It was suggested
that we save the COSROCS members the effort of competing
by just mailing the trophies to them, but Ron and Bruce
had other ideas. We decided to fly the “1/2A” Super-roc
Altitude event last, as we weren’t sure how long the calm
air would hold out. The contest began with the two glider
events. Bruce won the “1/4A” Rocket Glider event
with a single 38 second flight. Dave was a distant second
place with 14 seconds. “1/2A” Boost Glider was won by “B”
Divisoner Todd Schneider, barely beating Dave by nine
seconds. Ron Wilson was a close third. “1/4A” Parachute
Duration was captured easily by Dave, over 35 seconds ahead of
Bruce. Todd was a solid third at 34 seconds.

    Up to this point it
appeared that Dave had the title wrapped up, but the next
event would settle the issue. Special thanks go to Tommy,
who graciously volunteered to calculate the altitude
results, and in fact, had entered and debugged the
required program on his laptop computer during the
previous events! “1/2A” Super-roc Altitude appeared to be
the most popular, maybe because of the closeness of this
competition, the involvement of this type of event,
or possibly because it was the last and everyone was
anxious to leave! In this event, points are calculated by
taking three times the model’s length in centimeters (up
to 100 cm.) and adding this to twice the altitude in
meters. The best result of two flights is used, not the
total as in the previous events, although most were
satisfied with a single attempt. Since everyone had
models at or near the 100 centimeter limit, only the
altitudes were a deciding factor. Somehow, Bruce managed
to edge Dave by only three meters to take first in the
event, while Mike and Mark battled closely to decide
third and fourth places. Mike’s second flight was 7
meters better than Mark’s to decide the issue.

    After packing and
cleaning up the launch site, several contestants met at a
local McDonald’s to determine the all-important overall
standings. These are calculated as follows – each event
has a weighing factor that represents the difficulty of
the event. For each place in an event the following
competition points are awarded: First (10), second (6),
third (4), fourth (2), and 1 point for having a qualified
flight in an event in fifth or lower places.The weighing
factors are multiplied by the competition points and
totaled for each competitor.

      You can’t say a whole lot about a
launch where the wind is so strong it blows a 2 x 6 foot
table over and over. We did get some eggloft flights off
on the 22nd, but didn’t get enough flights into the air
to even file for NAR points.

      However, the good news is that the
trackers are built for Grandma Goodards.

    “East Meets West” won easily in “C”
Streamer Duration with a single flight of over three
minutes. Dave Nauer placed second with a pair of nice
flights, and third place was captured by Kevin McKinney
with two nearly identical flights.

    Overall, Kevin Kuczek’s “East Meets
West” ran away with the contest, which was anticipated by
many from the most experienced competitor. Following in
the distance was Michael Hellmund, the next most seasoned
competitor, with Dave Nauer and Kevin McKinney finishing
third and fourth.

    Those of us who survived their first
model rocketry contest and those who compete on a regular
basis all had a great time and are already looking
forward to the next event, expecting the competition to
be a lot closer the next time!