GeekDad and Kids Blast into New Territory

Tag : Tool & Die

Model rocketry was never my "thing," not for any reasonother than I probably never hooked up with the right people.Spending my youth working in my Granddad's tool & die shopcertainly gave me access to the proper tools. Anyway, the Michael's store near us has been carrying a full array of ready-to-launch Estes rockets and accessories which have been taunting me for a whilenow. Wanting to try something new as well as come up with adifferent activity to keep us all outside, I picked up a pack oftwo 6-inch rockets and motors that would give the geeklings and I atimid entry into new territory.
Essential details are left out of the available accessories one canpurchase for these rockets (which is probably not a bad thing). Butlike a right proper geekdad, I did my research and realized that Iwould have to create the missing pieces on my own. My cobbledtogether "black box" launcher certainly added to theexperience for the kids. We had a grand time with just the two tinyrockets and eight motors. One rocket was eventually lost in thewoods and the other didn't hold up very well to multiple launches.Even my 9-year-old daughter, whose interests these days areconstantly shifting left the scene with an enthusiastic "Thatwas really cool!" The 5-year-old's thrill of actually makingsomething explode with the flip of a switch doesn't needdescription.
Our foray was a mere toe-dip into model rocketry to be sure andcertainly a far whisper from UAVs . I'm also sure that many GeekDad readers are more adept rocketeersbut we had to start somewhere. This was all new to us and the kidsstayed with me every step of the way too: from learning the safetyto assembling the necessary equipment to the actual launches andrecovery. As parents, we automatically take on the role of teacherand give our kids the lessons of our experience. But our kidsreceive as good a lesson when they realize that even theirall-knowing dads need to seek out new experiences from time to time.