Monday, February 7, 2011

My expeirances with model rocketry


     Probably one of my favorite Christmas presents as a kid was getting one of these. It wasn't huge maybe 2 feet tall max. But the memories will last a life time. My dad bought me a complete kit one year with a launch pad an everything. Since we lived in a place with many huge fields it was a perfect place to launch. It was a standard parachute body with a rotor nose cone which was pretty cool to see. His friend eventually got involved and he bought a few little A engine tiny rockets which was kind of lame and they would almost instantly disappear.


     Then one day his friend brings over this. I don't need to tell you it would never fit on my puny launchpad. So after a few beers a bunch of guys with almost no experience in model rockets decided it would just fine if we stood it up on its fins on a couple of bricks. It wasn't. Not half a second before ignition there was a slight breeze just enough to start it to tip over. It reached around the 60 degree mark as the D engine screamed open. I was surprised at the noise. So it took off on a trajectory and made a perfect flight. It was the landing that was the problem, it ended up coming down on top of an old tree about 40-50 feet up. We could see it, but it was never coming down again. I don't know how much that cost him, but it was still fun to watch.

     After my rocket was destroyed by a family friends child, I had left over engines. I also had a number of model cars and aircraft I had built. The only logical conclusion any 14 year old boy would make was to strap said engines onto said models. The first one was a model of a British sea harrier. The whole time I imaged it taking off with a huge blast and flying into the distance. What happened in reality was it launched about a foot into the air, made a 180 degree turn and came straight back at me spinning in the air. I also launched a Lamborghini it drove about 15 feet then launched into the air spun around and nailed the ground with an explosive impact releasing the engine which flew around aimlessly.

     Do not attempt at home.

11 comments:

  1. Oooooh man, that's harsh. My stepdad is a RC plane buff. He has a rocket launcher and every time I see I think I should get a rocket this weekend. Weekend rolls around and I always forget :/

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  2. I laughed at the Lamborghini with the rocket attached. That is something I would totally do.

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  3. The only model rocket I bought was a $20 rocket from walmart and it was defective :( never launched.

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  4. Sounds like an awesome hobby, I've always been involved with the aspects and work behind achieving a launch. I always want to tr it out when I have the cash, but something always comes up.

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  5. Definitely loved these as a kid, i remember making a few body prototypes i got to fly too, landing is always the hard part if you don't have a big field to launch in.

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  6. I like these kind of hobbies. Unfortunately, I'm not able to get these into my busy schedule.

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  7. Sounds like a fun dangerous hobby! Keep it safe, but not too safe haha

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  8. never had one as a kid, must have been awesone

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  9. haha, i remember getting these as a kid as well. good times

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