I personally started flying Estes rockets when I was maybe 6 or 8 years old. My older brother and I were given an Estes Mars Lander as a gift. In retrospect, I'm dumbfounded that we were able to cobble it together, but we did a pretty good job. Not the ideal starter kit, to say the least.

That was about 1967 or so. I have flown almost nonstop since, often with science projects or school groups. I took a bit of time off when I was in college, but after college I started flying with my stepson.

Just before Christmas 1998, I was in Hobbytown in Fort Collins. There was cowboy in there (Matt Baker, who no longer flies with us), and he was buying a LOC kit. He answered every question I had on HPR. I bought a Vulcanite that day, and certified NAR on an H180 in March of 1999.

'Tis a great hobby indeed.....

http://ncrocketry.org/modules.php?name=Forums&file=viewtopic&t=232

That's what 🙂

For the older guys in the group, I think our stories are similar. 1966/67 is when I flew my first Estes rocket at 8-9 years old. Don't remember what is was, but probably an Alpha. I also had a Mars Lander kit I built with my brother. Been flying low power ever since. Just started high power last year.

Got my first rocket at age 8 or so, but unlike most people here, for me that was the summer of 1998. For several years, I flew intermittently from the local park, and then I saw a CRASH sign at Hobbytown. I headed out there, enjoyed it for a year or so, and then discovered NCR, via a couple LARGE rockets (54mm, 4-6", probably 20lb or so). Someone brought them to display at CRASH, and I was enthralled. I headed out to the next MHM (in 2005) and got my Jr L1, and have been hooked ever since.

I got into rockets in 4th grade - an older neighborhood kid had a couple Estes and Centauri rockets and I saw him fly a couple of them at the local school's football field. Then I noticed the ads in the back of Boys Life (I was a cub scout) and ordered up the catalogs. I bought my first kit mail order from Centauri - a Javelin if I recall correctly. It was all downhill from there. My best friend's dad owned a hobby shop specializing in RC planes and as soon as he saw rockets, he started carrying them. He had Estes, Centauri, Cox, Vashon liquid fueld birds, and MPC. For a while he carried a lot of motors - even including FSI F100's and other E and F engines, but the State of NJ shut that down because the state had permit requirements for all purchasers.

Eventually, I got really pissed at NAR and their rules and between that and discovering girls and electric guitars, I faded out from rockets although every 5 or 10 years or so I'd buy an Estes kit, build it and plan on flying it... I knew NOTHING of HPR.

A few years ago, I was flipping channels late at night and came on the Discovery Channel Rocket Challenge and absolutely flipped out seeing birds like Dan Stroud's Team and the Aurora. Within a couple days I had a few HPR kits and had contacted NCR looking for where and when to fly. Been at it ever since... I figure I must have gotten the bug bad because I've been responsible for the composites on an O powered bird and plan on finally doing my L3 this year.

Warren

Start...cub scouts, then boy scouts...then got out of it for a decade, then decided it was a cheaper hobby than R/C cars and stuff...or not LOL!

Had an alpha (IIRC), then some crazy estes thing which looked like a plane, watched a buddy of mine launch an estes bullpuppy with the nose weight not secured go all out of control nearly impaling some of us watching the launch (it went up, then promptly sideways horizontal to the ground for about 100 feet before dropping to the ground)...thought D's and E's were big stuff. Didn't even know about HPR.

Still relatively new to the hobby (going for L1 and maybe L2 this year) but as with all things, continue to dig a deeper hole for myself!

I blame it on retail (and my kids).

I'm not the BAR like many of you. I grew up in California where rockets were either not available, or not popular. I too saw the ads in the back of Boy's Life an remember how expensive it seemed. I recall thinking "$x.xx for a just few seconds", so I few RC gliders off the cliffs of Southern Cal instead (which you cannot do any more).

Long story short... I bought an Estes starter kit from Walmart for my son several Christmases ago. We launched out of the back yard/pasture and had fun chasing around here. I then went into Hobbytown USA and saw the collection of motors there. I was amazed but still thought $10 bucks for just a few seconds was, ... crazy. I told myself I would never do that.

Well..........

