TB, GH, et al.,

Remember when we would mail our orders into Estes and Centuri and it would take 3 - 6 weeks for the package to arrive?!

Roll the clock forward today, if we place an order on a Monday, and it not arrive the following Friday, we now call out the S.W.A.T. team and get on the forms bad mouthing the seller ... some sellers do deserve it but what a change.

I remember back when I owned and ran a hobby shop, I had a guy buy a R/C SR-71 Rocket set. He order it on a Sunday, and it was shipped UPS ground on Monday. It arrived the next week on a Monday.

The idiot , and this is why thank god I make my living dealing with silent computers, wanted to know why the shippment took so long and why he shouldn't leave me a negative feedback ... I hope the idiot has long crashed his plane!

People, I can't stand the homoSAPien. I'm sorry, I know that it sounds flippant and arrogant, but day after day after day of my miserable little life, I come into contact with fool after fool after fool after fool and frankly I am just sick and tired of the human race and have adapted a 'misanthropic' attitude towards people in general.

Now I am keeping it real. I realize that in many a situation, I am one of the biggest A-Holes in the room ... I hate myself equally, so I am keeping it real

J

Cue up Carol King's "Anticipation".
...The excitement when it arrived.
...And the smell inside the box.
...And the agony of finishing whatever day's work I had to do before I was allowed to open it.

I grew up rural, with only one kid anywhere close to me. I didn't go to parks. I didn't hang out at the corner lot to play baseball because there wasn't one. That Estes catalog (and later Centuri), was my link to the outside world. Sure, I flew alone most of the time, but I knew that there were thousands of others just like me because the Estes literature said so.

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I love sanding.

Not Carole King but Carly Simon.

I don't remember orders from Estes ever taking very long at all....but then it's not that far from southern Colorado to northern New Mexico....

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Bernard Cawley
NAR 89040 L1 - Life Member
SAM 0061
AMA 42160
KG7AIE

Woops! Got my 70's female songwriter names mixed up.
I remember it having to do with her going out with Cat "Yousef" Stevens.

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I love sanding.

You've just inspired a profitable idea (although not for me). There are still many boys (and girls) who grow up in the situation that you did, and there is a "Lone Scout" program for such boys (see: http://www.google.com/#sclient=psy&...d0fbdbbc405e281 ). While the Lone Scouts are not nearly as large a group as are the regular Scout troops, the smaller model rocket companies such as FlisKits, Quasar One, Semroc Astronautics, and Starlight Model Rockets (whose remaining kits are soon to be sold by Red Arrow Hobbies, after which Uncle Mike's Rocket Shack will resume their production sometime in the future) could serve this small but no less important youth group market.

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Black Shire--Draft horse in human form, model rocketeer, occasional mystic, and writer, see:
http://www.lulu.com/content/paperba...an-form/8075185
http://www.lulu.com/product/cd/what...of-2%29/6122050
http://www.lulu.com/product/cd/what...of-2%29/6126511
All of my book proceeds go to the Northcote Heavy Horse Centre www.northcotehorses.com.
NAR #54895 SR

This thread was initiated because I thought a number of folks probably started their rocketry 'careers' with the Screaming Eagle as I did and would probably enjoy the Centuri flyer that announced it when it was new.

This coming June 6th will mark the 35th anniversary of my very first rocket flight, which was a Screaming Eagle from the Eagle Power starter set. Though I had ordered my first Centuri catalog in late 1970, my folks at the time just didn't feel that rocketry was the 'best' thing for an 8 year old to delve into at the time (they truly weren't being 'mean'; just concerned for my safety I think).

I continued my interest in rocketry and space though, and through my best friend at the time, got to at least see some rockets, as he and his Dad got the Centuri Astro 1 starter set (with Servo Launcher) in late '71. I never attended any launches with them (they flew at his granddad's place out of state during visits there), but was always interested in hearing their flight reports after-the-fact and seeing the various rockets they had with exhaust markings on their tails and such.

