Model Rockets and Younger Kids Cool dad or bad idea?

[Supermoon]

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

Any park or ball field should be ok as long as the wind isn’t going nuts.

[hutash]

Absolutely a good idea, just be sure to hold his beer when he says, "hey dad, watch this." I launched a few rocks when I was a kid at the same time they were launching the Mercury, Gemini and Apollo ones. Unbeknownst to us kids at the time, the rockets we were building were models of ICMs. We inadvertently were contributing to the nuclear arms race, just our rockets didn't have nuts as payloads, just little toy soldiers.

Model rocketry certainly reinforced my love on science.

[#######]

YESS!!!

My dad and myself modified the "Egg Launcher" into a two stage, D to C motor. Went up about 100ft popped and then turned north for another 1000, completely level flight into the side of a garage. Egg smashed, rocket totally destroyed, cops called but fvcking awesome and remember it like it was yesterday.

[Skistack]

Am I the only one that lost every rocket in a tree on the first launch?


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[BobMc]

Because of this thread I picked up a two rocket kit off Amazon, along with engines for them both and wadding. Gonna be a couple weeks before it all gets here but the 9yo is pretty excited. I figure the West desert should be perfect to launch them from, will wait for good weather.

[Jethro]

After I started reloading shotgun and rifle cartridges in high school, Estes rockets got real interesting. I’d drill out the end of a C02 and fill it with smokeless powder. A .22 shell with the bullet pulled out stuck in the neck made an impact fuse. We’d tape the CO2 bomb and the motor to a slender Dowel rod so it resembled a giant bottle rocket. We’d shoot them thru a tube from our shoulder like a Laws rocket. After we lost a couple of these bombs since they landed in soft grasses, we put a small hole in the rounded base, which faced the top of the rocket motor. The ejection charge would explode them if the impact fuse failed. They Were fun until one motor went to the ejection charge about 20’ out the tube. No one was hurt, but that was the end of that experimental phase

[Falcon3]

Similar story, in high school we packed most the body of an Estes rocket with black powder and when the 'chute ejection charge lit, it made a very large fireball with a fiery arc that went down into the corn field. Luckily we didn't start the field on fire, it was right before harvest and everything was really dry.

[BobMc]

We’ve got an X-acto knife, sandpaper, spraypaint, wood glue, and plastic cement on the way. The youngest is pretty excited.

[Thaleia]

Your youngest?! Hell - I'm excited!!! !!!

[Thaleia]

K. Just ordered a kit and stuff lol for my nephew. Thank you for the inspiration.

[Jong Lafitte]

“Rockets require assembly” should also have an exclamation point.
Oh prolly addressed earlier as I missed page two where the actual rocket scientists probably weighed in:

The ones with the plastic tube + wing thing that goes on the rocket fuselage totally rock and will inevitably go off without a hitch even assembled with an ADD level of detail orientation. How I know?

I built so many with 5 minute epoxy. The kits where you have to line up the wings and epoxy them individually were some of my first ones and with basically no help from my folks except for safe oversight (sometimes) they pretty much always flew straight and high enough to be safe and fun.

Anybody remember the one that took pics or the ‘eggspress’ where you tried to keep an egg in the nose cone through launch, flight and ‘re-entry’ ha!

Post is already getting too long but don’t buy the assorted parts kit too early on lol. Unless of course you or your kid is an actual rocket scientist. I got that kit when I was like hell 10 and tried to replicate the Estes Sr71 or maybe b1b cool looking model.

Well, obviously, my untested angles were all wrong.

Some extended family was in town and I had them come out to observe the maiden voyage of the craft. I watched i horror as my untested aircraft immediately upon initiation of launch bent the little wire thing into an arc and flew basically right at their faces. It then twisted and went skyward, as if only to avoid striking someone, to deploy the chute like 50 feet from the ground.

Everybody was like “cool!!!” As if I’d somehow planned it that way.

We’ve got an X-acto knife, sandpaper, spraypaint, wood glue, and plastic cement on the way. The youngest is pretty excited.

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[Jong Lafitte]

Fn sorry double post

[jono]

Some extended family was in town and I had them come out to observe the maiden voyage of the craft. I watched i horror as my untested aircraft immediately upon initiation of launch bent the little wire thing into an arc and flew basically right at their faces. It then twisted and went skyward, as if only to avoid striking someone, to deploy the chute like 50 feet from the ground.

Everybody was like “cool!!!” As if I’d somehow planned it that way.

This is the true goal and inevitable destination of any foray into model rocketry. Congratulations, sir.

