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(Editor’s note: The following report was originally e-mail from Christian to the club’s e-group. It has been copied over from there, with a bit of editing on my part to make the multiple messages work together to form one report. My apologies if anything looses in the translation or for any inaccuracies introduced.) There was no problem going out on my day off, I just would have been doing little or nothing like laundry or cleaning up my place. You can see that the options were tough to make. She was not expecting anyone and was OK with that so I became a pleasant surprise bonus when I got to the school. Even at the info desk I was greeted with open arms since the clerk’s grandson was in the class. It was great and the parents even showed up for the day of the launch and wanted to know more. Even some of the college staff came out to see the excitement. The parents were also excited about the 1/2 off sale at Hobby Lobby, too. Ms. Pollard and I stressed the importance of safety and she even had the kids use safety goggles. The day was windy at first and the field wasn’t that large but at 1:00 the sun came out the wind died down and we sweat out 12 good launches and lost a couple of pounds. The students rockets all did perfect text book flights and the only misfire and partial parachute opening happened to Ms. P. and I. Whats up with that...the students passed the teachers. I didn’t know that we were that good. HA!
Funny story: Ms. P. had an Estes launch kit and her rocket looked like one of the Alpha series that’s 8 to 12 years old and had a parachute. She also cut a hole in the center of it so as to cut down the drift. I could learn from that some day. My holes are more natural from the burn of exhaust. Ha. I also brought out some of my rockets to use as display and I had a Mini-Meanie with a 1/2A engine that I was thinking about launching. As luck would have it, I thought the gang’s suggestion of smaller engines was very, very good and important, due to the overall conditions, and the students launches were truly text book. This was good since we had an audience to impress. Then when Ms. Pollard launched her Alpha, she didn’t get full ’chute deployment but the rocket separated and came down safely with no harm. She then got brave and with no wind really wanted to try a B engine. This time it worked perfectly and one of the students wanted to take the hike to recover the rocket. She gladly let them as we all waved our hands to go deeper and deeper to the right then deeper to find the rocket. It was heart stopping when it headed for the tree like a scene from a Charlie Brown kite episode but fortunately dropped behind it. Then the students shouted gleefully when they all got to launch a second time.
Good lesson to learn but why on my rocket? Second try went off without a hitch and another student wanted to retrieve the rocket and I would gladly oblige as another quart of sweat kept coming off me. Over all it was a very nice day but I should have had one of the gang with me just to perform a flight check on my rocket. Ha. |
| Launch | Flier’s Name | Rocket Name(s) | Motor | Comments |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Jacob H. | Pipsqueak | A8-3 | Textbook perfect |
| 2 | Jessie M. | Pipsqueak | A8-3 | for all kid’s flights |
| 3 | Cody J. | Pipsqueak | A8-3 | |
| 4 | Mark W. | Pipsqueak | A8-3 | |
| 5 | Pam P. | Alpha | A8-3 | Didn’t fully deploy |
| 6 | Jessie M. | Pipsqueak | A8-3 | Perfect again |
| 7 | Mark W. | Pipsqueak | A8-3 | |
| 8 | Cody J. | Pipsqueak | A8-3 | |
| 9 | Jacob H. | Pipsqueak | A8-3 | |
| 10 | Pam P. | Alpha | B6-4 | Good second flight |
| 11 | Cristian B. | Mini-Meanie | A10-3T | Misfire; went the second time |
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Submitted by Christian Bruggeman, NAR 82573
Edited (and HTML code) by Tim Burger, NAR 78486 L1.
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Page last updated on March 31, 2006
