Cris and Don Pfister's Rocket page

I got to attend a Rocket Launch on Saturday 5/29/04. It was a lot of fun ;-)

Here is a quick attempt to add some photos I took..

Story time:

What's cooking...

Here is has been almost 2 years, the seed planned is taking root. I recently found a term, new to me, BAR = Born Again Rocketeer. This seems very fitting. I once again am launching into this hobby.

I've spent money on getting back into it. Something old and something new. I first got my first mid-power to high power rocket. An AeroTech Mustang kit. I've been kicking around how to modify it to make it right the first time, annoying my friends, asking lots of dumb (newby) questions.

A local club I watch email from, is having a fun event called a 'cookup'. My understaning is: take an old OOP (Out Of Production, took me a while to figure that one out) kit and see what you could 'cookup' to make something that looks/acts like it. That right after buying my Mustang, got me going.

I had an Estes Maxi-Brute V-2 model back in the mid-70s. I remember it's last flight. I had my family (my 4 small kids) at launch shortly after take off it started arcking to the left. It struggled to climb and right it's self, probably not making 100' or so in altitude. This had never happened before. I had always flew straight and true, a great rocket!

Of course it was the scene people love to laugh at. Hits the ground, parachute pops out. NOT FUNNY! We retreived it, and the plastic boat tail cone and one fin were melted. Removing the motor, a hole had burnt through the side of the motor. The second jet caused the side thrust arching the rocket. I am amazed at how it struggled to right it's self.

Next we launched our Estes Sandhawk, also a "D" motor rocket. After launch, after rising about 40 feet it exploded. Not good!

Estes reply to my contact, confirmed some bad runs of their D motor. I just happened to try and use some. They replaced my Sandhawk, still a production model. However, the V-2 had already gone OOP, and could not be replaced. I think I got it's brother, if you will, the Honest John. Also a 'D' motor rocket over 3 feet talk. Nice, but no V-2.

Fast forward, ok maybe not so fast, 30 plus years. The 'cookup' what to build? OF Course the V-2!!! Several emails and calls to Estes got me some PARTs on the way. Just turns out they had re-released the V-2 some years back and still had Parts, no kits but nose cone, boat tail cone, and body tube. No fins but most of the rest, also the building plans and some other parts. Hopefully they will arrive next week, the plans are here, mailed in a seperate envelope. THANKS ESTES, and especially Christine out there! Somethings cooking...at least I have a start.

Not enough for someone with the burning faith of a BAR! Of all stupid things I remembered eBay. One of my first searches, "Estes rockets". My goodness, what pops up but an "E" motor (the re-release used a newer, bigger motor). What? WOW was about all I could say. Of course my account hasn't been used for years, the email account tied to it long gone, can't remember the password. Ok, new account, done! I bid. Boy did I bid! Not too much, but had to test the waters. That sparked a bidding war, hot and heavy. What had I done?

I bid again! Of course what else? I watched the results. Clandestinely, I might add. My wife (the new one, the good one ;-) and I were watching a rented DVD (new Zerro for those, like me, that need to know). I interrupted the movie just as I thought the auction was closing. Yep I still had the bid, or so I thought. Back to the movie, movie ends. Check the auction just to sleep and dream tonight about my beloved V-2...

Didn't happen! There turned out to be about 15 more minutes until the auction closed. Such a child, so trusting, so DUMB! I guess there were a couple of guys lurking waiting to pounce. Pounce they did! It was bloody and sad. My $100 bid was nothing - they drove it up to the winning bid $132.50. The rare V-2 was gone, snatched away without even a regret. Regret? No I'm sure the winner is peacefully in heaven now, waiting to launch his beloved V-2 into the clouds. Well I sure hope so anyway. Back to reality.

The only V-2 in existence, gone! What a crush on my new found faith...

Back to my Mustang, a great rocket I'm sure. I tried to build on that thought, but back into my mind the V-2 would creep. Slowly, quietly but creep it would. Wait a minute, that web site; told to me by my friends after all my question on building the Mustang. Didn't it say something about an auction site? My poor memory caused me to struggle but I found it! Could there be? Could it be?