[refried]

Ever use cannon fuse to ignite them? It works much better than the battery powered type and are much more convenient (it also makes it easier to do stupid things with the engines.

[carlh]

We got the same kit. Assembly is above 4yo level so I am going to do it and let him do the stickers.

[Jethro]

We used to make them from scratch using various cardboard tubes, and balsa wood from the hobby store. It would be a fun project to do with my 8 year old. I like the fuse idea also.

[riser4]

Ever use cannon fuse to ignite them? It works much better than the battery powered type and are much more convenient (it also makes it easier to do stupid things with the engines.

Shhhhhhh

[basinbeater]

We do em at the park across the street in a soccer field. Should be not windy, throw some grass in the air a few times to get an idea of the breeze. Ours rarely land right in the field, but usually on the hill around the field. A couple have landed in trees, but 8yo are pretty good tree climbers when their rocket is in the tree.

sent from Utah.

[NW_SKIER]

Meanwhile at Estes rockets-

"Anyone know what is contributing to the sudden jump in rocket sales?"

"I thought it was Space X, Sir. But it seems sales increases lately are directly linked to an online forum full of dudes who blew shit up as kids, and now want to blow shit up with kids."

"Good work, Johnson."

[BS720]

I was into rockets for years. Finally bought the engines, took them into the back field with pops. I stood there like Heath Ledger trying to get the thing to launch. Got new batteries, and off it went, maybe 200'. Something happened to the wadding(hey, it was 30 years ago), and it blew into a fireball and chased us around the cornfield, leaving small fires in the wake. Wasn't allowed to indulge after that.

[Jethro]

As a kid, from about 11-15, I used to shoot to launch rockets. It was an on and off interest, usually done in the summer. It seems like we have fire bans every summer now in Colorado, and they probably fall under the category of fireworks. They might be best done during the mud season or early summer.

I’m going to have to visit the Estes rocket site. The single stage C&D engines were our standard ones, if I remember correctly

[Jethro]

Skip the balsa wood for the first one and just go with the plastic fins. That way you can just get out there and launch.
Balsa takes some patience, if it’s even still a thing....It’s been 30 years!

Stay away from power lines and dry conditions. There’s really nothing else to be too concerned about

Dammit, I didn’t see your post and just bought $20 of 2mm balsa. We are building my sons first rocket from scratch, and wood glues to cardboard really well. May have to switch to dense cardboard

[bobz]

I had a great time with Estes rockets when I was a kid; I still have one of them (which I never painted); kind of fond of it.

And then, a few years later, we used to stuff multiple firecrackers in the payload (instead of, you know, a parachute), and around the engine to hold it in place, which the engine back-fire function would ignite after thrust burned out. Turns out any cardboard tube with paperboard tailfins taped on (center of gravity must be a bit in front of center of pressure, I remember learning) and an engine stuffed inside (we used firecracker fuses to ignite the engines; no stinkin' electric igniters) is a perfectly adequate rocket. Fun times!

[summit]

My dad got me into these around Kindgarten and I was playing with them through 4th grade.

Higher rated engines usually mean more lost rockets.

Teach about winds and drift. Streamer and tumble recovery rockets are less vulnerable to parachute-hungry trees.

Launching grasshoppers in the clear cargo segment was interesting (they are fine with high acceleration).

Using wrapping paper tubes reduces performance as these are pretty darn heavy especially vs their strength.

The 6ft mean machine is a good use of a D engine.

PRO TIP: Multistage rockets are a good way to lose parts of a rocket (or all of it, especially commanche 3), or smashed rockets from upper stage failure to ignite... but also a good way to teach about failure in complex systems. Tiny bit of super light masking tape between first and second stage engines helps ensure upper stage ignition.

PRO TIP: Do NOT put food coloring in the rocket motor for colored smoke. Yes, sometimes it works if you let it dry, but more often when it dries, it cracks the propellent. This means that once ignited, instead of a controlled burn of the black powder out from the ignitor cavity, you get burning initiated up the cracks resulting in a rapidly increasing surface area of black powder. So, the rocket will take off to about head height before the pressure inside the motor spikes and EXPLODES sending bits of rocket up to a block away.

PRO TIP: Auguring out the back end of a cub scout pinewood derby racer and shoving in a rocket seems like a good idea, especially if you make a pressure relief hole on the bottom for the backfire charge. However, finding a smooth enough track to operate your rocket car is not so easy... a rough track such as a road will result in a tumbling rocket car going random directions at high speed.

[summit]

Holy nostalgia!!!! Look through the rocket catalog of your youth from the last 50 years!

https://estesrockets.com/catalogs/