I sure don't know. I do remember it was the early seventies and that I was 10 to 12 yo.

But I DO remember it was an MPC Moon Go. My guess is that it was a BD gift so I would have likely flown it in late summer or early fall. Oh the memories ...

The funny thing is last year my parents gave me a set of old pictures. In that group of a few pictures, there was a photo of my first launch. I was ecstatic to see that!

Greg

My first flights were Thanksgiving Day, 1969 or 1970. An acquaintance of my father, with a son about my age, had given Dad an Estes catalog, 1968 or 69 vintage, and we ordered an Alpha starter set for Christmas. It arrived so early, and I was so uber-psyched, that my folks let me start building right away. In reality, I'm sure my mom and dad did most of the work, but I can't recall many details. I was only 8 or 9 at the time, and hardly able to do it without help.

Anyway, we had them built and ready before Thanksgiving, and decided to celebrate the holiday by flying.

But we had a heckuva time getting them lit. The 6V launch controller, with non-photoflash batteries, in the cold of November in Kentucky, wouldn't do squat with the old "Astron" ignitors. I finally went in the house to warm up while my dad, uncle and cousins stayed at it a little longer. One cousin knew just enough to try the free sample of nichrome wire included in the kit, and sure enough, they got one airborne.

They called me back out, and proceeded to launch another one. Never having seen a rocket launch other than NASA rockets on TV, I was expecting a bit slower, more majestic lift-off, but the Alpha was gone in a blink leaving only a trail of smoke at the pad. I don't think I ever saw it move. Poof. Gone. Anyway, we had enough eyes to spot and recover it safely, and I wasn't turned off by the experience. I was determined to do it again and watch more carefully so I could see the entire flight.

It was a so-so start, but it instilled a thirst in me that's still hard to quench.

Doug

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YORF member #11

I'll write up my nostalgia blast next summer, which will be the 40th anniversary of when I picked up an Estes catalog.

Sneak Preview: My friend Paulie and I made a rocket from a tapered, brass-tipped sofa leg with four triangular pieces of wood glued to it. Can you say "ballistic?" (No one died.)

I couldn't even remember what year it was until I found a picture with the date written on it. I did remember that it was a Scout and that's what's in the picture.

__________________
Bill Spadafora
http://www.billsplumbing.com
billspad@comcast.net bill@billsplumbing.com

At this point, I'm happy to remember the decade ...

Sam

How do I remember the exact day. Probably the same way as every one else here. I've got those old Estes log sheets for all my really old models. Eventually I switched to a spiral notebook and logged everything from 1964-1975 or so. When I started flying competition, I foolishly stopped logging.

In the mid 80s I resumed logging on one of my PDP-11 computers, and transferred that file to various VAXen over time. It's still archived somewhere on a tape, but I haven't had a way to touch it for about 5 years now. There were over 2000 flights in that electronic log.

More recent flight logs are memos in my PDA.

=====

Some more background...

As kids living in the city of Chicago we made all sorts of "rockets" probably starting with Alan Shepard's flight on 5/5/61. Our rockets were cardboard tubes, stuffed with crumpled newspaper. Cardboard fins were taped to the tube and nose cones rolled and taped. A string attached the rocket to the back of a bicycle. We lit the newspaper, and towed the "rocket" around the neighborhood. We tried all sorts of crazy stuff, from baking soda to boric acid to who knows what else, but fortunately never had access to anything dangerous enough to hurt ourselves with.

Then in 1963 we moved to the suburbs. On one of my visits back (my grandfather continued to live in the city) my best friend across the street showed me these Estes Rockets he'd got. We went to the park and he flew one. Never saw it, but a while later someone found it and brought it back to us. Been hooked ever since.

My dad thought they were dangerous, until I showed him the ad in Boy's Life. He was a life long Scouter. So he contacted the company on Adler stationary, and Vern sent him the samples. That winter we built that rocket, and a couple more I'd ordered. Didn't get around to flying them until the fall. But I've been flying them ever since.

That first rocket that Vern sent my dad was an Astron Mark. It's still 100% original, as built the winter of 63/64. It was the 2nd rocket I flew, starting with the Streak I'd ordered that winter. The Streak was lost a couple years later after it's third flight when we think it landed in tall weeds.

The Mark was given to Bill Stine when he started collecting items for the Model Rocket Museum. Might have been NARAM-42 in Canon City. It was the oldest rocket I had, built with the help of my dad. And the Mark was designed for Estes by Bill's dad G Harry Stine. I thought it was a fitting tribute to both our fathers for that particular rocket to be preserved.

