FaithManor Posted April 3, 2015 Share Posted April 3, 2015 This will be a bittersweet year as two team members, one of whom is our eldest son, graduate. This year's challenge was to build a rocket weighing 650 grams fully loaded including a raw hen's egg of 55-61 grams (the astronaut) plus motor and recovery devices that would fly to a target altitude of 800 feet with a total flight time of 46-68 seconds on it's first flight but that can also be adjusted quickly to 750 feet and flight time of 45-47 seconds. The rocket booster section and payload also had to separate with their own recovery devices. For qualification purpose, only the 800 ft. altitude was used, but for those teams that make the top 24 at the Finals, the 775 must be attempted on the second flight in order to compete for the win. It was a two flight out of three qualification score as well. The team posted 14 practice flights then declared qualification flights. They put up an 816 and 45.24 time (the time penalty is 4 x any seconds or portion of a second above or below the flight window) which hailed them a score of 16.98, and a second flight of 806 and 47.5 seconds for a score of 6 giving them a combined total of 22.98. They did not need to fly a third qualifier which was a good thing because an aerotech motor cato (manufacturer defect in the ejection charge casing) caused their parachutes to NOT deploy on the next practice flight. The altimeter did register though and that flight was an 803 with what would have been a good fall time IF not for the motor cato. So we do know they have it pretty well dialed in at least when winds stay under 10 mph., and fairly close up to 12 mph. The cut-off for the top 100 teams was 40.0 this year which is an impressive two-flight low. Just wanted to publicly say that I am very, very proud of this team, their dedication, and their good spirits. I am thrilled for our two seniors as this will mean that they made the top 100 all four years of high school! 20 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
creekland Posted April 3, 2015 Share Posted April 3, 2015 Fly high at Nationals! Congratulations! :party: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dmmetler Posted April 3, 2015 Share Posted April 3, 2015 Congratulations!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SparklyUnicorn Posted April 3, 2015 Share Posted April 3, 2015 That's awesome! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Luckymama Posted April 3, 2015 Share Posted April 3, 2015 FaithManor, you and your dh are such powerful influences in your team members' lives. I am proud to "know" you. Congratulations :party: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Twigs Posted April 4, 2015 Share Posted April 4, 2015 Way to go! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Julie of KY Posted April 4, 2015 Share Posted April 4, 2015 Awesome experience for you and your students. Have fun at nationals. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FaithManor Posted April 4, 2015 Author Share Posted April 4, 2015 Thanks everyone! We have the team registration completed, t-shirts ordered, hotels booked, and back up rockets built so they can be tested this month. Four of the team members have chosen to attempt the Presentation Competition again, and that one is ALL skill, public speaking, and knowledge...no luck like the regular competition, no weather conditions to do battle with. It's nerve wrecking as high schoolers giving college level presentations in front of PH.D. NASA engineers and physicists so we are really proud of them for being willing to do it again. They have increased the number of teams that can attempt this so the competition will be fierce, fierce, fierce. They won it last year! We'll see how they do this time. We are proud no matter how they place. Both of our graduating seniors wrote admissions essays, writing placement essays, and scholarship essays based on their TARC experiences. Our boy, C, placed into sophomore level writing as a budding journalism major based on his essay and won his half ride on a TARC essay as well. The other graduating senior, also a C and our only girl on the team who has become like a daughter to us, won $7500.00 in scholarships from her first choice school plus a couple of independent freshman scholarships from area businesses also based on her essay, and her sister who was on the presentation team last year wrote about her experience in the presentation competition and ended up being recognized by a local women's business group, a state group, and inducted into the National Technical Honors Society for high school students. It has been nothing but big positives in all of their lives. Every year, right before we get to this point, dh and I are usually at the high point of burn out. Every year we say, "This is the last year." Then we take them to Finals and well, we know there is going to be another year. I think we'll do this until our youngest graduates in three more years. Then maybe, just maybe, we'll let ourselves off the hook. At that point, I think we will travel around the state promoting rocketry through 4-H, and we will be NAR volunteers for the competition each season despite not mentoring a team. Dh would like to serve on the range safety crew, and I'd LOVE to be a presentation team event organizer as well as man the information table or assist at the score board. Unofficially, I've help Lena at the score board each of the years we have attended. She is just the neatest lady! They have their fundraising to do in order to go. They will work very, very hard at it, but since we have two sets of recently unemployed parents that are worried beyond words, dh and I have decided to personally fund any short falls to make sure the entire team can go. It would hurt our hearts if two team members couldn't go because mom and dad are living on unemployment. Not happening. So, that is the scoop. Today will be pretty busy as we are trying one more time to get better outdoor senior photos of C, but since one of the presentation members is gone for spring break visiting relatives, they are trying to work with her through SKYPE on the content of her portion, and I have a parent meeting to organize fundraisers. 