JOPLIN, Missouri USA — They might not be shooting for the moon, but two local members of Teeniemunde — a group of rocket builders from Joplin, Kansas City and towns in between — are aiming high when it comes to their hobby.

Kevin Carder and Rocky Eckhardt, both of Joplin, have been shooting for space since grade school, building and designing small models at first and flying them in their back yards.

Kevin Carder shows off a model rocket engine. Photo: Roger Nomer.

Kevin Carder explains the different features of the model rocket he built for launch. Photo: Roger Nomer.

Kevin Carder, left, and Rocky Eckhardt explain the parts of a model rocket during an interview in Joplin, Mo. Both men have been building model rockets since grade school. Photo: Roger Nomer.

It wasn’t until a chance encounter about eight years ago — during the opening of the 1999 movie “October Sky,” which is about a group of small-town amateur rocket enthusiasts — that they met other hobbyists and realized how serious rocket building can be.

“I used to build these things out of a catalogue when I was a kid. My dad got me my first rocket kit went I was 8,” Carder said. "Some of them are very easy to build. I used to build them overnight as a kid when my parents would get them for me for Christmas. But some of them can be very complex, like my Saturn 5, which is a scale model that at the age of 20 years old took me a long time to build.”

Carder said there are different skill levels when it comes to building model rockets. Kits for beginners are available at just about any hobby supply store and some department stores.

Although some groups have devoted thousands of dollars and countless hours to trying to reach space — and at least one group actually pulled it off — Carder said his goals are rooted in stylistic rocket building and having fun.

Many of their rockets soar a couple thousand feet into the air.

Carder said most of the beginner rockets are made out of cardboard tubes, an attachment for the engines, a nose cone and a parachute. More advanced model rockets can be built out of plastic and aluminum and some members of the group even go as far as to build their own engines.

“Some of these rockets are just put together with Elmer’s glue, and can be built in about three hours,” Carder said. “You put a big motor in a small rocket like that and it disappears, and you just have to pray to God that you can see an orange streamer coming down and that the parachute opened. It is really impressive.”

Eckhardt said one of the largest rockets he has built resembles an 8-foot crayon and it flew to a height of nearly 12,000 feet.

There are different levels of certification that allow these hobbyists to fly bigger and bigger rockets with larger engines.

Eckhardt also said there are other components that can be put into the rockets, such as altimeters, cameras and radio transmitters to help the ground crews locate the rockets should they become lost.

Teeniemunde meets once a month to fly rockets in a hayfield near Pittsburg, Kan.

Copyright © 2007, The Joplin Globe.

01-23-2008 04:24 PM  #1
rocketman28 rocken rocketman   Joined: Jan 2008 Posts: 22	Re: Liftoff! Teeniemunde rocket enthusiasts take to the skies great job