Model Rockets

[flyweightnate]

As a kid, I remember getting an Estes Alpha III model rocket for my birthday one year. We went to the field, stuck a B6-6 engine in it, and whooosh! Off it went, a good 800 feet high, parachute deploys... and the wind promptly carried this poor rocket into a nearby forest, at least 200m away, where it was lost forever.

Fast forward twenty-plus years, and my four year old son is going stir crazy. I stop at a hobby shop, and buy literally the same exact rocket, on a launch kit that's now red instead of yellow but otherwise very familiar. I get the A8 engines, with half the total impulse, remembering clearly my earlier experience. We set up in the middle of a field in the nearby park, 300 feet to any treelines, press the button, whoosh! Off it goes to a very modest 300 feet, and the slight breeze catches the 'chute... so it drifts right into the crown of one of three small trees in that direction.

I'm going out that way with a ladder and a long paint roller handle to try to knock it free, and I got two more rockets on Amazon - a featherweight that should gently tumble straight down, and one that descends with a streamer instead of a 'chute.

Anyone else have experience with these little heartbreakers?

[Axel]

They're nice little toys. Like you I stick to the A's for better recovery at the local park, but you're gonna lose one occasionally

[MrKittyCatMeowFace]

I prefer the ones that blow up

[Kit]

I made this air powered launcher for my kids. The rockets are just paper and tape. They get up high enough to be out of sight. Its a good use for those old 20oz tanks and the rockets are easy to make.

[Havoc]

Can you post a parts list to make one of these please

[Kit]

I used the 20oz co2 tanks for the air reservoir. The pin is removed and drilled out for more flow. You can also use larger pipe to create the air tank. Sprinkler valve to release the air burst. The valves are powered by two 9volt battery connected to a push button switch so the kids can count down and launch. I used 1/2 pipe for the rocket form to save on tape. The paper rocket needs to be covered in tape or it will find the weak link and have a blow out. I air it up with a bicycle pump to 40-50 psi.

[flyweightnate]

That's awesome! I might need to do this, or something very similar.

[Memornix]

As a kid we also had the Alpha III among many others and our yard bordered a park with 4 baseball fields. We would launch from our yard into the park which was frequently enough space. One of the days, we launched the Alpha and the wind caught it and pushed it beyond the other side of the park seeming lost forever. A few weeks pass and we find it laying in our back yard with the chute deployed and a different engine than the one we launched with and assume someone found it, launched it and lost it. So, we launch it a few more times, then lose it the same way once more and once again, a few weeks go by and it is back. We all had a good launch and this time intentionally sent it back from whence it came, but it was never to be seen again.

BTW, those Co2 rockets are sweet.

[Havoc]

I once launched a small "A" sized rockthat had no parachute and was supposed to drift down. It went up the second stage went off I watched what I thought was the rocket come down it was just the engine which it turns out I accidentally put a "C" engine in. It took forever for the engine to come down never found the rocket if it ever come back down

[Yellow5]

I had a whole trunk of those, including an Alpha & Alpha 3...good times. My favorite was a space shuttle model where the orbiter separated & glided down while the SRBs & external tank parachuted down as a single unit. Also had an impressive Saturn V & a 3-stage hot rod that lawn-darted from at least a 1/4 mile up.

I lost a few, but we used to go to my school that backed up to another school & launched from the combined sports fields so we had plenty of room.

[Sniperfan]

I went through two phases with model rockets.

1978 through about 1980: Estes Honest John, Big Bertha, V-2, The small Saturn 5, the I can't remember the name but what was the one that auto-rotated down when the motor ejected? I would buy A and C size motors at the hobby shop in my neighborhood. Once I got the hang of it I could walk out into the vacant lot behind my house and launch until I ran out of motors.

Later, around 1989-1992 a second friend of mine and I got into them again as something to do on our days off. We worked on Saturday, so Mondays would find us out on the pasture by his house. He had the Recruiter and the CamRoc- the one with the 110 camera in the nose, IIRC. I had another Big Bertha, Der-something-Max, and another a-engine one that flew great, lots of altitude for such a small motor. Can't recall the name.

We built a home-built, dual-D engine rocket out a Christmas-paper tube. We turned the nose cone out of balsa on the lathe at work, and I did the stability calculation to make sure it would fly straight. Boy- did it ever. It was very heavy, and when the ejection charges went off the thing would just plough on, heading uphill, trailing the open parachutes and nose cone, slowly turning. It flew successfully many times, even when one engine didn't ignite.

