Highview Middle School (5/28/2004)
My niece told me that they were flying rockets today (Fri the
28th) and asked me if I would come and help out at Highview Middle
School in New Brighton. I arrived about 900 am to find an 8 pad
setup. It was kind of a "Fred Flintstone" launch system.
NAR would not approve of this launch system. The teacher had a
central arming point and each kid had a launch box consisting of a
light switch that was marked with "safe" on one side and
"fire" on the other side.
Before I go any further, this is not a slam against the teachers
at all, these are my impressions of the launch.
All kids built their rockets as a group. 3 or 4 kids per
rocket. These rockets were not examples of fine craftsmanship.
Launch lugs were coated with paint on the inside; I ended up cutting
a lot of pieces off the lugs so they could be put on the rods.
They were fired in salvos. Lots of them separated; recovery
systems did not deploy. Estes wadding all over the field. Glue
looked like it was put on with a trowel. Motor mounts pushed DEEP
inside the body tubes. Had this been a NAR event none of these
rockets would have seen a pad much less be launched. Duct taped
fins; I could go on forever. The kids enjoyed the flights though.
Again, I am stressing that it is not "totally" the
teachers fault. He was under a lot of pressure to get each group's
rockets launched and recovered within 30 minutes, get 'em back on
the bus to school and get another group out there. I stayed behind
to repair broken microclips. I even had to resort to using a
paperclip as a igniter clip. The kids were not listening very well,
and the teacher had his hands full. The operation
that I did with Ted yesterday was a lot better [organized].
IMHO, if this is in fact what is going on nationwide, no wonder
we have the problems getting kids to join us . I never once heard
any mention of the NAR. I even had some kids tell me they couldn't
wait to crash their rockets. I do not have the answer to this
problem.
I brought a few rockets to fly. My Stomp rocket flew well on a
C6-3. I lost the nose weight on impact but before I could get to it
one of the children grabbed it. Had he left it alone, I could have
found the weight, resecured it, and flown again. I tried my
egglofter again for my niece's class; naturally the @#$#^&%
chute didn't deploy again. Every time I go out alone it works great.
Go figure. Anyway I flew my UFO, and my Green Glider Carrier, and
packed it in. At the end of each session the teacher did take
the kids out to pick up wadding and other assorted wreckage.
[Mark Thell]
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