Kopernik 9th annual RocketFest (2017)

Saturday was Kopernik Observatory's 9th annual RocketFest.

They set up 3 sessions. People preregister and in a 3 hour window get to build and fly a model rocket. Between the 3 sessions around 100 rockets got built.

They have a range of rockets based on skill level that included the Alpha 3, Chuter 2, Photon Probe, Super Neon XL, Cosmic Explorer, and others.

3 hours is not a lot of time to build, paint, and fly a rocket. Rocket builds use a mixture of elmers glue all and hot glue guns.
When loading engines, the paint is generally still wet....

I bring some rockets to display and generally help solve problems from building errors.
My other main task was saying "Please don't touch" (and the parents were almost as bad as the kids )

They did have several C6 catos. I told the organizers to submit a MESS report and that the people could contact Estes to get replacements.

Below is a link to a local TV station report - sorry that you will need to see an ad first....

https://www.wicz.com/clip/13403121/2017-rocketfest-sold-out

Some pix of the event (unfortunately I didn't get any launch pix - they used a farmer's field about 1/4 mile down)

That is great! I'm surprised about the C6 catos. We've burned more than a thousand of them over the past seventeen years and never had a Cato.

If a C6 catoed, the first thing I would suspect is a user cramming in the wrong plug or some other foreign objects. Only because I have never even heard of one in 40 years. That does not make me right, but...

RocketFeller said:

That is great! I'm surprised about the C6 catos. We've burned more than a thousand of them over the past seventeen years and never had a Cato.

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rstaff3 said:

If a C6 catoed, the first thing I would suspect is a user cramming in the wrong plug or some other foreign objects. Only because I have never even heard of one in 40 years. That does not make me right, but...

Click to expand...

I was surprised too. I actually did not witness the catos (one I heard the POW when it went). They said the rocket was about 10~15' in the air when the motor blew.
Another I got to see the remnants of the rocket and how the motor tube was all burned through in the middle.
I heard there were a few others but I didn't see those....