Going for a walk the other day in a nearby park I saw a group of kids in the middle of the field, huddled around something. They then scattered a bit, and I saw it there, that little stand with a long rod, and then heard that familiar “Swooooosh!” sound, and saw the rocket take off. Immediately I was taken back to my childhood, model rockets, and uber-coolness, at least for a nerd want-to-be. I remembered days of chasing down rockets caught in the wind, hoping it didn’t land on a nearby rooftop, searching the fields where we thought it touched down, and just all-in-all being amazed, and thinking it might be possible to strap more motors to the body of the rocket to get it to go even higher (it doesn’t work).
I don’t know if it was because I was smaller, or because they used a lame rocket motor, but their rocket didn’t go up that high, to the point that when the parachute deployed even I knew there wasn’t enough height to let it open up and give the rocket a soft landing. It was up, it was down, and as disappointed as I was in the height of their launch I was thrilled to see kids still launching a model rocket, they just might need some help on their choice of motor and rocket.
I’m guessing for most of the girls out there the answer is “No,” but I’m wondering: Have you shot off a model rocket?
That’s it for this one! L8R!!