I loved Estes rockets as a kid. I grew up poor in a rural area in the late eighties/early nineties, and kids could show up with rockets in strangers' fields.
You usually knew if you needed permission, and it was always freely granted. While I still live in a small town (not my hometown), I find the culture has changed a lot, and it's much more difficult to find somebody with adequate space who will give you permission to light off rockets. And that's with parental supervision. In my experience, the days of eleven year old boys with rocket kits are largely over. Just another sad facet of a changing America. I'm old.
Yeah I was into it as a 10-12 year old. We would just go to the park or a school football field on a Sunday and fire them off. Usually lost the rockets as the wind would carry them and they'd hang up in a tree or something. Got tired of firing my allowance money into the air so lost interest after a while.
You just brought back a memory I haven't thought about in decades. After the wind took my rockets away and all I had left was some engines and the igniter, we decided to just let them rip in the porta-john at the local park. Safe enough being that we were outside with the wire fed thru the shut door. The sound it made as it ricocheted off those plastic walls... Not much later, we got into the way less safe potato+hairspray+pipe project!
Just glue or tape the bare engines to a long stick. The stick is enough for stability, and without the extra weight of the rocket body they go much higher.
When I was 10 or 11 I set the field next to the elementary school on fire launching my Estes R2-D2 rocket. Good news is I was able to recover the rocket.
When I was a kid I showed up with my dad in prospect park in the middle of Brooklyn NY with an aged Estes that had been gathering dust, given to me by the science teacher. Sadly, it must have been a bit too old because we couldn't get it to work.
More recently (circa 2019) I set off some pressurized carbon capsule based rockets in the exact same park. Similar idea without the fireworks ordinance problems.
In theory an urban environment should be far more hostile to this sort of activity (and for good reason) yet it everyone seemed fine and even encourages it. The spirit is alive and well. Maybe its just your specific area?
