Our penultimate visit to Acton this season promised storms by the end of the day. Around noon, there were about 3 drops of rain but the rest of the day was good for flying. And cooperative weather was a good thing, too, as we were able to have 186 flights. Many of these flights were folks participating in the National Rocketry Competition (NRC). Thanks to Stephen Maire organizing the contest and registering with NAR, many club members are now enshrined on the NAR website with their current scores. Of course, to stay in the running, they’ll probably have to improve as the contest continues until next year’s NARAM. Thanks go out to those who printed the contest cards, ran the stopwatches for the duration events and helped record the results. If you’re not a NAR member, you can still participate but your results won’t be official until you join the national organization. This was so well received, we will make it part of all of our regular club launches provided we can continue to get the volunteer to help make it successful.

There were lots of non-NRC flights, some very impressive for their beauty and others for their failure. We had everything from MicroMaxx to G-impulse, many maiden flights and some old work horses taking to the sky. A larger version of the Mandalorian flew straight and true; there were a few Nike Smoke models many of which were recovered. Guy showed how to have two successful CATO's of questionable E12's with the same saucer.

For once, we didn’t have to chase any cricketeers from the field. We did have some people stop by just to watch and even had some loaner rockets for those who wanted to give it a try. We’ll have one more launch in Acton this year and then back to Amesbury for our Fall Cavalcade of Launches culminating with a night launch in November. Read up on the various contests that are part of NRC this year and give it a try.

Thanks to all the volunteer who took turns at Safety Check, Launch Control and, most importantly, Food Service. This is what makes our launches so outstanding. With a little training you can be part of the crew that everyone appreciates and respects; sign up for a slot for the next launch. If you have pictures from this launch, please upload them to the gallery.