PDA

View Full Version : We Shot a Rocket In The Air...



Art Mulder
06-13-2007, 10:00 AM
We shot a rocket in the air.
It landed, but we know not where

The story began some time ago,
With my son who started to save his dough.

He wanted a rocket to shoot to the moon,
as he loved fireworks that flash and boom.

He bought a kit and we put it together,
and then had to wait for favourable weather.

We set up the gantry and mounted the beast,
the wind felt gentle, blowing west to east.

The engine installed, wired to the igniter,
we backed away and waited for Gerrit to light her.

With a flash and a hiss it leapt into the sky,
that rocket sure could fly high and high.

But way up there, it caught a breeze,
and it drifted away, beyond park and trees.

Over the fence, past the railroad ravine,
was the last of the rocket that we have seen.

We shot a rocket in the air.
It landed, but we know not where
6626166262

Mitchell Andrus
06-13-2007, 10:05 AM
2- 24" x 4" round aluminum heater vent works great as a rocket body. "G" motors, IIRC.

You'll get there...

Lee DeRaud
06-13-2007, 10:44 AM
Just did a google on 'model rocket', mostly to see if the Estes people were still in business...

Wow! Looks like that particular hobby is a lot healthier than I would have expected, considering how risk-averse society in general (and parents in particular) has gotten in recent decades.

Good stuff. :cool:

John Daugherty
06-13-2007, 10:57 AM
Art, I enjoyed the poem. As the father of a 6-year-old son who really enjoys sending rockets to the moon, I have seen a number of "one shot wonders". It's funny how there will be no breeze at ground level but at a couple hundred feet it seems like gale force winds when the shoot opens. The wind always seems to be blowing toward the trees, power lines anything that can snag the dang thing.

Steven Wilson
06-13-2007, 11:41 AM
Model rocketry sure is fun. I'll always remember the first launch of my Estes Saturn V rocket I build when I was a kid, the dual gliders separating and landing somewhere in my neighbors corn field. The photos from my camera rocket, or launching bugs and small rodents in the clear plastic tube sample compartment on one of the Estes kits from long ago.

Beware a group of kids with Cox "F" engines (like an E engine but more power), a shotgun shell reloading kit, and old gun stock, and spare Lexan. Surface to air missle comes to mind - the baine of brick walled out buildings

Ken Fitzgerald
06-13-2007, 12:02 PM
Art..........Write that poem down and put it and the photos somewhere for the future viewing. Someday...the poem...the photos....the kid will appreciate it even more! Nice day Dad!

Mitchell Andrus
06-13-2007, 12:34 PM
Solid state video recorders are a cool thing but my kids found girls and cars more fun before we got around to sending any up.

Great hobby. I kinda miss it.

Jeffrey Fusaro
06-13-2007, 12:53 PM
Beware a group of kids with Cox "F" engines (like an E engine but more power), a shotgun shell reloading kit, and old gun stock, and spare Lexan. Surface to air missle comes to mind - the baine of brick walled out buildings

most of ours were one shot wonders, too, after we figured out that you could use the parachute deployment burst to ignite a home made "warhead" (further technical detail purposely omitted to prevent similar stupidity - do not try this at home!).

after we destroyed all of our store bought rockets, we switched to t.p. tubes with glued on wings - and the requisite warhead.

we were never really sure where those home made jobs were going to go, since we weren't too precise with the placement of the wings.

a "light the fuse and run like ****" situation...


p.s. if you have never seen the movie "october sky", you need to rent it.

Steven Wilson
06-13-2007, 1:06 PM
That parachute deployment burst is fun, we also scraped away that charge so the engine would just stop (made for better missles). Another fun thing was to empty out the insides of fireworks (anything with color) and pack that into a payload container and then run a first stage engine and a fairly quick fuse to light the payload. Rather colorful ending to a night launch. Launching gasoline also worked well (a fireball in the air that never makes it back to the ground).

Art Mulder
06-13-2007, 1:08 PM
Art..........Write that poem down and put it and the photos somewhere for the future viewing.

Thanks, my wife is the scrapbooker and I am sure she'll record this one!



p.s. if you have never seen the movie "october sky", you need to rent it.

I echo this statement.

Actually, if you are interested in 'real' rockets, see if your public library has a copy of the 12 disc(?) HBO series "From The Earth To the Moon" from 1998. This details the Apollo series in great detail - amazingly well done. Tom Hanks and Ron Howard were involved in putting it together.

