Model Rockets

Updated: June 9, 2006

Hello and welcome to my Model Rocket page. I'm a member of the North Dakota Rocketry Association, which is a club that flies model and high power model (HPR) rockets.

I've been involved in building and flying model rockets on and off for many years. My first kit was an Estes Alpha, which I received from an aunt who taught elementary school. I was in elementary school at the time (different school), and knew nothing about model rockets. Despite that, I managed to assemble the Alpha and got a group of my friends together to launch it. We were all imediately hooked.

Over the years we built a great variety of models, most of which actually flew, and some of which actually looked good. I took a hiatus from rocketry a few times, but was usually drawn back into it when a friend asked about it and I decided to build one "just to show them what it's all about". I helped a youth aerospace camp teacher learn about rocketry, and a few years later he and I joined a club that was bringing high power rocketry to the Grand Forks area.

It's tough to try to remember all the rockets I've built and flown (and lost) over the years. The Estes Alpha was definately the first, and along the way there's been Photon Disruptors, Alpha IIIs, a Sprint, various payloaders, an Astrocam, numerous Mosquitos, Mini Mean Machine, Big Bertha, Icarus, Honest John, a badmitten birdie with a motor shoved in the back, and others. My first completely scratch-built rocket was the Ugly Bug, a Mosquito design scaled up to take a D motor. Big Ugly Bug was my first high-power rocket, running on a 24mm composite motor that can be loaded with fuel loads in the D, E, and F range. It splattered itself all over the launch site on its first flight, providing much amusement to the other rocket club members. I built my NAR Level 1 certification high power rocket (the Big Ugly Bug II) and launched it for the first time in March of 2002. This rocket uses a 29mm motor which can be loaded with several different fuel configurations in the H power range. I've also built a NAR Level 2 certification rocket, the Mock 4, which I've flown on H motors but it can accept as high as a J. My Level 2 certification attempt will have to wait until I pass the written exam later this summer.

For a really, really big (~400M) MPEG file containing a video on how to build a rocket, Click Here

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This page written and maintained by John Nordlie (nordlie at rwic dot und dot edu)
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