Our rocketry club NOVAAR held its monthly launch today, and I managed to make it out there for a few hours. It was a bit windy and quite cold (or quite windy and a bit cold), so I dressed warmly and decided to help out and not worry about flying anything myself.

I'd heard that at the last launch there were mobs of cub scouts trying to fly their rockets. Today wasn't nearly that bad, but we had a small batch of cub scouts as well as an open meet contest.

The kids did great, and the contest flights were pretty interesting. The events included helicopter recovery (duration: how long can it stay up there), boost glider (duration), spot landing (how close can you drop your rocket under chute to the target), and a new event where rocket gliders carried payloads for duration.

Aside from the contest flights, the most impressive of the day were a father/daughter team who flew a 3-stage Estes Commanche *twice* fully loaded (D12-0 to C6-0 to C6-7) and got everything back both times. Excellent flights, easily topping 2000 ft.

That's the last club launch for the year, although I did learn that next weekend is Culpeper! Battlepark 2006... hmmmm, I wonder what my plans *were* for next Saturday?

Posted by: Ted at 07:49 PM | category: Rocketry
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