Van Citters: Rocket launch

Nicholas and Donovan started a "reward system" in January of this year. It had several items on it: clean up your bedroom, set the silverware, clear the dishes, pick up your toys, and NO CRYING. After some time, Nicholas earned enough big stickers on his chart to pick out his own model rocket.

He finally settled on this rocket - a two-stage rocket with two D ("big") engines. When it ignites, the first engine launches it from the launch pad, and then .7 seconds later the second engine gives it an extra blast that shoots off the lower green fins. Because it could go so high, we checked the weather every weekend to find a time with no wind. We waited months to launch this rocket. Finally, a morning came when the wind seemed non-existent. We drove to the field with several D engines and gave it a shot.

Nicholas and Doug attaching the rocket to the launch pad for its first flight.

After months of launching much smaller rockets and chasing them all over the field (one even landed on a nursing home 1/4 mile or more away), we knew that we needed to be cautious about our set-up. Most of our parachutes never deployed in the winter, but the snow provided a nice cushion for the rockets. With the snow gone, Doug carefully packed the parachute - and added lots of wadding (special paper that goes between the engine and parachute to prevent the parachute from melting).

We had to launch the rocket nearly into the sun because of the slight breeze. As the rocket rose, we lost site of it in the sunlight. Nonetheless, we found the green lower tail cone in the "almost green" grass about 200 meters away. But, the larger portion carried by the parachute was nowhere to be seen. After minutes of searching the sky, we happened to catch sight of it just before it dipped below a hill and landed safely. Phew...

With that sort of luck, we thought we should launch again. By this time the wind had changed 180 degrees. On this launch, we never saw the green tail cone fall off, but were able to watch our rocket climb until it was nearly invisible. Doug figures it went over 1/2 mile into the air... and then, we saw it safely come down trailed by the parachute. Phew again... We spent nearly 20 minutes searching for the green tail cone in a HUGE field - and finally as we were about to give up hope - found them in nearly the exact place that the larger rocket had landed on the previous flight. We're looking forward to more windless weekend days when we can fly it again.