user 45155
Well-Known Member
- Joined
- Sep 20, 2023
- Messages
- 52
- Reaction score
- 100
A few weeks ago, an old friend gave me his kid's old rocket. The kid's are all grown and gone now and the friend just wants it gone after 20 odd years. It's an old single engine Estes of an unknown model spray painted safety orange and all the fins broken off. It came with a pretty good kit. Launch pad minus the rod, 2 packs of "C engines and a pack of B's, a few extra igniters and a pack of wadding. It had a non functioning launch controller. A few days later I decided to take stock of what I had and it wasn't all that bad. Once I got the parachute lines un-tangled and the fins glued back on it began to look like a launch attempt might be possible soon. Then today I joined this site. I found it while searching for some parts for the rocket. I decided that because the rocket was old and cost me nothing I would improvise some of the repairs and missing parts. For example; I had no igniter plugs so I improvised a tiny wad of tissue paper crammed in there with the key from the launch controller. Compromises were made and it all just kind of came together. Today we had what appeared to be a launch ready rocket and a storm. As soon as the rain quit, it got real calm outside. No wind and everything was wet. Perfect conditions! My wife Jana and I packed everything up and went in to town where there is a multiple ball field and a park with lot's of wide open spaces. We strolled out to the center of the expanse of wet, green grass and set it all up. First attempt was a botched igniter install. No ignition. Second attempt was a perfect launch and recovery using a "B" engine. It gently landed not far away and we were pretty stoked about it all. We decided to try a "C" engine and made a couple of minor modifications to the launch system. What happened next was really strange. The launch was perfect. Nearly vertical. Chute deploy was equally perfect but then the wind came up a bit and from a different direction. The rocket hung on the chute going the wrong way and seemed like it was not coming down very fast at all. We were all hootin and hollerin and then it was like- Uh Oh. It looked like it was going to go clean off the property before it hit the ground. That's when a tall pine tree on the edge of the park reached out and snatched our rocket from it's slow decent. I walked the half mile or so over to see how we could recover it and it looked pretty hopeless, way up in that tree with a security fence and compound directly beyond the tree. Have you ever got your rocket stuck in a tree? We decided to load every thing up and drive a little closer, then use the fishing pole in the car to see if we could nudge the rocket out of the tree. First cast was pretty good and I was able to rock the branch enough to get the rocket to move some. This tempted me to keep trying. Fifty casts later and I had just about every piece of fishing tackle I owned stuck in that tree. It looks like a very big Christmas tree with all that tackle as ornaments and a safety orange star at the top of the tree.
One failure to fire, two successful launches and one successful recovery. I don't think that's all that bad and we had some good laughs too. Well Jana did actually. She was laughing her butt off while I was fishing in that tree. At one point I heard a dog barking and some old lady and her Chiwawa were stopped and staring at me while I was trying to get fishin line un- tangled from that tree. I can only imagine what was going through her head.
Good times!
One failure to fire, two successful launches and one successful recovery. I don't think that's all that bad and we had some good laughs too. Well Jana did actually. She was laughing her butt off while I was fishing in that tree. At one point I heard a dog barking and some old lady and her Chiwawa were stopped and staring at me while I was trying to get fishin line un- tangled from that tree. I can only imagine what was going through her head.
Good times!