Early this year, I was approached by a few of my friends who had gotten word of my rocket activities and were looking to join me at the range with DART.
Although I’m normally perfectly OK with bringing newcomers to the range, these guys are a little…different. Fun to chat with and hang around but disabled and perhaps a little sheltered. They live in North County and don’t drive. Giving all of them a ride to the club field and then back home again would involve a lot of driving in my truck, and it wouldn’t have enough seats anyway.
In light of this, I decided to set little challenge for them. I bought a pair of basic rocket kits that could fly on small motors, size 1/4A through B. I booked a launch date at Escondido’s Jesmond Dene Park, put in a request for a day off, and notified the group well in advance. I’m not even kidding, this event has been planned since January.
The challenge was threefold:
1.). Get to the range on time. I don’t care how, just don’t ask me to do it! I’ve got enough work to do setting this thing up.
This wasn’t an impossible ask, far from it. I suggested asking parents or other friends, booking a rideshare, or taking public transit. They know how to do this, or could learn pretty easily.
2.). Be safe on the range. No goofing off, learn and follow the Safety Code.
3.). Get home from the range. Again, not impossible, and I’m not going to leave anybody stranded. That would be a jerk move.
None of the guys who requested the event showed up, as I expected. I took some photos and gave them a little bit of cheek for it. Names have been shortened to initials to protect the guilty!
Here’s K not setting up the range table.
Here’s J not getting a rocket ready to go
Here’s R not hooking one up to the pad
And here’s us not getting a group photo because I am all alone!
In all seriousness, I did actually fly and I had some interesting findings.
The Estes Firestreak is underpowered on the recommended 1/4A3-3Ts. I didn’t quite do a lawn-dart but it was pretty close. 1/2As or bigger for this one!
The Alpha is just about perfect for 1/2A6-2s. Half-plastic rockets tend to be underpowered on these but the balsa-finned classic gets up to a comfortable altitude and bang-on deployment. This one even has plastic retention threads.
I worked with E on this one since he’s been out to fly before, but he couldn’t make it today. Still, he did a good job on it.
This photo is from the A8-3 flight. I ended up lazily walking under this one and catching it by the shock cord in the outfield. Winds were dead calm!
Has anybody else ever seen A8-3 packs come with wadding and cornstarch igniters? That’s a puzzling combo.
The B4-4 flight landed right on the first base line. No photo available.
After that I packed up. 1 hour of peace and quiet is perfect, after that I start getting a little wired.
Although I’m normally perfectly OK with bringing newcomers to the range, these guys are a little…different. Fun to chat with and hang around but disabled and perhaps a little sheltered. They live in North County and don’t drive. Giving all of them a ride to the club field and then back home again would involve a lot of driving in my truck, and it wouldn’t have enough seats anyway.
In light of this, I decided to set little challenge for them. I bought a pair of basic rocket kits that could fly on small motors, size 1/4A through B. I booked a launch date at Escondido’s Jesmond Dene Park, put in a request for a day off, and notified the group well in advance. I’m not even kidding, this event has been planned since January.
The challenge was threefold:
1.). Get to the range on time. I don’t care how, just don’t ask me to do it! I’ve got enough work to do setting this thing up.
This wasn’t an impossible ask, far from it. I suggested asking parents or other friends, booking a rideshare, or taking public transit. They know how to do this, or could learn pretty easily.
2.). Be safe on the range. No goofing off, learn and follow the Safety Code.
3.). Get home from the range. Again, not impossible, and I’m not going to leave anybody stranded. That would be a jerk move.
None of the guys who requested the event showed up, as I expected. I took some photos and gave them a little bit of cheek for it. Names have been shortened to initials to protect the guilty!
Here’s K not setting up the range table.
Here’s J not getting a rocket ready to go
Here’s R not hooking one up to the pad
And here’s us not getting a group photo because I am all alone!
In all seriousness, I did actually fly and I had some interesting findings.
The Estes Firestreak is underpowered on the recommended 1/4A3-3Ts. I didn’t quite do a lawn-dart but it was pretty close. 1/2As or bigger for this one!
The Alpha is just about perfect for 1/2A6-2s. Half-plastic rockets tend to be underpowered on these but the balsa-finned classic gets up to a comfortable altitude and bang-on deployment. This one even has plastic retention threads.
I worked with E on this one since he’s been out to fly before, but he couldn’t make it today. Still, he did a good job on it.
This photo is from the A8-3 flight. I ended up lazily walking under this one and catching it by the shock cord in the outfield. Winds were dead calm!
Has anybody else ever seen A8-3 packs come with wadding and cornstarch igniters? That’s a puzzling combo.
The B4-4 flight landed right on the first base line. No photo available.
After that I packed up. 1 hour of peace and quiet is perfect, after that I start getting a little wired.
