Outreach Reports (6/5/2005)
Here are a couple more outreach reports for this busy
season:
Park Terrace Elementary School
Mike Kutzke and I spent an enjoyable afternoon at Park
Terrace Elementary School on Wednesday. The fourth graders there had
built 21 Quest rockets (BT20 tubes, plastic fins, and streamers). We
set up all 12 of the pads I brought along, and launched in racks, as
usual. These rockets are smaller and lighter than Generic E2X
rockets, and go noticeably higher. However, the streamers help in
recovering them close to the launch site.
The winds calmed down just before we started launching, and
we were able to recover all but three of the rockets on the really
small field (the rest were left waiting on the school roof for the
custodian to retrieve them). We also launched Mike's UFO on a C6-0
and my Silver Comet on a C11-3. Next year Park Terrace and other
Spring Lake Park Elementary schools get reshuffled, and all 11
fourth grade classes end up at Westwood. If everything else stays
the same, that means the MASA Outreach launch there will need to
launch over 100 rockets! Woohoo!
Westwood Elementary School
Carol Marple and I spent an enjoyable afternoon at the 7th
annual outreach launch at Westwood Elementary school. (Jeff Taylor,
alas, didn't get free from work until the launch was over-a huge
Thank You to Jeff for driving over anyway to help tear down the
range!). For the first time at Westwood, the winds were Easterly, so
we set up on the far side of the field.
Thankfully, the custodial staff let me drive around to the far
side-that would have been quite a hike with all the equipment.
We had 34 previously assembled, beautifully-decorated Estes
Generic E2X rockets to launch in under an hour, which made for a
hurried pace. We nevertheless got all the rockets off successfully,
with the usual assortment of misfires and a few separations. The
kids did their usual duration contest, but cool, breezy weather kept
the times fairly low-the longest
flight was 25 seconds. Silver Comet flew at the end on a D12-3 to
close out another successful event.
Thanks to Mike, Carol, and Jeff for PWRDSAW* with me!
*Play With Rockets, Don't Stay At Work
[Ted Cochran]
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