Gentle Folk in Lab Coats are 2015 TARC Finalists!

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delta22

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The Gentle Folk in Lab Coats TARC team from Fairhaven (MA) High School are among the top 100 TARC finalists for 2015!
Congratulations to Paul, Jared, Connor, Tristin, Brandon, AJ, Nicole, and Pike.
Thank you to all the hard working CMASS volunteers who make launches possible and fun.

Please help: The Gentle Folk in Lab Coats (aka FHS Rocket Team) have a GoFundMe page:

https://www.gofundme.com/rmk6e8c

This is the only TARC team going to the 2015 finals from Northern New England (MA, RI, VT, NH, ME).
The team expanded to 8 members this year, which was great for productivity, but now makes traveling to the finals more expensive.

* Any contributions are greatly appreciated *


This is the fifth year for Paul, Jared and Connor and their second time to the finals.
They wisely expanded the team this year, adding several more enthusiastic members, and all their hard work has paid off.

The team produced 5 different rockets and flew many test flights in the last half of 2014.
Four rockets with 3D printed fins and one finless rocket that will not be forgotten by all who witnessed it - or ever flown again.

On March 21st the team drove 100 miles to the launch as light snow was falling.
Snowfall tapered off during the first hour of the launch window.
Winds stayed extremely low and the team kept flying.

Three hours into the launch, with only an hour of flying time left, the team finally got the excellent practice flight they had been looking for since last year.
They immediately flew their three qualification flights with their last 3 engines, flying the last qualification flight 5 minutes before the close of the launch event.

Their first two qualification flights were only 5 and 13 feet off from the 800 ft goal, and had good recoveries, with scores of 11 and 27.
These added together to a low enough score (38) to get to the 2015 TARC finals.

The cut off for the top 100 teams was a combined score of 40 or less.
If one of the team's flights were just 3 feet further from goal or one second further outside the time window, they would not be among the finalists this year.
TARC keeps getting more and more competitive each year.

I am very proud of my son Paul and all the other hard working members of the TARC team.
It is now, and has been for the last 5 years, an honor to be their rocketry mentor.

Good Job team!

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Congratulations! The Ingraham High School Rocketry Teams will meet you there. We were far luckier on the left coast with weather, since rainy Seattle didn't live up to its name most of the winter. We did have a rocket take an unexpected river swim, though!
 
The Gentle Folk in Lab Coats, throughout the long journey and the TARC competition, were consistently good spirited and demonstrated a can-do attitude.
They made their parents and mentors very proud and we told them so.

Also known as the Fairhaven High School Rocket Team, they worked together very well and did their best effort in this very challenging competition.
They took advantage of the time windows provided to carefully prep their rocket and make sure everything was set up correctly.

Pics:
> the team on the way to their first round launch
> nervous parents + supervisor looking on
> Trip keeping everything running like clockwork - Thank you very much
> the national anthem sung beautifully

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Their first flight was scheduled during the first launch window and lifted off about 8:30am.
The wind was very low and there was fog in the air.

The flight was nearly perfect, reaching 796ft and returning within the 46-48 second time window for an excellent score of 4.
Recovered very near the pad.
(pics 1 and 2)

For at least an hour this was the best score of the event.
When all 101 teams had attempted their first round flights, the Gentle Folk had the second best score of the competition.
They were justifiably thrilled and proud.

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Pics:
> the group relaxing and having lunch
> team having fun at the rocket building competition - a younger brother looking on and making plans for a 7th grade TARC team next year
> proud team moms looking at that lovely score of 4
> some of our parents posing with a fun-loving TARC team from Kentucky that went on to win the best-dressed award

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The wind picked up considerably in the afternoon as the second round of flights started.
Teams with the 42 best flight scores from the first round would fly a second time and the sum of these scores would determine the final standings in TARC 2015.

The Gentle Folk’s second flight was straight and recovered cleanly, but unfortunately drifted into a strong updraft and took a long time to touch down, for a second round score of 55.
Their combined score of 59 put them in 16th place at the finals ceremony. They were slightly disappointed for about a minute and then started making plans for next year’s TARC competition.
Very resilient, no complaints, and all about what comes next.

Once again they made their parents and mentors very proud.

Pics:
> another team's launch
> the Gentle Folk's second launch
> having fun playing aerospace Jeopardy
> the team talking with the General in charge of the Air Force Space Command

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A later correction in the calculation of another team’s score bumped the Gentle Folk in Lab Coats final standings in TARC 2015 to 17th place, of 101 teams at the finals and 700 teams that entered the competition.
A very respectable result for a team that worked together admirably.

The next day, the team visited the Smithsonian Air and Space Udvar-Hazy Museum. The collection of planes and rockets is extraordinary.
Space Shuttle Discovery had a surprisingly rough exterior, whereas the Concorde and the SR-71 Blackbird both looked so fine, it was not hard to imagine them streaking through the air at amazing speeds.
I must admit, some of the rocket pictures taken - felt like I was stealing design ideas for future model rocket builds, Pegasus, Proton-M, Titan V…..

Thank you to all the great folks at CMASS, TARC, the families of the team and Dr. David Welty the FHS team supervisor.
It is a pleasure and an honor for me to be this team’s rocketry mentor.

A great experience for a truly great group of kids.
Their potential is unlimited.

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Congratulations! The Ingraham High School Rocketry Teams will meet you there. We were far luckier on the left coast with weather, since rainy Seattle didn't live up to its name most of the winter. We did have a rocket take an unexpected river swim, though!

Thank you and congratulations.
The Ingraham HS teams did quite well.
 
Thank you for the writeup and the kind words. Ingraham's Team Foxtrot knew that their flight was in the time window when they picked up the payload bay with the altimeter. It was great to see them jump up and down when it beeped out 801 for a 1-point flight! For round 2, they somehow managed to fly higher than the first round flight despite adding a significant amount of ballast. We're not sure how that happened. The team was thrilled to get third place and a flag that orbited on a NASA Orion capsule test flight. Team Delta had some worse luck with thermals in the final scoring, but ended up at #21. Both teams spent most of the flight back to Seattle planning for next year.

I look forward to seeing Gentle Folk next year!
 
This may sound deceiving, but I believe that adding weight will actually push you towards optimal mass, which could put you towards higher altitudes.

...but let them figure that out :)

-Mike

Thank you for the writeup and the kind words. Ingraham's Team Foxtrot knew that their flight was in the time window when they picked up the payload bay with the altimeter. It was great to see them jump up and down when it beeped out 801 for a 1-point flight! For round 2, they somehow managed to fly higher than the first round flight despite adding a significant amount of ballast. We're not sure how that happened. The team was thrilled to get third place and a flag that orbited on a NASA Orion capsule test flight. Team Delta had some worse luck with thermals in the final scoring, but ended up at #21. Both teams spent most of the flight back to Seattle planning for next year.

I look forward to seeing Gentle Folk next year!
 
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