Here's an idea...
Rather than rant and rave and name call and threaten to sue and accuse and argue and fight over TRA/NAR regulations, certifications, arguments about parking fees, morphing every thread in this newsgroup into how one or another person is unfairly targeted and criticized (you blowhards all know who you are), pull your fat butt away from your computer for awhile and try taking a few kids out to the local park and launching some model rockets!
Yesterday morning (July 18) where I live the weather was perfect, with nary a breeze. Packed several rockets and my three boys into the van, called a couple of friends to bring their boys and daughter along (non- rocket flying dads and kids), and headed to the soccer field at the local elementary school for some launches.
Estes Shuttle Express (my 7 year old son's rocket) - 1 flight on a B4-2. Estes Chrome Dome (my 5 year old son's rocket) - 1 flight on a B-64. Quest Totally tubular (my 10 year old son's rocket) - 1 flight on an A8-
3 and 1 flight on a B6-4. Quest Intruder - 2 flights on a C6-5. Estes Blue Ninja - (10 yr old's rocket) - 1 flight on a D12-3. Estes V2 - 1 flight on an E9-4.Each flight was perfect and landed within several yards of the launch pads. My boys each launched their rockets once, and then we let the other kids all have a chance to do a count down and press the launch button. Each one was thrilled to death. Even the dads were quite impressed with the V2, given its size and perfect flight. Fielded dozens of questions from the dads and kids about model rockets, how they work, costs, time to build, etc.
A few hours later the moms/wives of these kids/dads were at our house visiting with my wife and all they could talk about was how their kids were raving all day about how much fun they had and how much they want to build and fly rockets. Needless to say, the local Hobby Lobby will be getting some rocket business this week, and five more kids and two dads will now be participating in model rocketry.
I view rocketry as a great hobby I practiced in my youth and now am pssing the joy of on to my three boys. Each one of them is able to build their own rockets, due to the range of rocket kits available (from E2X on up for the younger ones). I have also built and launched and enjoy flying a couple of mid-power rockets from Aerotech that the dads adn kids are looking forward to see launched (field was too small yesterday). As my boys get older, we already plan to build larger rockets as time and money is available and hopefully I can start working on my certifications. Until then, we are enjoying a great hobby together, and also hopefully spreading it to others.
So there you go. Shut up, pull your fat butt away from the computer once in awhile, invite some friends and kids along to the park and actually launch some rockets.
Now, let's see how this gets post gets twisted into another name calling argument about being persecuted.