Dean's Model Rocketry Tips
For Beginners Like I Used To Be!
Big Disclaimer
Okay - I'm not exactly a newbie anymore, but I don't claim to be any kind of
expert on the subject of Model Rocketry. My son Kyle (who's now 12)
and I started in the world of ModRoc in the spring of 1997. The intent
of this page is to share what we've discovered along the way because there
just doesn't seem to be a lot of useful online advice targetted toward
totally tenderfoot "rocket scientists".
In any case, always follow the safety procedures as specified by the
National Association of Rocketry
(NAR Safety Code)
.
If you find that anything I've posted here seems to violate this safety
code, please Email me: [email protected]
I've volunteered to keep an online database of known Center of Pressure (CP)
values for retail rocket kits in the CP Archive
. If you have any VCP or WinRoc datafiles for kits with no
modifications to fins or body, send them along. Please!
Also available: What's New on this site,
Launch Reports and our
Estes Shadow project
- What Rocket To Buy?
- No plugs for any specific manufacturer intended here. Just some
thoughts on what makes a good first-time model rocket.
- Construction
- What I've stumbled across, seen or thought up regarding good things
to do while putting the beast together.
- Pre-Launch
- What did I forget? There's always something I wished I'd brought to
the launch site, believe me.
- Your First Launch
- Simple do's and don'ts.
- Estes Controllers & Murphy's Law
- Troubleshooting your Estes launch controller when it doesn't work.
- How High? How Far?
- Some computer altitude estimates for a typical starter rocket. Then
some typical drift estimates.
- Later Launches
- Why do these things happen?
- What Goes Up...
- Tumblers, Streamers, Parachutes, Gliders, Lawn Darts and that distant
speck on the horizon.
- The website with everything related to Model Rocketry
Answers to a kazillion questions - The USENET
rec.models.rockets newsgroup FAQ
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since March
19th, 1997
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