Model Rockets and Younger Kids Cool dad or bad idea?

[lemonhead]

Clearly cool dad. They used to make some low powered foam rockets that just required painting. If they are still available that may be a good starting point. More launching and less repairs.

[riser4]

Engines taped to bamboo garden stakes launched at night make great fun. But you might get the cops called on you because it's readily apparent to the neighbors that you are messing with something you didn't get at a fireworks stand. Be highly mobile and bug out quick. Don't ask how I know. The key is balance and the booklet that came with one of my first Estes kits had the steps for checking that. I was never into RC so I never thought about the smokebomb delivery. Brilliant.

[Timberridge]

As a kid I noticed Wile E. Coyote never had much luck with rockets, so they scared me a bit.

[DJSapp]

Engines taped to bamboo garden stakes launched at night make great fun. But you might get the cops called on you because it's readily apparent to the neighbors that you are messing with something you didn't get at a fireworks stand. Be highly mobile and bug out quick. Don't ask how I know. The key is balance and the booklet that came with one of my first Estes kits had the steps for checking that. I was never into RC so I never thought about the smokebomb delivery. Brilliant.

Heh. Once we were old enough to buy rocket motors on our own, we were carving dragster cars our of 18" long 2x2 scrap and drilled a hole in the back for the engine. Fired those down the sidewalk on a wire. Was all good until the wire melted and we set a lawn on fire.

Rockets are big fun for kids, but 4.5 is a bit young for the more difficult kits. Water rockets are their speed, less finicky, and launches cost just some water. I remember doing this, and then figuring out how to upgrade the launch pad to hold the bottle and cork together to get more pressure into the bottle before manually releasing it. Then we pumped a bottle up to the point it exploded because we needed to know what the upper limit was for pumping pressure.


Added style points if you put some food coloring in the water.

[wooley12]

Kid's toy or playing with my kids toys?

For a 4 1/2 y o. $1 0 this will let them see and feel action / reaction and the kid can be hands on instead of an observer. Buy two and have a blastoff.

[basinbeater]

We've had the stomp rockets, and they are fun. We started doing the model rockets when the oldest was 6, and the youngest was 3. Both of them, still, every time, are like WHOOOAAA! Yeah! They love it! And they love chasing after them when they land. Very cool hobby and even the little ones love it even if they can't assemble them yet.

sent from Utah.

[refried]

Yes, Estes Rockets at Mitchell Field on LI when I was a 12 yr old delinquent .

Your kid will like it too.

I launched quite a few there too, when we got bored we'd put a engine into a badminton birdie and light it off, it wouldn't go very far or fast and usually end up almost hitting someone if they didn't move fast enough. Mitchell Field was also where I learned to ride a motorcycle.

[riser4]

Soda bottle rockets are easy and fun. My wife had me do a lot of those for our kids and the few years we had a daycare. ...3 kids worth of day care is expensive so my wife quit her job for a while and had more money taking in other kids than otherwise.

[DJSapp]

We've had the stomp rockets, and they are fun. We started doing the model rockets when the oldest was 6, and the youngest was 3. Both of them, still, every time, are like WHOOOAAA! Yeah! They love it! And they love chasing after them when they land. Very cool hobby and even the little ones love it even if they can't assemble them yet.

sent from Utah.

Yeah, I remember the wow factor when I was 7. The risk is all of the build up for launch and then your one rocket potentially breaking or burning during it's first flight, so all of that build up was for 1 minute of action. We had quite a few rockets that we poured hours into building, only to have the parachute fail to deploy and they break on landing. That's not fun for younger kids, they like repeatability and if that's your only rocket it makes for a shitty day.

The Alpha III was surprisingly durable and easy to build. Lasted several launch sessions until one day we ran out of wadding and tried to substitute tissues. DON'T DO THIS. The instructions tell you not to and for good reason. Just like the instructions said could happen, it caught on fire when the delay charge went off and was a burning wreck dangling from a parachute, until the string burnt up and we dropped a fiery rocket body into the field. RIP Alpha III

[riser4]

Ya. Build up leading to disappointed. I built my alpha as my first rocket, spent a long time doing a good paint job, it was nice. I lost it on the first launch. All I had were the largest motors it would take. Fucker sailed high, parachute deployed nicely, and the last I saw of it was as it floated out of town, with a nice silhouette of the church steeple behind it. Gone, baby, gone.

[carlh]

bought a 2 rocket starter kit and a 24 pack of a8 engines. I will do the assembly, little guy will put on stickers. Should be fun.

