I mentioned in a previous post that I would share some short stories for the entertainment of all who come here. This is a real story from my childhood that I thought was rather funny. This is only the first part of several episodes in my adventures with model rockets.

Enjoy!

My First Rocket, a Short Story

    I was twelve. Christmas was on the horizon and my parents were fishing around for ideas of what we wanted. Oh boy. Not that my brother, sister and I didn’t make lists, but my parents were clever to take us out several weeks before the holiday and see what we were excited about.
    My parents took us to Rider’s Hobby. That was my favorite “toy” store after I got into model trains. I was in one of the aisles looking through the H.O. gauge train equipment when my dad called me over to another aisle. He showed me a giant box that he was examining. It said “aeronautics kit” on the outside and it had a bunch of projects in the box. There were Styrofoam commercial jets that glided after you sand the bumps off. There was a basswood and paper glider that was intricately detailed. The glider was big and it was the main item in the box. There were a bunch of other experiments, tools, and a rocket. When I first looked at the box, I dismissed it. Not interested.
    Well, time passed and I started thinking about that kit and the rocket. I thought the rocket was cool and didn’t realize that one could just buy a rocket kit and skip the airplanes. I ended up putting the kit on my Christmas list for that year but I expected it was too late to ask for the thing. On Christmas morning, that box was under the tree.
    We lived at one residence at the time, and being Winter, I played with the jets and built the aircraft. I don’t remember if I built the rocket at that house, or when we moved in the Spring to our new house. All I remember was that I didn’t have a chance to launch the thing until we moved. It was probably a good thing too, because we moved further out into the country where there were fewer houses to land a rocket.
    Our new house was on a large lot (2.5 acres) with thousands of acres behind made up of nothing but fields and trees. Our own lot was lined by large trees, mostly maple and pine. On the other side of the tree line were other lots. The lot next door to us was the only one with a house on it. That house was the corner house where another road ran perpendicular to our road. The lot next to theirs, but diagonal to our house didn’t have a house on it. It was just a field of very tall weeds. Probably about four feet tall.
    I remember it being a hot day when I decided it was time to fly the rocket. I carefully packed the chute and inserted the engine. I only had the three engines that came with the kit, so it was going to be a limited day of flying. To top it off, they were “A” engines. For those that don’t know, hobby engines are pre-packed engines that come in sizes. “A” engines are small. There are double-A engines, which I never used. Those were made for tiny rockets. Starting with "A", the letters increase up to “C” before they got into larger diameters. I’ve never flown any rocket with an engine larger than a “C” and I never saw that rocket again.
    I had the standard lantern battery to launch the rocket. I didn’t have an actual launcher mechanism. I don't think the kit came with one. The instructions just showed how to hook the igniter on the engine and touch the other end to the battery. Anyway, I got it hooked up and did the countdown. By then the whole family was outside watching me. I touched the wire to the battery and…
    Whoosh!
    It was pretty loud and fast. The crazy cardboard and plastic contraption flew off the metal launch wire and into the sky in a split second. There was a short delay after the engine quit, then a pop. The chute came out and unfurled. I remember the sky was clear blue as far as you could see, but the sun was high. I shielded my eyes with my hand and watched the tiny rocket floating down. A slight breeze took it to the East where it drifted over the tree line and toward one of the empty lots. The one kitty corner from us. I wasn’t certain how far it went before landing, so I started after it.
    The whole family was out looking for that thing. We looked near the tree line and on the other side. Eventually, we stumbled onto the rocket. It was hung up in the weeds on the other side of the empty lot. Fortunately, the chute was orange and white, because the rocket was a white color making it difficult to see in the weeds. In retrospect, I should have spray painted the thing in a fluorescent orange color.
    Now, it was back to the launch pad. The thing smelled like rotten eggs or sulfur. That was a smell that stuck with me as the smell of model rockets. It was always that powerful sulfur smell.
    The chute was a bit crunchy, but I managed to smooth it out and fold it back up. I didn’t realize that if you don’t put enough wadding in the tube between the engine and the chute, the explosive charge on the top of the engine will generate enough heat to melt part of the plastic chute. With no wadding, it will fuse into a ball of plastic.
    Anyway, I repacked the chute and flew it again. Then one last time.
    So what happened after that? Ah, that was the beginning. Yeah, I was hooked. I couldn’t wait to get my hard-earned allowance money back to the hobby shop to acquire more rocket engines. But, that’s not exactly what happened when we went back to the shop. Nope. I ended up buying another rocket. Why? Because the one I had was just not as cool as the ones they had hanging on display at the store. But that’s another story.
    What about those “A” engines? Well, I ended up sticking with “A” engines for a while. I couldn’t see why anyone would buy a bigger engine (ha, silly me). Until my next rocket, which was a bit heavier and really needed a bigger engine. But I didn’t discover that until I flew it with an “A” engine and had my first rocket disaster.