First Launch Report

By Andy Schneit

My eight-year-old son, Alex, and I came out to Snow Ranch to launch an Onyx that we built together from a kit.

He was thrilled for his three successful launches, seeing them come from something that he had a large role in building. He was more thrilled seeing everyone else's rockets out there, their size, their design, and their decoration. That eight year old Rocket Boy can hardly wait to fly again.

The same for this 57-year-old Rocket Boy; I was captivated from the first Sputnik launch...stayed up all night watching the Apollo 11 landing and moon walk. I had scrapbooks full of newspaper articles...built a 12' cutaway model of a liquid fuel rocket for a science fair...studied engineering...worked in the industry for a while. After leaving school, I left the technical field for the business side. While I flew powered airplane models, I didn't have access to a rocketry club or commercially-available engines in the late 50s/early 60s. So 40-something years later, I finally had my FIRST FLIGHT! It felt like being a kid again.

Thanks to Jack, Bill, James, Steve, Greg, Norm, Tony, and anyone else whose names I left out, for your assistance in completing the build and doing the launches. Thanks also, Bill, to you and your family for allowing us to use your ranch.

We joined Lunar; we'll be back.

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