He's no longer into rocketry, and I'm out the $10, or so.

P.S. thanks to Joe Sanfillipo and the Hobbytown crew.

Another older guy.

Started with an Estes kit back in 1972. I built a lot of rockets, lost a few, got out of it shortly after Star Wars came out to build robots. My kids pulled me back into rocketry in 1999. Shortly after loosing a few rockets to trees I looked around on the net for clubs that fly at a better location. Found the PHITS and the TRM website, got the dates confused and went to the wrong launch. After much driving around I found the Atlas site while PHITS was holding a launch, and the rest as they say they say is history.

4th grade for me, we had a contest at school and one of the prizes was an Estes Avenger. Everything I did in the contest was geared towards winning that rocket, which I did. Shortly thereafter I bought an alpha 3 starter set at Toys R Us in S California, and I've been flying ever since. There have been some extended periods of time when I didn't fly much, but even in college my friends and I would occasionally come upon a kit we'd built as kids and go find a motor to stick in it. A few years ago I saw an aerotech kit on ebay and figured what the heck. After I built that and started looking into clubs I found NCR and CRASH, but the first time I came up to a NCR launch and saw the big boys, I had to try it.

I've always loved building things that "go" when you are done with them. I have every type of RC you can imagine, but the thrill of rocketry is really at the top for me right now. I love being up at the launch site, away from cell phones, away from work, and hanging out with people that know how to have fun.

Oh, and Ed, I also grew up flying R/C in SoCal. You can still dodge hang gliders at Torrey Pines as of the last time I was there. Where did you fly?

I flew off the cliffs of Palos Verdes. On a breezy day there was so much lift that you could fly power planes with nose weight (instead of an engine) as well as gliders. A wind ribbon would blow upwards at an angle of at least 20 percent.

Now there are too many people around and too many expensive houses I suppose.

dale netherton.
j

My older brother back in the 60s.
Cub Scouts - Boyscouts in the 60s and 70s
30 years later.........................
Then I started watching the X-Prise stuff on TV, a couple
programs showcased HPR.
I purchased an ESTES egg lofter 3 years ago. To start
from the beginning again.
Thankful for the internet and this forum for a learning curv.
Went to my first NCR North launch 2.5 years ago. My heart
was pounding out of my chest, I hope noe one was looking.
Crashed my first cluster 2 years ago.
Been enjoying 'G' heaven since.
Hope to get my level one in may.
Gettining my altimeter any day, and will start buildinga duel deploy.

Short version of a long story. Grew up watching the Space Race. Lost a few of my older brother's kits. Tried making my own rockets and motors with tinfoil wrapped tubes and curlers packed with powder from 22's and kitchen matchheads. Managed to not die trying different molotov projectiles and had to go for counseling. Time warp ahead 30 years. Wanting to bond with my son - tried small kits again and went to a PHITS launch. Watched someone's Initiator on a G and knew I'd been missing out big time. My son Waverly wasn't interested unless the rockets blew up but I was hooked again. Still dreaming I can find a ride to space, even if I have to build it from scratch. Now in the meantime I'm working on smaller dreams and schemes and thinking L3 eventually.

Yet another older guy... 53, started making my own rockets back in '63, two years after I got my Chemcraft chemistry set at age 8... until I found, like Warren and Ed, an ad in Boys Life about Estes or Centuri (first rocket, Centuri Javelin). Instead of the squirrel monkey offered on the very same page!, I chose model rockets. Odd, my parents wouldn't let me order a monkey, but didn't mind if I mixed rocket fuel up in the garage... anyway, ended up at NARAM-11 in '69, won a Junior National Championship in a Sparrow Boost Glider contest, and instead of me, who earned the FAI record, ol' G. Harry, NAR #2, made sure his daughter, who flew 30 seconds less than mine, got the International record. Not, that after allllll these years I'm bitter or anything... 😈 🙂 Anyway, never stopped firing rockets, though spent a lot of time in the 80's working on telemetry packages and Super-8 movie cameras for rockets... and clustering those F-100's into HPR--though that's among us, so don't say anthing... hey, it takes power to boost those old Super-8 cameras! So, it's been a long time and a lot of learning and fun!