Last weekend the boys (all three of them!) went to fly rockets! Having spent the previous week building them, they were all very excited to launch them! However, as this involved several hours standing around in a field in the cold, solid fuel engines, igniters and potential crash landings, it wasn’t a suitable outing for the wee girl. So, sadly mummy didn’t get to see the rockets fly – but daddy got some great photos!
The boys had an absolute blast (excuse the pun!) and I managed to persuade my husband to write a draft of this post for me. He drew the line at a full on ‘guest post’, but it’s pretty close :)
So, without further ado…
Building and launching model rockets!
The rockets that we bought were Estes Viking Rockets, and consist of a paper tube for the body (20mm diameter), a plastic nose cone, and a recovery streamer. This rocket comes with five fins, which allows you to decide how many fins you would like to use, giving 48 combinations of fin arrangement (based on number of fins and their orientation)!
Build process is as follows:
Glue fins to body
Glue shock cord to rocket
Tie shock cord to nose cone
Attach streamer to shock cord
Glue engine thrust ring on the inside of body (this stops engine simply flying up through the rocket and out the top!)
Glue launch lug on the side (this is what keeps it straight until aerodynamic forces keep it flying up)
Paint (the boys had great fun designing them, using blue, orange and gold sparkly spray paint)
[Hubby helped the boys build theirs, and then spent an evening building his own :)]
The launches took place in Amesbury, MA in a 500 acre site. This was an organised event, hosted by CMASS, the Central Massachusetts Space-modeling Society. When rockets can fly to an altitude of several thousand feet you need a big field and safety precautions!
Launch process
Insert igniter (thin, fuse type wire with flammable material bonded to it)
Insert plug (small plastic thing to stop igniter falling out)
Clip crocodile clips to the wire
Pass electricity through wire, igniter sparks and ignites the fuel
The rockets were launched on Estes A and B engines – B engines being twice as powerful as A (the largest engine used at the event was an M!).
Once the engine has ignited, it burns, the rocket flys and then coasts for four seconds or so, then the pop ‘ejection’ charge blows the recovery streamer out, and the rocket falls back to earth.
There were 11 low power rails, from which the rockets are ignited and launched. The low power rails launch anything from the size of rockets that the boys had up to those using multi D engines (rockets 4 feet tall or so!). There were also three high power rails for the really big rockets!
The process for getting your rocket launched goes like this:
Join the line, show the rocket and your launch card (name, rocket name, builder, kit/custom, engine manufacturer and power, any notes). This information is announced over the tannoy before launch, so for the 4yo’s they announced:
[4yo] is four, this is his first rocket and this is his first rocket’s first flight. It’s an Estes Viking, flying today on an Estes A8-3
The safety guy gives it a quick eyeball and then passes you on to the scheduler guy who gives you a rail, based on the rocket size (in addition to low/high power there were also three sizes of rail). He’ll say ‘you’re the second next flight, pad 10’.
When it’s your turn, you put your rocket on the launch rail, connect the leads, take a quick photo (!) and step back behind the bunting.
The launch guy launches the rockets from positions 1 to 11, 1 to 11, 1 to 11 and so on. Every now and again there’s a high powered launch too.
At each launch, everyone looks up and watches the flight, and as soon as its clear that the rocket is safely landing, the next one goes up.
While the boys were there a few rockets didn’t deploy their recovery streamer (nose cone was on too tight, or recovery stuff was badly packed). At this point everyone looks up to help track them so that they don’t plummet into somebody’s head! There will be a call of ‘heads up’ to make sure everyone is looking!
The estimated altitude for the boys rockets was in the region of 1400 feet and as there was little wind, the rockets flew well!
There were also several big rockets! The boys loved these :) These photos show the launch of the 7yo’s favourite!
If you want to see more launches, the offical photos from the event are here.
