Well, it's certainly a great time of year to be a rocketeer! There have been many great deals on rocketry related items in the past few weeks. The Source had Estes engines on sale for $6.29 a pack. I pretty much cleaned out both Chatham stores then ordered more online, for a total of 26 packs. Amazon had some great prices on Estes bulk rocket packs, so four boxes arrived at my door recently (free shipping, of course!) to use with my classes, Girl Guides, and Pathfinders. Some of the engines are for those groups as well. I also took advantage of another Estes website clearance and picked up a bunch of Reflector and Cosmic Explorer kits for less than $5 each. These might appear at future SWARM launch as giveaways--I haven't planned anything for them yet. Black Friday usually brings some great prices from many smaller U.S. manufacturers and dealers and this year was no exception. I stayed up late Thursday to nab two Formula 54 kits from The Rocketry Warehouse. At half price, I figured it was time for my first fibreglass experience. (The second kit is a gift--can't say for whom yet!). Unfortunately, I slept in for their Door Buster Special on Saturday and missed out on their $50 kits for $20. I guess there's always next year.
We have held our first sanctioned NAR competitive meet and Fly-It, Take-It event and S.W.A.R.M. members have now competed in another club's meet--PSC's Carl McLawhorn Memorial Fly Off.
Our Fly-It, Take-It event was a huge success! S.W.A.R.M. gave out 20 rockets to kids under 12 and helped them launch them. One of the youngster's parents even requested us hosting a birthday party launch! The smiles on the kids faces were absolutely priceless. We hope we have inspired some future rocketeers. The competitive events were a bit of a challenge with the strong winds at the launch site. The only event that was completed was Predicted Duration. Charlotte Halinaty won that one, beating her sister, Grace, and her dad (me)! Grace, Mark, and I had a great time at the PSC competition. It was almost as windy and even colder than at the Fall Classic, but we survived and even place in several events. Grace took first place in the 1/2A Parachute Duration competition, while H-Bomb (Mark and Chris Halinaty) took first in B Altitude (Altimeter) with a flight of over 900'! Our friends at PSC were great hosts and we hope to see them in Chatham sometime soon. |
Chris HalinatyI have been interested in model rocketry since 2002 and have been trying to learn all I can about building and flying. Archives
September 2017
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