Hahah....I have stories like that from when I was a kid, and with my son. When I was a kid, I'd go up to to the retention basin by my elementary school with a few rockets and my launchpad. About that time I began designing my own just to see what different fin patterns would do to the trajectory. One of them lost the body, which crashed down to Earth from about 1000', while the nose and parachute floated off into the neighborhood and was never recovered. Another for no particular reason came down in a ball of fire, but still attached to nosecone and parachute. When the chute charge went off, it exploded and caused the rocket body to catch fire. Wadding wasn't overpacked (if anything I went lean on wadding), but seeing that at 12 was pretty cool. :) Launching rockets with my son is reliving some of my most enjoyable childhood moments. Brian Team A.I. > > From: "Regan L Smith" > Date: 2003/12/19 Fri PM 08:03:38 EST > To: > Subject: [Az-Geocaching] TEF and a birthday present > > Today we at Team Evil Fish decided to use the birthday gift that my sister bought for the younger member's 11th birthday, after reading the sign at the local park requiring the use of such only by permit went to the local high school where at 15 feet from second base made that ground zero.. > > the Estes model rocket was loaded with the medium strength engine and while talking with the JACK A LOPE via cellular communication launched TEF-1 a nice launch went about 200 feet into the air and was recovered in a few minutes... after reloading same engine type made a second launch followed pretty much the same trajectory but was going to much towards the houses. so for the third launch I installed the BIG engine rated to 600 feet turned the launching pad towards more of the field away from the houses and the younger member counted from 10 and well we had 2 successful rocket launches and 1 very cool missile it seems that at the base of the launching pad a thumb screw came loose and the thrust from the rocket pressure against the blast deflector caused the guide rod to move from 90 to about 45 as it left and again towards the houses..... I lost sight of it but Alex ran as fast as he could to get an idea of where it would land.... > > we packed up and much like finding a cache made our way to where we thought it landed... knocked on a house we thought it might have been in but after the owner allowed us to look spotted on his back neighbors roof so again drove around looking for the correct house, after getting the strangest look from the owner while stating our problem, he took his ladder and went to his back yard upon his return TEF-1 was in good shape.. > it seems that the owner hadn't seen a model rocket since he was a kid in Oklahoma.... > > I blame CBX2 >