Estes V2, search... BINGO another V-2, how could this be? My faith was restored! I had the routine down now, signup, register, bid!

Bid? Bid I did like a drunken sailor on leave. (note: I don't understand that line, my dad, a retired Navy CPO and my nephew an active duty Lt. Commander have never displayed anythign that would make that line meaningful to me, but back to my ramblings) I wasn't going to loose this one. A second V-2 there may never be another one, so bid! I might have to pass the collection plate!

First bid $150 Boom done. Now I wait, and wait, and yes waited some more. It was terror surrounded by... Ok, I know you want to get done with this and back to your life (longer continued version can be placed here, if the audience demands it ;-).

Some fact just returned to my poor brain cell. There had been another V-2 on Ebay just before the one talked about above, it sold for $72.xx that is why I felt good with the $100 bid and went back to see what Zorro and his wife were up too. But that kind of spoils the only one to exist... ;-) It's that dumb writer thing coming out, sorry. ;-)

My $150 bid worked, actually it was way over. I got that V-2 for around $50. I hate to be anti-climatic but I got another one too. ;-) I found another one on that action site. I got it for around $50 also. What a deal, two for what I bid on the first one. As we use to say on Packet, ;-)

By now the cat was out of the bag. My darling wife (hey she might read this, you never know) like I was saying My darling lovely wife was now in on it. After days of softening her, I mean after day so careful explaination of the facts and how this was such a collectors item. I could re-auction one of the V-2s and reclaim my costs. YES I do say this with all cencerity. (Is she still reading?). My plan made perfect sense to me.

The V-2 had molded fins. I had forgotten that until the first arrival. That one had one fin, the two halfs, cut out, but not glued. Oh I haven't touched on the whole V2 vs Canadian Arrow thing, I'll leave that until I get another inspiration. As well as the whole "Clone" rocket thing.

For now I'll try to wrap this up. My wife is at work anyway, so you have endure enough for now. I am thinging about makeing a model for the missing (no longer available from Estes) fins, nosecone and boat tail cone. It seems there is interest, I may be misguided here, the interested may all be in collecting not building and flying the V-2 of yesteryear. Yes, I am a product of the 50s, 60s, and 70s TV. I think that 'yesteryear' thing ws from the Lone Ranger but I'm off track again. So updating the kit a bit could allow me, and others, to get the great V2 flying again.

Canadian Arrow, just a note, unknown to me until I got into all this, the Canadian Arrow is a V2. What the heck is a Canadian Arrow, it was a contender in the X-Prize race to space. A very neat idea, rather than start from scratch they updated 60 year old technology. Yes you can book a trip into space right now, on an updated V2 named Canadian Arrow. They changed the warhead into an Astronaunt compartment. WOW again! There are a few websites, just search for "Canadian Arroe". I checked them out, but just a quick surface check, I'll leave it to you to read the find and read the details. Sounded pretty neat.

UPDATE! UPDATE! UPDATE, this just in! The second Maxi-Brute V2 just arrived! A quick glance indicates this is a more complete kit than the first! This one none of the fins are cut. There seems to be more parts, no I haven't checked the part count in either one yet, but I see in this one the shock cord, I don't remember seeing it in the first. That is not to say it isn't there, just that I don't remember seeing it. I'll update when I get everything checked.

My main hobby for the last several years has been High Altitude unmanned free balloons ( http://habitatskylab.org ) we have a launch scheduled for tomorrow, Sunday March 11th at 10 a.m. I should be working on my capsule for that so the rockets are going to wait some more. I've wasted more time than I can afford on this, so I got to get back to my responsibilities for now. I'll try to return to this after the balloon launch and recovery.

I hope you enjoyed my little story, enduring the typos from my FREE WRITE version. As you can see I didn't clean it up yet, I don't have time. I had missed some writings (magazine, etc) that I was suppose to write. One of my major writters block episodes. Maybe this is an indication it is cleared up now. At least I had a great time today. Thank you for reading! Nice comments welcome. Nasty, evil, unkind comments can go.... Sorry I slipped a bit there. Got to go! Don March 10, 2006