun at all.

Welcome!

 

[samb]

Welcome Kirk and crew. The 200 foot dimension is given as a minimum size for B motors in Estes and NAR documents so I think you have a viable field.

https://www2.estesrockets.com/pdf/launchsite.pdf

https://www.nar.org/safety-information/model-rocket-safety-code/#sitedimensions


Prevailing winds and location of rocket-eating trees and other hazards will determine the best location for your launcher in that area. Rockets tend to fly into the wind when under power and, of course, drift downwind under chute or streamer. Newcomers to our club launches are always amazed how far a 2 ounce rocket drifts on a "calm" day under one of those Estes 12 inch parachutes. Streamers are a good alternative recovery device and a roll of 2 inch crepe paper, 4-5 feet long taped to the shock cord works well. You can make a parachute act more like a streamer by reefing the shroudlines. Tape the lines together about halfway up along their length to keep the parachute from opening all the way. A couple more random thoughts:
- get some small snap swivels at Walmart (or wherever) and attach the parachute to it making it easy to switch for a streamer. I prefer the locking type:



- Plastic parachutes folded up inside the rocket for days before a launch will tend to keep that shape when they are deployed (parawad recovery) . Take it out and repack right before launch time, and optionally dust with a little baby powder for some opening insurance.


Flying with a club is fun and more fun ! There are several clubs in Florida that belong to one or both of the national hobby organizations, Tripoli and NAR. Use these links to find one near you:

https://www.nar.org/find-a-local-club/nar-club-locator/

https://www.tripoli.org/Prefectures/mapID/29


Hope this helps.

 

[Bat-mite]

Welcome Kirk and crew. The 200 foot dimension is given as a minimum size for B motors in Estes and NAR documents so I think you have a viable field.

Um, he said 200 square feet, not 200 feet minimum field dimension. 200 square feet is a patch 10' X 20', about enough space to put down a pad and get 15' away. (A field 200' X 200' would yield 40,000 square feet.)

 

[dhbarr]

I'd recommend grabbing an adapter and some a10-3t's and switching everything to streamers if you do in fact only have a few hundred square feet.

The A8 and A10 are both going to take you about 200ft w/3s delay, the 10's are just cheaper per pop.

 

[samb]

Um, he said 200 square feet, not 200 feet minimum field dimension. 200 square feet is a patch 10' X 20', about enough space to put down a pad and get 15' away. (A field 200' X 200' would yield 40,000 square feet.)

Um... Heck! 10ft x 20ft, a clearing ?!? My garage is bigger than that. :wink: I guess reading is fun-damental. :blush: I didn't see the two post before mine before I posted. I hope the OP comes back with the answer to Bat-mite's question about the rest of his 5 acre spread.

 

[Zeus-cat]

Welcome back. I highly recommend a club if one is close to you. Lots of good people and lots to learn from others.

 

[K'Tesh]

Welcome!

Just a speculation, but I think he meant 200' (to a side) square... and not a 14.42' x 14.42' square.

Please enlighten us! And Post Pics! Right now using Flickr seems to be the most reliable.

 

[McKinleyw]

Sorry 200 ft clear and the 5 acres is somewhat clear smaller trees, our house and a pond. our neighbors on one side have a similar 5 acres and the other side is an orange grove.

 

[McKinleyw]

I get a lil dyslexic sometimes with how to word thing. 200'x200'

 

[McKinleyw]

this is a google map of our property. it is a 5 acre lot about 300ft across.

 

[K'Tesh]

Thanks for clearing that up!

Hope the guys get rockets from Santa this year!

Merry Christmas!

 

[neil_w]

Sounds like you're in decent shape. Standard advice still applies: start with a small motor to gauge the wind before deciding to move up to bigger. Have fun!

 

[McKinleyw]

Thanks for clearing that up!

Hope the guys get rockets from Santa this year!

Merry Christmas!

LOL. The AVG rockets will be theirs lol. im looking at the bat 2 stage rocket. here is a link. Maybe santa can get me that one.

 

[McKinleyw]

Sounds like you're in decent shape. Standard advice still applies: start with a small motor to gauge the wind before deciding to move up to bigger. Have fun!

absolutely. gonna stay at the a8-3 for a good while. I ordered a 24 pack of those and I picked up 6 B6-4 at Michael's. I will try to post pix of our launch. thanks all for advice. I am hoping to get to "from scratch builds". I will be having fun with the kits for now.

 

[kyle]

absolutely. gonna stay at the a8-3 for a good while.

I remember thinking that once. Then bought some C6's after the first launch, then picked up some single use 18mms D's after the next launch.

Have fun!

 

[Andrew_ASC]

Your kids will thank you later if life. This can let them get interested in physics and engineering at young age. High schools do TARC. Colleges do SEDS and IREC comps in mechanical and aerospace engineering department. Guess who is at the competitions after final winners. Companies in aerospace wanting resumes' of senior year engineering students who competed and placed well. I still thank Dad for the little Estes flight.

