With heavy rain this morning, it seemed an unlikely day for a rocket launch. However, with the exception of some light sprinkles for half an hour or so, we enjoyed dry weather and almost no wind. The clouds were uniform, but high enough not to be an issue for model rocket launching.

We were blessed this month with two events — first, a school group working on this year’s TARC challenge launched several rockets containing eggs using streamers for recovery. It was a real treat to have them come this month; we’re hoping to see more of them as they work on tuning their rockets to meet the goals of the competition.

Secondly, John Thompson came out and flew a mess of rockets and offered many of them up as prizes for the other fliers. We had quite the competition to land rockets near a marked location; one winner landed within 20′ of the target!

Now for the usual stats:

  • Launches: 58
  • Successful flights: 49
  • Flyers: 26
  • Rockets: 46
  • Most Flights: 13 (John Thompson)
  • Biggest Motor: F52-8 Ian Welsh

As you can see, we had a lot of flights today, fortunately we had only a few times when people had to wait for a place in the rack.

Thanks to all who came early to help set up the range, and a special thanks to Mary Ann Ryerse for bringing cupcakes, colored red for Valentine’s day. Finally, thanks to everyone who stayed after the launch was over to help tear down and carry stuff back to the cars.

We’ll be back next month on Saturday, March 13th from 12 until 3. Come join us then for another fine rocketing adventure!

-keith