David Epperson
06-13-2007, 2:01 PM
I remember doing that when I was a younster and again with my nephew.
I watched one of mine "splashdown" in the middle of the Mississippi River. :D

Bruce Page
06-13-2007, 3:00 PM
Great pictures Art. That little guy is putting out a nice plume!

Lee Schierer
06-13-2007, 4:47 PM
Nice poem, but a sad ending. I would suggest adding a address label to one of the fins of future rockets, then if it drifts off, some kindly soul will be able to return it.

I was the beneficiary of just such a label back in 1961 in Spain, when we located a really nice sail plane out in the field where we played. It had a phone number and address on it. We called, they (some spanish gentlemen) came and 2 weeks later I had a glider of my own along with flight instructions from them that really keyed up my interest in flying.

Jim Becker
06-13-2007, 4:58 PM
I remember that particular rocket design! Very nice!

Brian Elfert
06-14-2007, 8:41 AM
I fly very large high power rockets. Largest I have built is 18 feet tall and a foot diameter. It flew to 20,000 feet on a P motor.

See if there is a high power rocket club in your area. They should all do model rocketry also. Most clubs should have enough space to safely recover most model rockets. Our club almost never loses a model rocket as we have a 1/2 mile of sod to fly on plus surrounding fields.

See www.flyrockets.com (http://www.flyrockets.com) for more info.

Brian Elfert

Art Mulder
07-01-2007, 1:46 PM
Well, I'm not sure what to say here.

This story just keeps getting weirder and more twisted.

When we left the situation, my son had lost his rocket, which he had spent a few months saving up to get. (10yr old boys have very few options for earning money...) Next, LOML and I decided that "Mom + Dad Family Insurance" would step in with full coverage. So, off they went to the hobby store to find a replacement rocket.

They came home with three. My son got his, and my beloved bought me one for Father's day. And finally, my little girl, who is just 6-and-a-half, decided she wanted one as well. She had some savings even, and so my wife picked out a simple "snap-together" kit for her (which also used a smaller engine, so it shouldn't go so high.)

Everything is smooth, so far.

Last night, after weeks of anticipation, came the big day. We were out at our friends country property for the evening. He's got 4 acres which is fairly treed with young trees. But it also has a large open space where he puts a huge ice rink (1/4 NHL sized!) in winter, and uses for soccer in summer.

It was a touch breezy, so we waited until dusk when the wind died down. This of course means that the pictures below -- yes, I do have photographic evidence! -- are not the greatest. Even though it is plenty light for you or I, the camera keeps wanting to use the flash, which results in a dark picture. Or a blurry one, if you turn off the flash. :mad:

My daughters was first, and it went up, well, like a rocket. And came down no problems.
6718667187

Then I shot off mine, and then my son let his fly as well. I thought I'd like one more, so I reloaded mine and set it up to go again...

My rocket is "The Converter" from Estes.
67185
You can make it longer or shorter by inserting or removing sections in the middle. The first time I launched it I had one of the middle sections in, to make it heavier. It flew well, but the parachute had not properly opened. The second time I launched it, I made it as short as possible, as I wanted maximum height.

And this time the parachute worked.

Too bad.

The other 3 launches had been pretty vertical, straight up, and almost straight down. This time my chute worked, and the rocket drifted off a bit in the wrong direction...

67188

... and landed at the extreme top of a ~40 ft tall Poplar.

I figured, bye-bye rocket. Thems the risks ya take in this sport. But as I clean up the launch pad and walk over, I heard all this shouting about "cut it down"! And I'm just surprised. It's just a cheap rocket after all!

But no, they were serious. This row of poplars is due to come out soon, as they start to rot out after a while, and in behind there is a nice maple ready to have some more breathing space.

(aside: Poplars are early trees, they grow in quickly, and die off quickly. Maples grow in slower, and they benefit from a bit of protection. Read up on forestry succession some time.)

So after a brief tussle with some tree-hugging friends of ours, (they were having fun) my friend pulled out his chainsaw and down came the tree.

67189

I think I better be careful with this rocketry sport...

Tim Morton
07-01-2007, 3:25 PM
back in my day it was tennis ball cannons:D

Jim Myers
07-02-2007, 7:43 AM
I was not so lucky this weekend.

After reading your story I went out and bought a starter kit for my 6 Yr old.

I used the midsized engines but who knew that you cound not see the rockets at 300 feet.

The first one came down without a hitch but the second well.....

The wind picked up and it went into the trees.

Well now I know to give way more space around when we send them up and to have a spotter to track it path.

Even with losing one my son thought it was the best thing ever.