 

[McKinleyw]

Your kids will thank you later if life. This can let them get interested in physics and engineering at young age. High schools do TARC. Colleges do SEDS and IREC comps in mechanical and aerospace engineering department. Guess who is at the competitions after final winners. Companies in aerospace wanting resumes' of senior year engineering students who competed and placed well. I still thank Dad for the little Estes flight.

Yeah like the movie October Sky. Loved that movie.

 

[rockets]

Rockets are so fun! I launch some LPR rockets at my local park, which is about 3 acres of clear soccer field. I really only fly A-E motors there, but only the D & E motors in low flying rockets like flying saucers.
I really try to keep my flights under 1,500 ft.
For your property, I'd honestly launch up to E motors, and only in flying saucers. I would fly A-C motors in high flying rockets.
And, clubs are a great way to really get into rocketry!


And lastly, welcome to the forum! This is the place to find lots of helpful information!




Thanks,

 

[Bat-mite]

Yeah like the movie October Sky. Loved that movie.

The book is way better. The whole trilogy is great.

 

[McKinleyw]

So we went to hobby lobby yesterday. It is a lilbit of a drive and i spoiled myself and the kids. We each picked a kit. Tiday was start of building them and here is our work area



Sorry upside down

 

[McKinleyw]

I grabbed supernova, boys picked hi flyer, baby bertha, power patrol, and a wizard. I didnt realize how hard it is to work on those 2 small rockets.

 

[neil_w]

I can just make out the rockets from the photo, otherwise I would have scolded you for not telling us which ones you got. :bangpan: [ha, ninja'd by the OP, never mind]

Two great kits, but you're definitely gonna be testing your recovery area. Both of those will go high.

In the future, you may want to also consider some heavier and/or draggier rockets that will stay lower. Just look through the Estes site and pick something that doesn't have a max altitude of 1500 ft. [Baby Bertha and Power Patrol should be better for that, didn't see those in the original picture]

Keep us posted on the builds and flights!

 

[Rex R]

you will be wanting to ensure that that the included pats of clay are used inside the hiflyer's nose cone. otherwise it is very likely to be unstable on C motors. from what I could see your builds are going nicely...and for your next builds mayhap some paper skins on the fins?
Rex

 

[McKinleyw]

We used all of the clay. I dont think i will be shooting off 2 many C motors. We shot a B6-4 yesterday in the journey. Wow it was high had to go into the neighbors cow pasture to retrieve. Not a big deal but B is gonna be our big ones for a lilwhile.

 

[tomsteve]

something you can look into,kirk, is odd rockets- saucers,pyramids,etc.
fliskits makes some cool stuff that stay low and perform awesomely
https://www.fliskits.com/products/01prod_fs.htm
i have the frick-n-frack and it is an awesome staged rocket

art applewhite has some awesome saucers,pyramids, canted ring rockets, and other cool low flyers, but i see theres a family emergency and hes not shipping at this time.
but one to keep in the memory file.

also odd'l rockets
https://oddlrockets.blogspot.com/p/kits.html


if it hasnt been mentioned, you may want to look into streamers for recovery. some of the smaller rockets do just fine coming down under streamer or just tumble recovery-it helps recovery stay closer.
its also possible to cut a dumphole on the plastic chutes.

 

[LithosphereRocketry]

Oddrocs/saucers are great for small fields. I know someone (not naming names to preserve ScrapDaddy's privacy... Oops) who regularly flies G motors on postage stamps. His L1 was an I200 to around 400ft.

I'm personally not all that into oddrocs, so when faced with a small field I tend to go with small fast motors in big rockets- B6-2s in BT-60 (1.6" diameter) rockets are perfect for this.

Sent from my LGL44VL using Tapatalk

 

[McKinleyw]

something you can look into,kirk, is odd rockets- saucers,pyramids,etc.
fliskits makes some cool stuff that stay low and perform awesomely
https://www.fliskits.com/products/01prod_fs.htm
i have the frick-n-frack and it is an awesome staged rocket

art applewhite has some awesome saucers,pyramids, canted ring rockets, and other cool low flyers, but i see theres a family emergency and hes not shipping at this time.
but one to keep in the memory file.

also odd'l rockets
https://oddlrockets.blogspot.com/p/kits.html


if it hasnt been mentioned, you may want to look into streamers for recovery. some of the smaller rockets do just fine coming down under streamer or just tumble recovery-it helps recovery stay closer.
its also possible to cut a dumphole on the plastic chutes.

thanks for the links. i have cut holes in the chutes and yes the hiflyer has a streamer recovery. What is the tape for in the instructions it says put clear tape on the shockcord. is this before the streamer or after?

 

[gpoehlein]

Something else you might look into is if there is a NAR chapter near you. If so, you might try making their next open launch. While flying as a family is fun, flying in a larger group can be awesome. Plus, you pick up a lot of new ideas and techniques from other fliers. Most NAR chapters love to have guest fliers, so give that a try.