Water rockets are great but not when it is 30* outside, will look into some this summer. RC car is in the plans for his birthday this summer.

[LegoSkier]

Pro tips for the Estes rockets...
#1 Replace the tissue wadding in the rocket with either firecrackers or bottle rocket engines. Bunch them together enough so they will just fit in the rocket tube. Twist their fuses together and insert them where the wadding would be with the fuses facing down (toward the engine). Then when the engine backfires to blow out the wadding, it will blow out the firecrackers and light the fuses at the same time. Presto, instant reusable high-altitude firework shell.
#2 When you launch that (while high) late at night on the big campus soccer field, make sure to drop the rocket you are holding at the first sign of campus police. That way you have plausible deniability that you were just standing around watching and not the one responsible.

[frorider]

The more responsible choice would be Lawn Darts.

[DJSapp]

Pro tips for the Estes rockets...
#1 Replace the tissue wadding in the rocket with either firecrackers or bottle rocket engines. Bunch them together enough so they will just fit in the rocket tube. Twist their fuses together and insert them where the wadding would be with the fuses facing down (toward the engine). Then when the engine backfires to blow out the wadding, it will blow out the firecrackers and light the fuses at the same time. Presto, instant reusable high-altitude firework shell.
#2 When you launch that (while high) late at night on the big campus soccer field, make sure to drop the rocket you are holding at the first sign of campus police. That way you have plausible deniability that you were just standing around watching and not the one responsible.

This is the quality advice that keeps me coming back to TGR.

[Lone Star]

bought a 2 rocket starter kit and a 24 pack of a8 engines. I will do the assembly, little guy will put on stickers. Should be fun.

Water rockets are great but not when it is 30* outside, will look into some this summer. RC car is in the plans for his birthday this summer.

Once you feel good with these, get the Estes Big Bertha. It is bulky and doesnt go real high but that is perfect for kids and people with shoddy vision. The Big Bertha is big enough to put a glowstick inside as a payload; at night the glowstick illuminates the parachute and you get to chase the glow down the street and toward the lone giant Cottonwood tree in the adjacent lot.

[pepperdawg]

As mentioned above - not for dry/drought conditions......don't ask me know I know.

+1 vote for cool dad.

[riser4]

Pro tips for the Estes rockets...
#1 Replace the tissue wadding in the rocket with either firecrackers or bottle rocket engines. Bunch them together enough so they will just fit in the rocket tube. Twist their fuses together and insert them where the wadding would be with the fuses facing down (toward the engine). Then when the engine backfires to blow out the wadding, it will blow out the firecrackers and light the fuses at the same time. Presto, instant reusable high-altitude firework shell.
#2 When you launch that (while high) late at night on the big campus soccer field, make sure to drop the rocket you are holding at the first sign of campus police. That way you have plausible deniability that you were just standing around watching and not the one responsible.

It's only reusable if you are doing it wrong.

[riser4]

The more responsible choice would be Lawn Darts.

I miss those, we played some sketchy games.

[basinbeater]

We had an rc car for the street back in the day. It was really fast, think one of those old carbon fiber pan cars. We duct taped a big d size rocket engine on top of it, set it up at one end of the street with the ignition wire stretched all the way that way. Floored it, got it up to top speed, lit the engine, and that thing went BLAZIN down the street. Then it crashed and caught on fire. Pretty awesome.

sent from Utah.

[riser4]

I wish I could take credit for this one. In Jr High we made CO2 cars in shop. A crafty person put a C rocket engine in one and set it off in the hallway when the shop teacher was busy. That was a hoot. Especially when the ejector charge went off.

[John_B]

I miss those, we played some sketchy games.

My most destructive day of model rocketing also involved a kid knocked out with the blunt version of Lawn Darts. Total coincidence I'm sure.

[Supermoon]

I used to build a bunch of these as a kid. Starting with the plastic fin versions (that a 4 or 5 year old could totally do with supervision), to big, three stage rockets we drove out to the salt flats to launch.

A big streamer is just as effective and less likely to fail than a parachute on small, light rockets. They are fairly durable, so really you just need the visibility in my experience.

Nothing like chasing a rocket you spent your whole summer job money on for like a mile through a pasture in six inches of mud.

My wife actually got me a starter kit for christmas this year and we built them up and launched them. Still fun to blow shit up, even with no kids as an excuse to do it.

[Thaleia]

How big of a field do you need for one of the small starter rockets?

[riser4]

Get one of the really little ones that uses the mini motors and the above mentioned streamers instead of a parachute.

[irul&ublo]

The igniters make pretty good fuses for black powder bombs...or so I’ve heard