This is the last rocket story that I have for this series. In my next series, I’m titling it: “War with the Neighbors.” It’s gonna be a hoot, so stay tuned.

    One of my favorite rockets was a three-stage rocket that was tall and thin. It had two tumbling stages at the bottom that didn’t need parachutes. These small tubes with fins had a clip to hold the engine inside which was different from the Lil Hercules rocket. The top part was the main rocket that had a payload section and a large parachute. The main rocket was probably about three feet long. When I bought it I was excited about flying it with three stages, but only flew the top stage for a long time, because I didn’t have the special engines for the stages. I remember the rocket itself required a “B” engine, but it was a heavy rocket so it didn’t go too high. It was also large enough that you could see it in the sky even if it did go high.
    It had a payload section that was above the parachute compartment. You could put something small and not too heavy in it and fly it. We used to put random junk inside to see what would happen. With something that had some weight to it, the rocket would not fly very high, so that was kind of an advantage. Don’t want to fly it to the moon? Just load a couple of rocks in the compartment.
    One weekend, I decided to fly it with all three stages. I had purchased the special lower stage engines some time before, so this was not really a surprise flight. Remember, the rocket engines come in a pack of three.
    For a multi-stage rocket, the two bottom stages used a special engine that didn’t have an explosive charge in them. All they did was drop away when the engine burned out. Sparks from the top of the special engine ignites the next engine in a row. Easy-peasy. No special wiring.
    I got the chute packed and all the stages lined up with engines in them. The thing was heavy. The bottom engine had to do the most work because it had to lift the rocket, plus the second stage and rocket with two engines above it. In retrospect, I should have used a “C” engine just for the bottom stage, but my allowance money didn’t cover three boxes of engines. I was lucky to get my hands on one box of stage engines, plus the normal rocket engines for the rocket itself.
    The whole family was watching, because this was new. No pressure or anything. I counted down, held the launch button and watched it power off the pad, but a bit slower than normal. It didn’t even go very high before the first engine stopped and the second kicked in. Probably only 20 or 30 feet into the air. It happened quick because the stage engines don’t have a delay. The third stage tumbled to the ground and I saw where it went as the rocket continued its ascent. The third stage landed close to the launch pad.
    The second stage got it going pretty high. In fact, I think the rocket was as high as it normally went at that point, then the second stage tumbled off while the rocket continued on. I was trying to watch the rocket, because that was the most important part. You can’t fly the stages by themselves, but you can fly the rocket without the stages.
    Anyway, I couldn’t see where the second stage tumbled to. My brother was trying to see it too, but it was too tiny and too high in the sky. I think it came down someplace in the field behind our house. At the end of the day we searched for it. We never did find that thing.
    The rocket continued to gain altitude. It went so high that I wasn’t sure I would see that again either. But, fortunately, when the chute deployed, it was easy to track because we could see the orange and white stripes. The rocket drifted much further than any rocket had before. It took some time to find it. Of course, that was the last time I flew that rocket with three stages. Mainly because I lost the second stage, but I never had the guts to fly it with only one extra stage after that. I only flew the rocket as a single-stage rocket. In retrospect, I should have used the remaining lower stage engine to fly it as a two-stage rocket at least once.
    My brother and I got pretty good at predicting where a rocket or its parts would land. For the most part the wind would blow in one direction, but sometimes it blew a different direction at higher altitudes. That meant that the second stage of this rocket should have landed in a line between the launch pad and where the rocket landed. But, there are other factors involved in this. Like the parachute that the rocket used caused it to drift further. If it flies one direction, against the wind, then floats down with the wind, it will land in a different place from a stage that tumbles mostly downward.
    My mother made a comment that my money was in the sky. Boy, was that accurate.