khodges
Posts: 4953
Joined: 7/3/2003
From: newton,
NC, USA
Status: offline
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COOL!!! I just saw this forum, when did it start? I got more rocket stories that Alan Shepard  (not really). I started flying the Estes stuff when I was 12, built and flew the Saturn I-B, built but never flew the Saturn V. I had the Delta 2-stage, and the X-Ray, and the Ranger, which had a 3 engine cluster. We used to fly in a cornfield next to the local airport. I had only one engine ignite on the Ranger the first flight, and it veered off across the apron and just missed the gas pump. Second flight, after gluing the broken fins back on, I managed to get 2 of the engines to light; it made it out into the cornfield, hit the gound with an engine still burning, and by the time we got to it, the cornstalks in a ten foot circle were burning (early October, after the corn had been cut). Don't know why I quit messing with them then. (about 1968)
Fast forward to 1988. Married, kid on the way and I needed a hobby. I bought an Estes kit to build from the LHS, while I was there I saw a magazine on the rack called "High Power Rocketry" the magazine of Tripoli Rocketry Association. I asked the guy, "You mean they really fly these things?". I ordered a kit for G motors (Aerotech Arreaux) and there was no going back. For about 5 years I sent more money up in smoke than I really want to think about They kept getting bigger and bigger, and finally I built a 2-stage that boosted on an L and staged to a J, used electronic staging and altitude measurement, and radio controlled parachute deployment. I got over 11,000 feet altitude. Pretty soon after that, I had to say enough was enough. $250-$300 per launch was crazy. I still think about them, it was fun while it lasted.
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Club Saito #2, WACO Brotherhood #20. What other trouble can I get into?
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All Forums >> Radios, Batteries, Clubhouse and more >> Model Rockets & Rocketry >> havent in years 
havent in years - 
, i went right twards a row of houses, i doubt it hit anything but i didnt want to stick around to fins out. i have a naboo fighter nib and another setup that has an altimeter built into the nose cone nib. will break them out when the weather gets a little warmer.
