My crazy day with some TARC kids

[SCE to AUX]

Heathkit isn't even making that thing--they are just rebadging a unit from White Box Robotics, and jacking up the price:

https://www.whiteboxrobotics.com/PCBOTs/index.html

 

[..Pat Butler]

Just an update- the TARC team had a week off for spring break. I asked that they call me to report on their progress so that we can schedule their qualification flight once I've been able to verify that they have a flyable rocket. Our club's field is a private field that we just secured for our use and it's important that this team not cancel on us like they did once before. They had basically lied about their progress and I had everything set up even before they ordered parts for their rocket. That was a month ago.

No one every contacted me over spring break and I even left a message on the cell phone for the one student member who is doing most of the work. They got back to school on Monday and still no contact. The teacher emails me on Tues and wants to schedule a launch on the next day. Can't pull the details together that quickly at this new field for a variety of reasons so I mentioned various options with other nearby clubs and TARC teams at some larger schools that can launch onsite. I volunteered to still be an official timer and travel to wherever they are going to launch.

Teacher emails back and is very irate that they can't launch at our field. I call the student leader and finally get in touch with him. He tells me that their teacher told them that we are blowing them off! They still HADN'T ever even launched their rocket yet. He tried the day before but couldn't figure out the copperhead igniters. I'm at a loss because we taught them how to use the igniters plus we gave them our phone numbers for questions. The teacher is irate with me but her kids still can't even find a way to launch their rocket. She just seems to want to 'will' everything to happen but her kids have no supervision by her.

I find out later that they've scheduled their qualification launch with two different clubs on the same day. One of those clubs is going to get burned by these guys. Fortunately, I've been in contact with both clubs to let them know what to expect.

I'm really close to writing a letter to the high school principal about this teacher. Completely irresponsible person.

 

[n5wd]

Just an update- the TARC team had a week off for spring break. ... They had basically lied about their progress ...Teacher emails back and is very irate that they can't launch at our field...the student leader ... tells me that their teacher told them that we are blowing them off! ...
I'm really close to writing a letter to the high school principal about this teacher. Completely irresponsible person.

Ouch!

May I suggest that, if you're serious about wanting to correct this problem now, and for the future (well, with the deadline coming up next Monday, it may not be possible to fix it for this year), instead of writing a letter to the principal, make an appointment to see him and the district's community rep, together, to discuss the situation. The one thing that no school or school district can withstand is one of the staff or faculty going out of their way to dissuade community support for their programs.

Good luck!

 

[..Pat Butler]

I'll see if I hear anything from them next week. It would be nice if they follow up with me to let me know how their qualification flight went. I was told that only 3 of the team members out of 12 are going to the launch, and the teacher won't even be there. Some team ha?

I know for certain that they are trying to do their practice launches at a field across the street from their school without doing the proper FAA notification. I kept telling them that I could help with that and they had no concern whatsoever that they were in violation of FAA regs. I thought they would have called me for those details last week.

I'm mostly concerned at this point that they're not going around and lying about our club's efforts when they talk to other clubs. I won't tolerate slander. As long as they don't do that then it'll pretty much be a dead issue. But if the teacher continues to slander our club then I'll definitely be approaching the school to set the record straight.

 

[shreadvector]

I'll see if I hear anything from them next week. It would be nice if they follow up with me to let me know how their qualification flight went. I was told that only 3 of the team members out of 12 are going to the launch, and the teacher won't even be there. Some team ha?

I know for certain that they are trying to do their practice launches at a field across the street from their school without doing the proper FAA notification. I kept telling them that I could help with that and they had no concern whatsoever that they were in violation of FAA regs. I thought they would have called me for those details last week.

I'm mostly concerned at this point that they're not going around and lying about our club's efforts when they talk to other clubs. I won't tolerate slander. As long as they don't do that then it'll pretty much be a dead issue. But if the teacher continues to slander our club then I'll definitely be approaching the school to set the record straight.

If they launch a rocket over 1 pound and do not do FAA notification - ESPECIALLY after you explained it to them, reminded them, offered to help them - then PLEASE, for the sake of TARC and Model Rocketry in general, notify Trip Barber. The qualification form has the NAR observer write "YES" on a line that confirms that FAA notification has been done. I've done that at my launches since I am the one who notifies for the entire club.

I have seen several teams who seem to have launches "somewhere" prior to showing up at our club launches and they seem to be absolutely clueless regarding obtaining a permit to launch (fro the fire authority - required in CA) and regarding FAA notification.

 

[Fred]

My compliments on helping out Pat. I think this spring I will run some rocket building stuff with my kids school. I helped out some summer programs last year and will go more in depth with it this year.
Cheers
Fred

 

[..Pat Butler]

I haven't heard back from them how it went nor have I heard from any of the two clubs that they were planning on launching with. If they did their qualification attempt with one of those two clubs then the notifications would have properly been made. It would have been their practice flights where no one did that properly.

I am curious to see how they did. When I had talked to the student leader he was at least getting altitudes and durations that were reasonable. However, they were using a motor with a 7-second delay and he said their rocket was always nose down and falling for a long time prior to ejection. He said their rocket was getting pretty well beat up at that point. I asked what Rocsim said with respect to the ideal delay and he said they never used the program again after building their rocket. I told them for certain that their rocket was going to be much heavier than what it simmed out to be, just based upon how I knew they were building it. They never really took TARC that seriously and that's why I'm curious to see how they did.

 

[Fred]

I haven't heard back from them how it went nor have I heard from any of the two clubs that they were planning on launching with. If they did their qualification attempt with one of those two clubs then the notifications would have properly been made. It would have been their practice flights where no one did that properly.

I am curious to see how they did. When I had talked to the student leader he was at least getting altitudes and durations that were reasonable. However, they were using a motor with a 7-second delay and he said their rocket was always nose down and falling for a long time prior to ejection. He said their rocket was getting pretty well beat up at that point. I asked what Rocsim said with respect to the ideal delay and he said they never used the program again after building their rocket. I told them for certain that their rocket was going to be much heavier than what it simmed out to be, just based upon how I knew they were building it. They never really took TARC that seriously and that's why I'm curious to see how they did.

Thats too bad given the effort you made. There is no TARC up here which is a shame as it sounds like a great concept
Cheers
Fred