Eventually, in the late spring of '76 I decided quite on my own that I was now old enough to build and fly rockets, and having received the latest Centuri catalog in the mail (finally! after waiting for weeks for it to finally arrive), I saw that the Screaming Eagle starter set they listed was actually available at a local wholesale store. So, on June 5, 1976 (a Saturday, just days after my 8th grade school year was over) I had my dad drive me over to the other side of Augusta (right across from the Augusta National Golf Club, for you golfing fans out there) and I bought that Centuri Eagle Power outfit and one white and red EverReady 6v lantern battery (just like the one on the box!). I think it all set me back about $15 or so and I thought I had spent a small fortune. But, I thought it was worth it!

On the drive back home in our '69 VW bus, I remember sitting in the middle bench seat right behind the two front seats opening the box to the outfit and to this day I can remember opening the bag that held the Screaming Eagle parts and being 'surprised' at how 'big' that plastic fin unit was! I'm not sure what I had in mind to begin with (and certainly in hindsight it seems very small and delicate) but at the time I just remember thinking "This rocket is bigger than I thought!". The things we think when we are kids.....

Anyway, once home I threw in to building that rocket like mad. I was only sad it went together so quickly.....I really wanted to have some balsa fins to sand and fill and glue fillets to make, etc. because that's what I had been reading for years were required to make a 'good' rocket! Alas, the rocket went together quickly, as did the pad and controller. I remember doing an 'ignitor test' in my bedroom with the launcher and I can still smell that smell of the Sure Shot ignitor that I fired in my room that day. I also tossed the rocket with parachute out an upstairs bathroom window just to watch the chute unfold and lower the rocket to the ground. I was ready to fly!

Next day, Sunday, after church, we drove up to my junior high ball field and I flew the Screaming Eagle first on an A8-3 and then on a B4-6. My dad made few black & white shots with his Canon F-1 camera.

The attached photo is as I was hooking up the ignitor on my very first flight on the A8-3. On the second flight with the B4-6 the shock cord broke and the nosecone and chute drifted away over a near-by neighborhood never to be found. The body landed not too far away. My first mail order to Centuri just a few days later was for a new #8 nosecone and 12" chute to replace the ones I lost and some more motors. I found out too that field was really not quite large enough to dependably fly that Screaming Eagle on B motors and expect to get it back. I put it in a tree on a B14 flight a year or so later, but climbed the tree and got my Screaming Eagle back.

That first rocket still resides on my rocket shelf these 35 years later. It has not flown in many years and probably will never fly again. On the 31st anniversary of building my first Screaming Eagle I assembled a vintage Screaming Eagle kit. I fly it now when I want to once again want to see a Screaming Eagle descending under a red and white 12" Centuri chute.

What I had NO idea of that day 35 years ago is just how much fun I would have with the hobby over the years, nor the rockets (the SIZE of the rockets!) I would one day build and see at LDRS's all across the country and stories of other's projects that I would have so much fun videotaping and telling over the years at those events. One day I hope to be able to pick that part of my hobby up again and record more of those stories.

Until then and while the important duties of caring for one of my parents (who those 35 years ago cheered that first flight on that ball field) continues, most of my rocketry activities will be pretty local. But that's ok. Rocketry to me is not so much size or altitude or motors or materials. I've been there and done all that (thank you Lord for those blessings)....done more and seen more than I EVER could have dreamed I'd be able to do with rocketry. It's been fun.

No, I think rocketry is more a state of mind than anything else.

Earl

Attached Thumbnails

 

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Earl L. Cagle, Jr.
NAR# 29523
TRA# 962
SAM# 73
Owner/Producer
Point 39 Productions

Rocket-Brained Since 1970

Great story!

