I'm building more rockets now than I ever did when I was a kid. And I'm building them much better now, too, if I do say so myself. (I had choice but to improve... I couldn't have done worse!) Also putting in much more flight time now. And in contrast to what it was like back in the '60's, now I actually know more than two other people who fly rockets!

MarkII

__________________
SAM # 0011

I was 13. But I had gotten the "bug" several years earlier, before I ever knew that such a hobby actually existed. For years I had dreamed of flying my own miniature rockets.

Let's see, when was it that I got married... ? ... So many years ago...Who can possibly remember the exact date of such an thing after all these years?

As momentous as it was, I can only remember the approximate date of my first rocket launch, as I described in my earlier post.







(BTW, my wife and I were married on July 14, 1976. )

MarkII

__________________
SAM # 0011

Wow, you knew twice as many other people who flew rockets than I did.

I knew the neighbor kid that got me started and in the 5 - 6 years that I flew regularly, I knew no one else that flew rockets.

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

Well, they were in different cities, on opposite sides of the state (Grand Rapids and Detroit, in my new and old neighborhoods). I had gotten both of them started in the hobby.

MarkII

__________________
SAM # 0011

So many of you had the support and approval of parents or other adults for your participation in model rocketry. I didn't, though. My parents were convinced that I would go to prison if I ever got caught with model rockets. I always had to place my mail orders in secret, and then sneak the packages into the house, even after they found out that I was pursuing it. There are no pictures of my rockets from those days, because if anyone took one, my folks would eventually learn about it, and I would catch hell. And I did catch it when they finally found out. But by then I was old enough that they didn't immediately confiscate my stuff. I still had to build my kits in secret and sneak them out to launch them, though. My parents waited until I went off to college and then took all of my rockets, engines, launch pad, etc. and tossed them into the trash. I didn't find out until I came home on break.

MarkII

__________________
SAM # 0011

He knew infinitely more people than I did when I started.

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

1966 For me. I was in England visiting my grandmother and happened upon some guys flying of all things model rockets!

Andrew From Texas

I don't remember my first rocket flight but I know it was probably 1967. I was fortunate to grow up in Phoenix and there were 3 good hobby stores all within easy bicycling distance of my house. All the hobby shops carried a full line of Centuri products and it wasn't until I'd been in the hobby a few years that I first saw an Estes product and was amazed that somebody would have the gall to just flat out steal Centuri's idea and make their own line of model rockets and motors. The local hobby stores were so well stocked that I never ordered anything by mail.

I had a couple of friends who flew rockets occasionally but I never knew of any organized group that launched rockets. That's especially ironic considering that Bill Stine grew up not far from me and the Piesters occasionally shopped in my parents drugstore (facts I only recently learned).

Bob, like you, I've had a lifetime of fun from model rocketry.

Ol' Vern Estes had a great business model back then. Sell some kid a launch controller (remember the controller that had the four "D" photo batteries in it?) a streak kit, and 3 A.8-3 engines? If the controller worked and you actually flew the Streak you would probably lose it after the first flight. Then you had to go back and buy more from Estes.

That was a sales plan.

That is how I got started. I put everything together, went to a little open field behind my house, my mom and two sisters were watching, I counted down, and swoosh, there it went never to be seen from again.

I think I got maybe 4 or 5 launches out of that launcher before I got so frustrated I decided to build my own. Those photo D batteries just could provide the power. Of course this was way before alkalines came about.

Good Time, Good Times.

Andrew From Texas

My oldest brother turned me on to rocketry. He built an Estes Aerobee 300 the very Saturday that Apollo 13 lifted off. The next day we flew it in the field behind our house. On the other side of town was "Krantz Hobby Shop",a small Mom and Pop hobby store that was in Mr.and Mrs.Krantz's garage. The first rocket I purchased there was a Streak (because it was cheap.) I remember painting multi-colored stripes on it,(it looked uglier than hell), and lost it on it's first flight with a 1/4A3-2. The first kit I ever mail-ordered was the Astron Spaceman,because Krantz's didn't carry it. Mrs.Krantz said "We don't sell that one,honey. It flies apart." It never came apart on me,but I only flew it a couple times. Back then,you could send currency and coins in the mail.