Rockets

One of the first things I wanted when I was younger was a model rocket. I remember seeing them listed in the Consumer’s Distributing catalog. This was the early 80’s. For one reason or another, I never really got one until I was about 14 (1988). I saved up and bought ‘The Ninja” starter set from Toys”R’us.

The Ninja set was as basic as it came. The rocket itself used a streamer, and did not use the standard “quick change” engine mount. You had to wrap tape around the engine for a tight fit. The launchpad was a set of dowels. My friend and I managed to get 2 flights out of it. After the second flight, the tape had melted a bit and we could not get the engine out of the rocket. We actually twisted the rocket trying to get it out. A bit of a let down....

As a replacement, I bought the Alpha III rocket. I went to my friends place, we built it there, waited about an hour and went out to launch it. This has to be one of my most oddest “cato’s” ever....it launched ok....we could see the smoke trail....that was it....No sign of the rocket. No little blob, no dot in the sky, no nose cone, no parachute, nothing!!! Usually one can see something when things go wrong....we saw nothing. It was like the cloud just swallowed it. My friend and I kept looking up in the air asking each other ”you don’t think it is still up there?”. We walked downrange to see if we can find anything.....nothing. All well....the stories I can tell about it was worth the loss.




		From the 1981 Estes catalog. These were the kits I remember drooling over when I was young.




		My first rocket!!!




	This is me with a very destroyed Estes Mean Machine. This is called “Cato”, short for Catastrophe. The D engine exploded on the pad causing the bottom section to jump a bit on the rod, causing it to bend. The paint was actually sizzling in this area from the heat. Picture taken around 2001.

Sometime in 2000 I got back into the hobby. I’ve always loved building models, and rockets are fun as you can fly them. I had close to a dozen rockets when I left the hobby. My girlfriend was moving in, and I needed to get rid of some stuff. The wall that I kept these on became her computer/work area. I gave my fleet to my brother who was going through a tough time, so I thought these might cheer him up. There were only a few rockets that I wanted to keep, but alas I did not have a lot of space so I gave him everything.

In 2006 I went to the hobby show, where they were giving away free stuff at some booths. I managed to acquire three Estes FLASH rockets, which I really did not want as I thought it might re-ignite the rocket bug...well it did. I have been collecting and building them since. I still have yet to launch any, but that should soon change.

As time has gone by, I have gained some modeling experience. This current fleet is better than my previous one in many ways because of this. I own an airbrush which I use often, I learned the secrets of thinners glues, ie, Tamiya extra thin and Tenax-7R, and I take time to fill in gaps and such.

I hope you enjoy looking at my rocket hobby, and perhaps get an interest into it yourself!