The other two rockets from that winters building are a Scout and a Sky Hook. I still have both. The Scout has flown once in the past decade. The Sky Hook hasn't flown since I was a kid. I'm sure the original rubber shock cord wouldn't hold any more. Both were shown at the ORR last year.

Those who remember rockets of this vintage, the "engine block" in the Mark & Sky Hook were actually balsa nose blocks with a hole drilled through the center. The paper rings we use now didn't come until a few years later.

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I fought the law, and the law LOST!

I remember because I loved rockets, space exploration, etc. for as long as I can remember...and I remember stuff that happened before I was five a lot more clearly than I remember stuff from last month. I remember watching Armstrong and Aldrin, even though I was only 3 at the time. The only reason I don't know the exact day I received my package is because I never knew what the exact date was in the first place. I wouldn't know right now if I hadn't looked at my watch as I typed this post.

I can tell you it was the summer of 1978, after begging my parents for two years after seeing my cousins' rockets. I can tell you that it was between 1:00 and 3:00 pm, partly because I remember the shadow direction and partly because our postman usually came during that time frame back then. I can tell you the name of the postman that gave it to me, and I can even remember some of the conversation between us that came from him realizing how excited I was. It was a week day, not Saturday. It was hot and sunny, the postman was wearing shorts and no hat, and I had only made about four or five rounds on the side of the house and had a boatload of mowing left to do. When I finally got to open the package, I had my Challenger I starter set, one blue tube of C6-5's for the Red Max my cousins gave me, and a Star Trek starter set that my neighbor ordered with me. IIRC, I think we owed about 25 cents on the order because of a price increase on one of the items. I know I didn't mess up on the math.

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I love sanding.

Thanks Bob for the background. I found it very interesting.

Greg

Okay, here's a little too much rocketry history from my end.
I'd built plastic models since I was five-years-old. But they just sat on the shelves, not very exciting.
But everything changed looking over the shoulder of a classmate in eighth grade. He was studying his 1969 Estes catalog. The Space Race was on and I wanted to be a part of it.

I could order all the kits I wanted, but being from California the fire regulations restricted engine purchases by mail. You had to have enough property and get it approved by a Fire Marshall before a permit was issued.

I did get my first engines (illegally) from the Johnson Smith Novelty Company. The first time I got their 1969 catalog I saw they they carried MRI rockets and engines. At the end of the product description it warned: Engines cannot be shipped to New York City, New Jersey, California and Washington states.
But in next year's 1970 Catalog, they dropped the state listings from their restrictions. It had to be a mistake, there was still heavy restrictions on engine shipping into the state.
I ordered - and received three A3-2 engines.
We night launched a Streak. I held that button down for too long. Not really knowing how to make an igniter from bare Nichrome, it finally lit, scaring the heck out of all of us. I remember running for cover under the school hallway awning.

I was fortunate growing up, my grandparents had 150 acres of farmland just outside of town. A few months after that first launch, my Mother had called up the Fire Marshall in Sacramanto. He drove 3 1/2 hours to check out the farm for rocket launches.
We got the permit! I still had to drive 75 miles to the nearest hobby shop that carried engines.
On the first trip to that hobby shop, the owner told us we had more than just a launching permit - it was signed by the assistant Fire Marshall - a Mr. Mullins. He gave us a permit to buy and sell engines, the same permit the hobby store had!

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Hans "Chris" Michielssen
Old/New NAR # 19086 SR

www.oddlrockets.com
www.modelrocketbuilding.blogspot.com
http://www.nar.org/educational-reso...ing-techniques/
Your results may vary
"Nose cones roll, be careful with that."
Every spaceman needs a ray gun.
Look out - I'm the Meister Shyster!

I just remember it was 1967 when I first heard about model rockets. I lived next to the Junior High School athletic field and a neighbor was launching rockets with his dad and one came down in our back yard. I borrowed his Estes catalog and ordered some rockets.

I was 18 years old and this was a secondary hobby. I had been building free flight rubber powerd airplanes and glow fuel powered control line airplanes since I was about 10 or 11 and that was my main interest. I had a real job and lived with my parent so I had plenty of money to support both hobbies.

I remember that Estes had a special box for shipping engines when you ordered a lot of them. It held 9 of the blue mailing tubes and I usually ordered enough motors at a time to fill one of those boxes. I still have one of those with a postage sticker from 1969.

I built and flew model rockets fairly regularly until about 1972 - 73 when I became interested in R/C airplanes but I took the rockets out for a launch on a sporatic basis for probably another 5 or 6 years.

I do remember that my first rocket was an Astron Sprite and I still have it.

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Bob Harrington
NAR #62740 L1
AMA #46042
CMASS & RIMRA Member