On November 17th, we held the
second annual Grandma Goodard’s High Power but Somewhat
Less Than Exceptional Extreme Altitude Model Rocket
Extravaganza and Chili Cookoff (?). Although the
contest events were not attended as enthusiastically as
we would have hoped, we had a lot of rocketeers there
and many exciting flights. The day started typically
for this year (windy, cool and overcast), and
threatened to once again dampen the spirits of our
dedicated group.

    After an hour or so, however, the
wind died down a little. The sport launches began, and
later the braver competitors flew their contest models.
Although much of my time was spent tracking down
potential entrants, I noticed a large number of
AeroTech “Initiator” flights! This seems to be a very
popular model. On one of the early flights, John Doran
watched one of his birds drift off over the northeast
horizon. Later launches were angled a bit more into the
wind, to compensate for the drift Most other flyers
spent a lot of time chasing rockets, insisting on using
“E” or higher engines.

    With the low number of entrants in
the contest, problems with communicating with our
tracking station, and not being a NAR sanctioned
tournament, we scaled down the competition to single
flight events, and used a single tracker for altitude
events. Everyone entering received a certificate (I
hope!), and I waved the “DQ” penalty on all events (I
figured anyone who took the time to build something,
and dare to fly it, deserved a break). As the day went
on, the weather got better and better. By the time we
shut down (around 2:00), it was just about perfect, as
another group of rocketeers took over our launch site
to fly several more AeroTech kits! I’d guess we
acquired a few more members that afternoon.

    Lastly, I’d like to thank Mike
Hellmund for doing most of the tracking, Tim Horner for
handling the launch duties, and those who helped with
the timing. They made the event a lot more enjoyable
for everyone!

    Here’s the results of the
competition:

1610 feet
1050 feet

37 seconds

1754 feet
730 feet

60 seconds

27 seconds