It’s Friday and my mind is wandering. I’m wondering if you can shoot Estes rockets in cities anymore. You know the kind I mean — the ones with the cool igniters and the parachutes? Have any of you gotten any heat firing them in fields and, more importantly, where could you launch them in Brooklyn?
by
John Biggs
on
March 14, 2008
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When I was little we used to launch them at Marine Park in Brooklyn. I haven’t in 20 years but I’m pretty sure you still can.
I’m working on a project that envolves a RC rocket (minus the rocket engine), an air cannon, and a wireless video camera (in rocket). I will keep you posted. The numbers say its going to work, but what do numbers know right? There are just to many of them…..
All i remember is making a shoulder mounted rocket launcher with a heavy metal pipe and a wooden trigger assembly when I was 14 or so. I shot it at our shed while wearing a moped helmet and would have probably been arrested today.
I remember when I was a kid going to the local park with my dad to shoot rockets, and they told us we couldn’t do it there. We ended up in some empty field, instead.
I remember shooting the unbelievably un-aerodynamic Star Wars R2D2 Estes rocket off at a local school and having it crash into a basketball hoop and explode. It was kind of disturbing.
Looked a little like this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lHJ5q9IHp50
John – What about Floyd Bennett Field in Brooklyn where they used to launch the Fuji blimp?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Floyd_Bennett_Field
I grew up on Long Island and would launch with the Brooklyn Rocket Society at their launch site on Staten Island. It was not very far from the VNB and IIRC on the grounds of a mental hospital. I’ve heard that site is no longer empty.
Your best bet is to check on The Rocketry Forum and locate other folks in the area who are familiar with current Model Rocket launching regulations.
I know in Nassau County, we had to obtain permission from the regional park to launch (they gave annual permits and the fees went from $5 per year in the ealy 1970’s to zero in the late 1970’s). On a weekend in a park, it is VERY good to be able to pull a permit out of your pocket to show anyone on patrol who questions you.
i remember sneaking with my older brother off to the restricted areas near a small airfield in my town and firing off Estes rockets at incoming Cessnas. good times.