Today, I had the privilege of introducing my four-year-old grandson to the joys of model rocketry.
After prepping and packing up a few of the smaller birds in the fleet, we headed out to Founders Park in Castle Rock, Colorado, a good B6-4 sized field. The lad's mom and grandma came along to watch as well.
The first bird off the pad was the Quark with streamers taped to the fins.
After instructing the young rocketeer about how to operate the launch controller, he counted down and pushed the button to send the model off on an amusing flight on A10-3T power. Everything worked perfectly and the young man enthusiastically ran out on recovery.
Next up, he launched the flagship Viper, flying on an A8-3 motor.
At ejection, the parachute shroud lines tangled with the model, so it was a bit of a hard landing that crumpled up the front end of the model's body tube (I just got that repaired last week! Sigh....).
The third model out of the box was the MPC Super Star clone.
Flying on a 1/4A3-3T, the rocket flew surprisingly high. Unfortunately, it suffered a broken shock cord.
The booster rocket tumbled back to within fifteen feet of the launch pad, and the parachute with nose came in right next to the range box. Talk about an easy recovery, and there was no further damage to the model.
By this time my young grandson had the launch procedure down-pat. Like an old pro, he sent the Estes Star Seeker clone up on a nice 1/4A powered flight.
Sadly, grandpa had not taped the friction fit motor in tight enough, so it ejected without pushing out the tiny parachute.
My grand-kiddo gleefully went on recovery and picked up all the pieces. Easy fin glue-on repair.
All in all, even though three of the four models came back with some sort of damage issue, we had a great time on the flying field.
Most satisfying, my grandson successfully pressed the launch button and recovered all four models.
Perhaps a new model rocketeer in the making....