The trouble with a 3 year old rocketeer!

Thought some of you might like this story about my youngest and newest modeler. After a recent trip to the hobby shop my 13 year old son came home with a new plastic model to build. My 3 1/2 year old son was presented a new foam glider. The glider was fun but the younger son was driving the older son nuts watching him build his model. Not a good mix. I had previously given my youngest son an old Alpha III rocket that wasn't going to fly again as a toy since he seemed to like rockets. Well I went back to the hobby shop and found the little estes model that is a plastic snap together rocket. Bingo, that and a pack of motors I was to be the hero dad again. After dinner Simon and I sat at the table and put his new rocket together. This was a big success all around. He was able to actually help build the model and felt he did something. Well we then prepped a motor and dug out the launch equipment and headed out back. We're lucky enough to have 22 acres of small hobby farm and 13 acres of hay field behind our barn. So we set everything up and count down together and whooooosssseee! I just created a monster! Flight was perfect. Alot higher than I thought that plastic rocket was going to go. We recovered the rocket in perfect condition about 50 yards from the launch pad. Thats where the trouble started. Simon then realized that I had only planned on one launch. It was getting dark! He had the launch controller in one hand and the rocket in the other, laid back on the field and started screaming. After putting the rest of the stuff away, I came back out and carried my tired young rocketeer back to the house. He actually went to sleep that night with his rocket. I snuck in after he was asleep and removed it from under his arm and placed it next to his bed. So there is my little story of the trouble with 3 year old rocketeers.

Cheers,

Denis Boudreau Wellington, OH

Reply to
Denis Boudreau
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Hi Dennis,Nice story! It should teach you that when you are introducing young rocketeers to the hobby you need to have enough motors available to fly until YOU fall asleep. Best Regards, Tom

Reply to
Tom Biasi

What a great story! Thanks for sharing.

I was planning to introduce a couple of my grandkids to rocketry this fall after the desert cools down. Now it turns out they're moving to Texas in a couple weeks. :(

Reply to
raydunakin

Well it turns out that my 3 year old son, Simon is a bit more serious than I thought. I was informed by my wife last night that he approached her carrying two rockets and requesting the video camera to tape his launches. Looks like I'll be flying sometime this weekend and recording it on video for him to review later. I also think I'll be locking up the motors just in case.

Denis

Reply to
Denis Boudreau

All this talk of rockets and kids I decided to let my grandson in on a little test. I have some homemade igniters that have been stored for over two years in a damp environment. I decided to see if they would still fire up. I picked 4 at random and paralled wired them, hooked them to a 10 foot wire and we watched through the glass door. All fired immediately after applying

9.6 volts. Made a large "puff' and threw some sparks. He loved it, still thinks its 4th of July. Tom
Reply to
Tom Biasi

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