This is the second part of the rocket series.

    It was the Summer of 1976. We lived out in the middle of nowhere with hundreds of acres of fields and trees behind our house. I had finished launching my first rocket and I was hungry for more. We went to Ryder’s Hobby and I remember going straight for the rocketry section. At first, I just wanted another pack of engines. They came three to a pack.
    When I got to the engines, I couldn’t believe how many different rockets they had hanging on the wall. I settled on an F-16 rocket that looked really cool and another pack of engines. It was a tough choice made difficult by the sheer number of different rockets at the hobby shop. My first choice in rocket was beyond my meager savings of allowance money, but I could envision many rockets in my future.
    I remember assembling the kit and having a difficult time painting the nose cone because it was made of orange colored plastic. That meant that white paint didn’t cover it very well and I didn’t have the skills to make it look right. Anyway, I built it and painted it in a week and was dying to fly it. The difficult part of model rocketry was waiting for a weekend of sunshine. Rain or cloud was unacceptable.
    By now, I’m an old hat at rocketry. Oh yeah. I already built one simple 4-fin rocket, painted it and flew it three times. Yup, I was the “expert.”
    Anyway, I set up my new rocket on the launch pad. The whole family watching as I packed the chute, inserted the engine, double-checked the wiring, and made sure the rocket was correctly attached to the launch rod. That was one thing the manual warned me about. It would be a bad thing if the rocket got stuck on the launch rod while attempting to launch.
    With everyone still watching my every move, I counted down. When my count hit zero, I touched the wire. There was always a slight delay. It was a bit unnerving. As if the thing was going to just sit there and ignore me.
    Suddenly, it blasted off. I watched it fly straight up, but it didn’t go as high as my first rocket before the engine quit. Something that I had not contemplated was that this rocket was heavier and the wings were larger. The larger wings created drag while the extra canopy that stuck out the side gave it some extra weight. On the bright side, I could easily see the rocket when it achieved its maximum height called apagee. On the downside, it didn’t go into the empty lot like the plain rocket did. I used the same “A” engine as I had with the plain rocket, but the F-16 drifted until it gently landed on a branch on the outside of the tallest tree we had in the North East corner of our lot. Yup. Not high enough to get over the tree line.
    My brother and I climbed up the tree, but we couldn’t get out far enough on that top branch (too scary) to shake it. The lines for the chute were tangled on the tip of the branch and there was no way to reach it. I couldn’t imagine a step ladder tall enough to reach that thing (I’m sure there is, but it would also be scary to climb). We tried a few long poles, brooms, and branches, but nothing was that long. We tried taping poles together, not long enough. We tried to throw rocks at it. My brother and I were not sure what the condition of the rocket would be if it did come down, but at least it would be down. Eventually, we gave up.
    It rained a few times over the next few weeks and finally the rocket deteriorated to the point that the cardboard tube and plastic nose cone fell to the ground. Now it was just trash. Bummer.
    When we went to the hobby shop the next time, I bought another rocket. Something different and flew that one for awhile. Eventually, I had a collection of rockets that I flew (some had interesting stories that I’ll relay later).
    Then one time when we visited the hobby shop, I bought another F-16. It was probably a year or two later. By this time I really was an expert at flying rockets. I had probably flown rockets with “B” engines by then and I had one 3-stage rocket that was my old reliable (I definitely have stories about that rocket).
    So, I went through the same issue of not being able to cover the orange plastic nose cone with white paint, but I didn’t care at that point. I remember my brother and I both complaining about that problem. Why the model rocket company, Estes, didn’t mold the nose cone in white plastic like some of the other models was beyond our understanding. I vowed that I would give it a second coat later on. After I had flown it a few times.
    Anyway, I put an “A” engine in the thing and put it on the launch pad. By that time, I had an actual launch device with a push button and a launch pad. This time it was just me and my bro in the back yard. Nobody else cared that we were launching rockets. That was something that started occurring at regular intervals.
    I went through my usual checks to make sure the chute was correctly packed, the rocket was wired up right. It was loose on the rail and wouldn’t get caught. The sky was clear and it was a nice summer day. Cicadas buzzed all around us.
    I hit the button and the rocket flew off the pad. Then there was quietness and pop, the chute opened. But, it didn’t go very high up. I watched that thing in horror as it floated straight for the same tree and landed on the same branch as my first F-16. On the first flight. 
    Grrrr…
    That’s when I knew that the Estes F-16 was jinxed.