user 45779
Well-Known Member
- Joined
- Nov 21, 2023
- Messages
- 57
- Reaction score
- 96
I am getting back into model rocketry in my 50s, and it has been since I was 12 or 13 that I flew my last rocket. I was in grade school at Lone Pine Elementary in the 70s when I first saw rockets being launched. I found some kind of cardboard tube at home and cut the end off the broom handle for a nose and some pine kindling for fins and glued it all right on. I took it to school and asked Mr. Nichols if he would launch it. He took a look at this thing and told me to come back after school. What an awesome guy, he wrapped a 1/2A engine with masking tape until it would friction fit into the tube I had used and waited until everyone had gone and he launched it...and it flew! Of course it lawn darted because I knew nothing of recovery systems, but that was the beginning. As more interest grew he started an informal kind of club and we all got Wizards so that was my next rocket. In 7th/8th grade at Hedrick Junior High we had a Wood & Metal class taught by Mr. King where the highlight for most of us was building a rocket from scratch, literally turning the nose cone on a wood lathe, rolling our own body tubes, etc. I had also built a Bullpup 12D that we launched at the same time with the others, and I think that was my last rocket. I recently reconnected with my childhood best friend after about 30 years, and one of the first things he asked me was "do you remember model rockets?" and I was like "heck ya!". Now I have already bought more kits than I can build, just joined the NAR, and looking forward to launch with the Southern Oregon Rocketry NAR #793 this Saturday!