5 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Twigs Posted April 4, 2015 Share Posted April 4, 2015 What are they doing for fundraising? If it is something (rather than a service) easily mailable, I might be able to help out. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FaithManor Posted April 5, 2015 Author Share Posted April 5, 2015 Hi Twigs, the kids are sending out letters to friends and family, we will be offering advertising on our demonstration rocket to area businesses as well as a banner that we travel with so the businesses get some free good will, and we will have a spaghetti dinner benefit hosted by 4-H Council. Some of the kids have jobs and will throw money into the pot as well. But, they make very little because it is super hard for high schoolers around here to get jobs and when they do, they rarely get more than 5 or 6 hours per week. Yet, they will contribute what they can from their own earnings. This area is badly economically depressed. It is a blue collar area in which the bulk of the adults used to work for the one of he big auto makers or support businesses for them, and of course most of the factories are shuttered. The jobs that were left were much lower paying. So, when we fundraise to go we usually do not get anywhere near the whole amount. Mark and I toss a lot in the bucket, parents and grandparents do the best they can to make up the difference, we picnic on the way out and thankfully out hotel rooms have microwaves and refrigerators so we do what we can to avoid eating out and when we have to do so, it's McDonald's and Subway. The kids never complain. Other teams from wealthier school districts stay at the Holiday Inn and other similar chains, enjoying pools, game rooms etc. Our kids stay at the Days Inn and we beg for the cheapest rate the manager will give us. She is a really nice lady and always beats the expedia rate by a few dollars each night in order to help us out. This year, due to the fact that three of the boys are well over ft. tall, and GM has a big sales event that week and couldn't loan us an extended van, we will be taking 3 mini vans...one with all but the front bucket seats removed so it can haul our launch stand and rail, gear, rockets, coolers, and all of the luggage (we have duffles plus hanging bags due to the dress clothes required for the congressional breakfast), and the other two vans will carry 7 team members and three adults. From where we are, that means $210.00 in tolls for the round trip. Really, I don't like the tolls. But we have to make it in one day, and if we go through Ohio and West Virginia on the back roads, while scenic, it adds about three hours of drive time to a nearly 12 hour trip! So, we pay the tolls because we also can't stay over on the way back. Usually, we make sure that we kick in enough that they can go out a day early and do some sight seeing. The wonderful thing about D.C. is all of the free historical sites. We believe that it is important to see these places and last year we went to Arlington National Cemetery, witnessed the changing of the guard at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, and were present as a solider was being laid to rest. Honestly, the kids were so moved, so grateful to be there and witness this that I think it was our very best "sight-seeing" trip yet! Anyway, the two county newspapers are going to carry articles about the team, and this year we are making up really nice, formal invitations because we have a coupon for a huge discount for Staples Copy and Print. We are mailing out 100 invitations to the spaghetti dinner in the hopes of drumming up a larger crowd. Usually we get about 75 people with an average donation of $10.00 per person, and 4-H Council and other club leaders and parents are always so gracious with food donations so we don't have a bunch of expenses to take out of that. But, prices have gone up and taking that third van is going to cost us a bit more for fuel and tolls, so we've got to do better than last season. It will all work itself out. It always does. I think that the if we went to the county commissioners and said, "We aren't going to be able to go this year due to finances", they would honestly send some funds our way. They are really good people who have been super supportive of the team, and they do have a little fund for helping with the travel expenses for groups representing our county in special ways. So we are prepared to ask. The worst they can do is say no so zero harm in trying. We could, to save costs though, eliminate the extra night out and not go sight seeing. I think though that dh would just suck it up and throw the money into the well because it is our son's senior year, and since the accident and everything made this an incredibly tough year for him, he wants to make sure the last time he goes is special. Thanks for asking! We will make sure it works out for everyone. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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