How to Buy Model Rockets, Engines and Accessories

Studying, building and launching model rockets link hobbyists to the beginnings of the Space Age. As an enthusiast gains experience, he or she can use solid-state microchip computer-readable modules to measure temperature, pressure, acceleration and air speed during flights to hundreds or thousands of feet above ground.

Things You'll Need

• Talcum Powder
• Binoculars
• model rockets - Code Red, Astrocam, Shellshocked, Asteroid Hunter, Hyper X RTF, X-Flyer
• Internet Access
• model rocket supplies - launch pad, single-use motor, electrical launch controller, recovery wadding, igniters
• Safety Glasses

Instructions

1. Be aware that model rocketry - reaching for space with a rocket - is based on the simplest laws of physics. The hobby is within nearly everyone's reach.

2. Read model rocketry literature at your library or online.

3. Attend local model rocketry club meetings.

4. Develop friendships with experienced model rocketeers. Find a mentor.

5. Visit your local hobby stores.

6. Start simple. A basic kit, including a model rocket with an inexpensive, single-use motor, will give you a chance to learn the fundamentals of the hobby.

7. 

   Choose a basic "three-fins-and-a-nose-cone" unit and practice launches before moving on to replicas of actual rockets.

8. Look for a starter set including a rocket, launch pad, electrical launch controller, recovery wadding, several model rocket motors, igniters and instructions.

9. Expect to spend about $15 for a ready-to-fly rocket set and around $120 for a rocket kit that requires some assembly.

10. Attend several launches by experienced hobbyists and offer to help. You'll become familiar with the safety procedures.

11. Ask your mentor to help you with your first launch.

12. Stick with suitable construction material even as your rocketry skills grow sufficiently to allow you to build your own rockets.

13. 

    Use a suitable recovery system. Your model rocket is valuable to you, and you don't want it falling uncontrolled to damage property.

Tips & Warnings

• Harry Stine - who actually worked as a rocket scientist - and Vern Estes are considered the "Fathers of Model Rocketry." Estes Industries continues to manufacture model rocket kits that are available through dealers such as eHobbies.com.

• Model rocket motors are identified by letter classes to indicate power capabilities. The series runs from "A" to "G," with a "B" motor being twice as powerful as an "A" and a "C" model twice as powerful as a "B." The power increases in that fashion from a base of "1/4A" to "G."

• Use a dusting of talcum powder on recovery parachutes to facilitate opening.

• Supervise children when model rockets are flying. Even a relatively unsophisticated model rocket can exceed speeds of 100 mph while reaching several hundred feet in altitude.

• Use a proper launch system. Jury-rigged systems are dangerous. Model rockets do not use movable fins or engine nozzles to provide guidance, but rather rely on a launch guide rod.

• Choose a proper launch site. A crowded city park is no place to launch a model rocket.

• Launch only when visibility is good.