Your's is similar to mine. I too was introduced to rocketry (by my cousins), only to have my parents tell me I couldn't have any. It wasn't for safety reasons, though. My father was a work-a-haulic and lived through the Great Depression. Spending money on toys like that was something we just didn't do. It took two years to talk my mother into letting me have a stamp to write for a catalog, and a couple more months before I got to make my first order.

My first rocket experience was an invitation by my cousins after church to watch them fly their rockets. They were from another town and I seldom saw them, so this was a double treat. They flew several, but I only remember two. After several A, B, and C powered models, they launched their Cherokee-D. It went into the clouds, and they still got it back! That stuck in my brain like peanut butter to the roof of your mouth. The other one I remember was their Citation Der Red Max. It crashed into a farrowing house (where hogs have babies). They later gave it to me along with an old catalog. It still had the expended motor in it, which I saved. It never ejected, but the motor's charge did fire. It was a C6-7, which is too long for the heavy nosed Citation kit, but it should have ejected before it hit the ground. They were smart kids, so I think they didn't have a C6-5 and decided on the C6-7 due to the "fog" of rocket launching.

I repaired the Red Max, and eventually got to order my Challenger I starter set. I also ordered a pack of C6-5's for the Red Max. My best friend ordered the Star Trek starter set. We built the kits together and flew them a few days later. I hung the Max in a tree, but got it down. I was hooked forever. I still have my original Challenger I and my cousins' Red Max.

Moving back to the Screaming Eagle, I remember seeing it in a Boy's Life magazine and thinking it looked cool. I eventually got a Centuri catalog, but I was mainly interested in their large models as I had a few 3FNC and 4FNC rockets from Estes already. Fast forwarding to modern times, I eventually picked up a used Eagle Power Outfit and repaired the Eagle rocket. The Powr Pad gets used every now and then to launch classic Centuri kits for photo ops. I now have a second Screaming Eagle that came in another eBay grab.

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I love sanding.

My Screaming Eagle was the first rocket I ever had break the shockcord upon ejection too.
It was maybe around the 6th flight. That nose cone took forever to land.

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When in doubt, WHACK the GAS and DITCH the brake !!!

Yes, there is such a thing as NORMAL, if you have to ask what is "NORMAL" , you probably aren't !
Failure may not be an OPTION, but it is ALWAYS a POSSIBILITY.
ALL systems are GO for MAYHEM, CHAOS, and HAVOC !

P.S. --

While I still have the Screaming Eagle, Power Pad (and even the battery!) from that old black & white photo, I'm afraid that a good portion of the shaggy stuff on top of my head has departed since then.

I guess if I had known a bit more about genetics back in those days I would have known what was coming my way!

Earl

__________________
Earl L. Cagle, Jr.
NAR# 29523
TRA# 962
SAM# 73
Owner/Producer
Point 39 Productions

Rocket-Brained Since 1970

In the 8th grade, a bunch of us who'd served mass since the 6th grade were given an award at the cathedral in Covington. We had to meet at school to ride over and a bunch of us were sitting on the steps talking. Somehow the subject of hair came up, and one guy named Joe was lamenting the fact that his high forehead meant that he was going to be bald when he was older. I felt terrible for him, but at the time I had no understanding of genetics either.
Anyway, these days Joe lives at the other end of my subdivision behind Fabulous B6-4 Field. Except for the fact that he's 6'4" and I'm 5'10", it's like looking in a mirror. Guess my forehead was higher than I thought.
BTW, love the pic. My Mom went to a launch once, but there was no picture taking.

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Bill Eichelberger
NAR 79563

http://wallyum.blogspot.com/

I miss being SAM 0058

Build floor: Centuri Mini Dactyl Estes - Low Boom SST Semroc - Marauder, Shrike, SST Shuttle

In paint: Canaroc Starfighter Scorpion Estes F-22 Air Superiority Fighter, Multi-Roc, Solar Sailer II Semroc Cyber III

Ready to fly: Estes - Solar Sailer II Semroc - Earmark, Groonie Der V 1/2