Lots of fun. Climbed a few fences and up on a few roofs to recover them.

The "Rocket Box" was from the 89-92 and I have moved with that box....six times. It's a time capsule back to those days. My wife doesn't understand why I keep crap like this.

[flyweightnate]

Hm, now I want to start designing them. Where's a good starting point for "stability calcs"? I've never worked on something propelled before, honestly. When I bought the first one I went and did the math on how high it'd wind up, and maximum speed... I think I got it about right.

[kevdupuis]

I designed three of my model rockets while I was in college, an A engined F9 Panther, a C powered CF 105 Arrow, a C powered Bomarc missile (lost) plus a pair of Estes' kit rockets both C powered, a AIM 45 and a Mercury redstone both of which were bought around 87.

The F9 and CF 105, it's been years since I last dug these out, talk about being dirty. I'm not sure where the Mercury Redstone is, it's gotta be somewhere in storage along with the AIM 45.

[SignOfZeta]

My son (5) and I have been doing this for years. I was into it when I was like 12 but didn't get back into it until he was born. Our current favorite is an Estes Big Daddy in Kyrylon easter colors, preferably with an E-9 which in that giant thing doesn't go as high as you'd think Earlier this year it landed in a pond and I was able to get it out but now the engine is sort of glued in from being wet and while it its structurally and cosmetically great I can't fly it. I think I need to cut the motor tube out and set in a new one.

There is a garage kit rocket called "bug me not" that is designed to be as easy to fly as possible. It has three triangular wings which I didn't shape on purpose to keep them strong. Recovery is by streamer and I added an ejection baffle so you don't even need wadding. I think we've flown it at least a dozen times. I very rarely lose them. You have to match the right rocket for the field. We usually go about 250-900 feet.

[Falcon16]

Always a fun way to bond with kids. Highest anything I've fired has gone is just over 1K feet. Was my Estes Mongoose with a C8-0 main stage and a C6-2 upper stage. relatively heavy with 2 stages if it were lighter I can imagine it'd fly high enough to probably be somewhat illegal

[gabe]

Yes!!! I'm so glad someone else is into model rockets. They are something I was into as a kid shooting them off with my dad and recently got back into them to have a fun hobby to share with my nephew who loves rockets and space stuff. Secretly it's really for me though as I lowkey love letting my nerd flag fly and building rockets is a lot of fun.

As a kid my favorites were the Comanche 3 and Viking rockets. I recently completed a Viking and launched it with great results but eventually broke a fin with the fairly brisk descent rate on streamer recovery. A mini Comanche 3 is on the building table finished through primer and just needing a color coat and decals applied. I have a full size Comanche 3 still in the bag waiting to get built. The 3 stage models are fun but can be a handful for smaller fields. I plan on flying them on the lowest power combination on 3 stages or more likely as just 2 stage models on lower impulse engines for the time being.

Next up I want to try some boost gliders. As an R/C sailplane nerd as well it's like two hobbies coming together.

[Sniperfan]

I fly slope soaring, and I have this friend who made a neat little sorta-scale F-16 that ran on E-size motors. He would climb out, dive to gain some speed, pull up and ignite the e-motor and holy crap did it accelerate for about three seconds. The first couple of launches the plane would simply snap-roll as the motor ignited, so he played around with the CG and the thrust angle until it worked.

[Falcon16]

an E size motor is a big boy. My biggest rocket was a model of a V2 bought from a placed called Gamesalot and it ran 4 D size motors

[JasperStout]

Anyone remember the cox control line airplanes? I think Estes used to sell them out of the same catalogs

[grendal50]

http://www.aircommandrockets.com/

These are fun, I discovered these on my own putting bicycle tube valves in soda caps. Then I upgraded with the larger size truck tire valves that fit inside the soda bottles like a cork. Just hand launching them at 1/3 full of water and 80psi they were getting a couple hundred feet.

[grendal50]

Also this is a good write up.

https://offspring.lifehacker.com/how-to-make-a-water-rocket-with-your-kid-1828422091

[gabe]

Anyone remember the cox control line airplanes? I think Estes used to sell them out of the same catalogs

Oh yeah, had a couple of those as a kid. Those little .049 engines had just enough gas on board to get you really dizzy before they died and you had to lay down for a minute to get things to quit spinning.