First launched model rockets in 1977, beginning with an Alpha III starter kit. I still have the Estes Model Rocketry Field Operations Kit, the Alpha III, a Centuri Screaming Eagle (my 2nd rocket), and the parts from a few more. I'll build those up soon. I launched with friends for a couple of years at the local schoolyard and sports fields. Gradually, I discovered BMX bicycles, girls, and cars. Rocketry was forgotten.
During the late summer of 2010, I made a trip to NASA's JSC with my wife and daughter for my kid's birthday. I decided then that she should be exposed to model rocketry, and when we returned home I dug out that box that I had somehow carried with me through so many years. My daughter was impressed/intrigued enough that I ordered an Alpha III starter kit and a few other items for her (me?) that night.
It has all been downhill since the package arrived in the mail. Everywhere I look, I see rocket parts. As a kid, I was really into models. Today, I thoroughly enjoy the build process, and will glue just about anything I can find together. The design and construction of rockets is a hobby that I somehow missed out on for a few decades, so I'm wasting no time playing catch-up.
Odd rockets are a lot of fun, and I enjoy making the non-conventional fly. Standard pop-and-drop flights on a 3FNC are still flying, so I'm not above those, either. We've flown numerous ModRocs on 13mm and 18mm, a AT Initiator on 24mm reloads, and are tooled up for some 29mm reload action at the next launch. WIth several kits and designs on the build bench, the fleet and the adventure grows...
Flying 33-year-old, vintage rockets from your childhood is very cool.
Expecting 33-year-old, vintage 'chutes to properly deploy is not...