This was a Cub Scout outing, which my husband had helped organise (he has flown rockets before… I have stood in fields and watched them, I have tried, and failed, to find tiny ones that have been caught by the wind!). It was a fantastic day and everyone really enjoyed it. The members from CMASS were heard to comment how great it was to see so many kids there!
The boys loved it (all three of them!) and are very keen to go again! The next launch date is in January :)
As always I am linking up with the wonderful Coombe Mill’s Country Kids. Click on the badge to see what everyone else has been up to and be inspired to get outside!
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Oh fabulous! I want a go! (In best toddler voice) Very impressed by all their hard work. So glad they could see their rockets fly so high. Nice write up and photos too.
Popping over from #CountryKids
Thank you! I was very grateful to hubby for writing me such good notes :) It was a great activity, they loved making the rockets, and were thrilled to see them fly x
Wow great pics!! U are always doing such great,fun activities , so lovely wonderful mama xx
Oh, thank you! This was definitely a daddy activity, and they all loved it :)
Looks like great fun
They had the best time!
how fabulous!! my kids would love this sort of thing!
Oh, I’m sure they would – it’s great fun!
Wow how brilliant is this! Must have been so much fun, I love the photos :)
They were so excited to tell me all about it :)
Oh wow that looks fab! Bet you had a great time
They absolutely loved it! I suspect they’ll go back again :)
What a truly fabulous adventure! So much fun for everyone :)
Big and small boys alike :)
wow what a spectacular day out for the boys and their daddy! you captured some great photos of your day too – such fun x
Thanks Jenny! They loved it :)
I love this! Thanks to your hubby for the detailed write up – I have forwarded it to mine so he can work out a plan for when, where and how we can do this :-) #CountryKids
You’re welcome :) I hope you guys manage to sort out a day flying rockets!
Wowww! That is so flipping amazing! Love this post so much, the boys would absolutely love to do this when they’re a bit bigger! Great pictures too :) xx
Thank you! It’s a great activity :)
Oh that looks like such a fun time! Great pics.
Thanks! Lots of fun :)
What a fun day for all the boys (big and small), they must have been very excited to build their own rocket then, watch it take off. Thanks for linking up and sharing their fun day with Country Kids.
Thanks Fiona, they had such a good day :) Thanks for hosting x
Wow, this is amazing! I would love to do something like this! Take note, I’m saying “I” instead of my daughter…. :) #CountryKids. Your boys must have been so excited and to think that they made it themselves!
He he! An activity for big and small people :)
Fantastic! I bet you all had a blast. very clever boys to make their own rockets (that looks like a rocket science to me, lol)
Ha! They loved building them :)
Wow, that looks like loads of fun! Your boys are so cute and look very proud of their rockets :)
They really were very proud of them :)
This would be an ideal outing for my husband to do with my son! He’s always talking about how he built big rockets like these when he was younger. This will inspire both of them.
Oh, I hope so – the boys, and my husband, had so much fun doing this together x
haven’t tried that with my two looks so much fun
It’s definitely worth the effort :)
This is so obviously cool!
Thank you – it really is!
My boy doesn’t do anything this exciting at Cubs. When you said a big rocket I wasn’t quite expecting it to be that big! What a great experience for them.
They loved it! They were so proud of their own rockets, and absolutely loved seeing the really big ones!
Wow what an amazing day and a great experience for your boys. I have had to stand and watch my hubby fly remote control planes, would much sooner have to stand and watch these!
I have been in the past, and it is pretty cool :)
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That is seriously impressive! I remember going to a rocket-launch about ten years ago and there was an awful lot of waiting around while men faffed with ignition stuff, you probably had the better end of the deal ;-)
Popping over from Country Kids.
I think on this occasion, quite possibly! Although I would have loved to have seen the boys faces when they launched their own rockets :) Four hours in a field would probably have been a bit much!
Oh my goodness what an exciting thing to be involved with – and making their own rockets! Impressive
Thanks! They really loved it, the whole process – talked about it for days :)