7-17-2004 Launch

[cmmeyers]

This past Saturday (July 17th), my neighbor had put together an informal launch for his Boy Scout troop. They had purchased a bulk pack of Alpha IIIs for the boys to take home and assemble. I think that for all the kids (about 7 or 8 total) this was their first experience in launching (and building) model rockets. Needless to say, they had a great time! All flights were successfully recovered, even if some of the parachutes functioned more like streamers! They had bought a bulk pack of A8-3’s which ensured that they would not go out of sight, but because the rockets were so light, they had nice fast flights. We launched on the playing fields of a local high school and the weather was perfect. The temperatures were in the mid 80’s and there was virtually no wind.

Knowing that I was into model rockets with my children, he invited me to come along and bring some of my birds. It worked out well, since we had several launch pads between us, and a bit more adult supervision for a bunch of excited boys. I had brought 7 of my own rockets to launch, and somehow none got broken despite being nearly stepped on (“Hey cool! What kind of rocket is that?). Another scary thing was (with the first couple of retrievals) is that the kids thought that they would try to “dive-catch” the rockets. Again, amazingly none were broken.

Here are some of the pics from a great day of launching.

 

[cmmeyers]

Here were the rockets that I brought.

 

[cmmeyers]

My Big Bertha. It’s become a tradition to launch the BB first. You get a good feel for the wind conditions.

 

[cmmeyers]

My Estes Paveway on a C6-5.

 

[cmmeyers]

One of the Boy Scouts launching his Alpha.

 

[cmmeyers]

Another Alpha liftoff shot

 

[cmmeyers]

My Fliskits Praetor on a C6-5…..A crowd favorite. This one got more attention than any of my other rockets. I love this rocket; it looks so cool going up on those huge fins.

 

[cmmeyers]

One good thing about having a bunch of kids with you when you launch is that you don’t have to retrieve your own rockets. Here they are chasing down the Praetor. This picture really shows how much fun they were having.

 

[cmmeyers]

Kids looking skyward

 

[cmmeyers]

Another Alpha liftoff.

 

[cmmeyers]

My Estes Python ASRAAM lifting off on a C6-3.

 

[cmmeyers]

One of the Scouts launching my Paveway again.

 

[cmmeyers]

An Alpha drag race. One of the liftoff was late so I was only able to catch one in the air.

 

[cmmeyers]

Another Alpha drag race. Both rockets shot off the pad at exactly the same time. I was really ticked that I missed the rockets in the picture, but this liftoff shot is kind of neat.

 

[cmmeyers]

I did catch them both on the way down…..

 

[cmmeyers]

My Praetor again (‘nuff said. Jim is probably the only one here who won’t tire of me singing the praises of the Praetor).

 

[cmmeyers]

Another Praetor recovery shot

 

[cmmeyers]

And finally, another Alpha liftoff

 

[Karl]

Sweet pics , looks like you and the kids had a great time! I realy like the pic of the drag race coming down under the 'chutes ! Looks like the the rocket , wadding ect are all lined up in that shot !

 

[Austin]

cmmeyers, great pics man...looks like you had a great time. Well done!

Carl