I was bitten by the model rocketry bug in junior high school in Charlotte. My dad had bought a Saturn V "model rocket" at a flea market several years earlier. It actually said you could launch it, but we'd never heard of that. He ended up building the kit without any plan on launching it. By junior high, I had seen several other kids launch their rockets. I bought a Estes starter pack with an Alpha III rocket and launch pad. All it took was one launch for me, my dad and two brothers, Kevin & Jamey to get hooked.
For the next few years, we built dozens of rockets. In the summer of 1979 I was on an episode of KidsWorld where I did a story about model rocketry. I wish I had a copy of that segment.
I helped my son Aaron build his first rocket several years ago and will likely be buying my daughter her first rocket soon. I finally moved up to bigger rockets, building my first D and E engine rockets. Estes didn't make E engines when I was younger. I'd love to get into high powered rocketry, but I'll need to save some $$$ for that. I need to find a bigger field.
There's a lot of cool model rocket launch videos online. One of the best rocket video is the one below. It's a high powered rocket, more than 6 feet tall that looks like a Crayola crayon. Our rubber pal Gumby (remember him dads?) gets to ride in the rocket in the nose cone. The rocket is complete with an on-board camera to tape the journey. Throw in some cool music and it's a great video.
If it's not too windy, bring out your model rockets at Kite Day on Saturday, March 8th from 9:00 a.m. - 2:00 p.m. at Carter-Finley Stadium parking lot.
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