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I built my first model rocket during covid. I had always been interested in space, but it was never anything beyond that. Because I had so much time on my hands, I was eager to find something to do, a hobby to keep me occupied during the long days that I would spend inside, so I began looking. I had recently watched the movie October Sky with my grandpa, and I thought that what they did in the movie was pretty cool. So a few days later, I bought my first model rocket.
The rocket was the Mongoose from Estes Rockets. It was a two stage, relatively low-power model that was somewhat for beginners. The process to build it was decently straightforward, but I certainly made some mistakes along the way. When installing the engine mount, I glued the engine block to the wrong side of the tube. I had to spend over an hour sanding down the inside of the engine mount to completely get rid of any trace of that block ring. Luckily, there were extra rings in the kit, so even though the mistake cost a lot of time, it wasn’t the end of the world. The rest of the build went well enough, and after a few days of making the rocket, I was ready to launch it.
Living in the LA area, finding a suitable launch site was very difficult. Most rocketry clubs weren’t meeting because of the pandemic, so if I was going to launch the rocket, I had to do it independently. This is usually a bit of an issue, since to launch a rocket on your own, you need permission from both the property owner and fire marshal. Getting those permissions in southern California is very difficult since very few properties are large enough to safely launch rockets. The closest place to me was a dried lake bed called El Mirage Lake almost three hours away, but the property owners were very generous in giving permission to launch model rockets, so that is where I went.
When we got up there, the weather was scorching hot, pushing 100 degrees. We persevered, however, as I set up the launch site and got ready to launch the rocket. I used C engines, which projected the rocket to go about 1,200 feet high, which was a little too high, because when I launched it, we weren’t able to keep track of it. The rocket got lost in the clouds and we never saw it again. Me and my family spent hours searching, but it was hopeless. I ended up going home that day without my rocket, only getting one launch out of it.
It definitely felt like a waste of time. I had put in so much effort to build the rocket, and prepare it, and to do research to make sure everything would go right, but it obviously didn’t. I wanted to give up, but I decided not to. I kept doing research, and began to realize that my nose cone was probably too tight. I wanted to get a new rocket, and test my theory, and so I did. I bought the exact same one, just to make sure everything was the same. This time when I built it, I sanded down the nose cone so it was extremely loose. Then, I used thin strips of tape to get it to the perfect, snug fit.
This time when I launched the rocket, things went perfectly. I was able to launch it seven times before it finally failed to deploy the parachute, but that is generally a very successful amount of launches. I would say that was the moment that got me hooked on model rocketry. After all the work I had put in, I finally was able to see it all pay off, and it was truly an amazing feeling to watch my creation go so high. I encourage everybody to give rocketry a try. It is an incredibly empowering experience, and no matter the frustration one might have along the way, the end result is always worth it, and I would say has made me a more patient and curious person.
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