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TARC Launches for 2021
2 years 11 months ago #10520
by jcsalem
Replied by jcsalem on topic TARC Launches for 2021
I want to let everyone know that I witnessed qualification flights from two Massachusetts teams that have a good chance of making the finals.
On Saturday May 8th, the Lexington High School team got a combined score of ~14 points. Launch was held on the Wetherbee St field in Acton. Arno Tilles was at this launch and brought his awesome launch setup. FYI... This is the field across route 2 from the CMASS launch field on School St. The Wetherbee field is managed by the Acton Conservation Commission. I have permission to use it for TARC launches in the winter before it is planted. It should not be used for club or personal launches which should continue to use the School St field.
On Sunday, May 16th, the Groton Academy team got a combined score of ~17.5 points. Launch was held on a large field adjacent to the Groton school's campus. Their last flight (with their best score of 14 points) was made in a rush with thunder in the distance. Their field is probably 3x the size of Acton, though with almost no parking. These flights would've been impossible had I not recovered their rockets from tall trees the weekend before using the 8' tall slingshot that I borrowed for the season from Howard Greenblatt.
Both teams were super excited. As is generally true in TARC, both teams had done quite a few practice flights to get their design and parameters dialed in.
I also witnessed qualification flights by Northboro's Algonquin High School which had two DQs (both problems they'd never seen before during practice flights). This was their first year and they did really well with their design and practice flights. They had several spectators at their practices including Algonquin's principal at one launch. The whole team will be back again next year. They flew at their high school's sports field which is around the same size as Acton's field.
Cambridge Ringe and Latin also had a great design and I believe had some qualification flights mid-week. Arno was there along with their long time supervisor, Liza Hansel. Don't know the results yet.
I'd encouraged all the teams to attend the May 15th TARC launch but they couldn't do it due to schedule or transportation issues. Both Lexington and Northboro did attend the April general CMASS launch in Amesbury.
A note re: the 2021 deadline extension
None of the successful teams would've been able to qualify without the date extension granted by TARC this year. I hope they continue to extend the qualification deadline into May which really helps northeast teams given our weather.
A note on the slingshot recoveries
In 2021, recovered 4 of 5 rockets that I attempted to recover using Howard's "Big Shot" 8' tall slingshot. Thank you, Howard! The only one not recovered was about 100' up in a tree in the middle of Northboro woods. Fortunately, there was a family connection to an arborist who quickly scaled the tree and cut off the offending branch.
Do we have any CMASS connections to arborists? They might be able to make a few dollars by providing "on-call" recovery services.
Jim
On Saturday May 8th, the Lexington High School team got a combined score of ~14 points. Launch was held on the Wetherbee St field in Acton. Arno Tilles was at this launch and brought his awesome launch setup. FYI... This is the field across route 2 from the CMASS launch field on School St. The Wetherbee field is managed by the Acton Conservation Commission. I have permission to use it for TARC launches in the winter before it is planted. It should not be used for club or personal launches which should continue to use the School St field.
On Sunday, May 16th, the Groton Academy team got a combined score of ~17.5 points. Launch was held on a large field adjacent to the Groton school's campus. Their last flight (with their best score of 14 points) was made in a rush with thunder in the distance. Their field is probably 3x the size of Acton, though with almost no parking. These flights would've been impossible had I not recovered their rockets from tall trees the weekend before using the 8' tall slingshot that I borrowed for the season from Howard Greenblatt.
Both teams were super excited. As is generally true in TARC, both teams had done quite a few practice flights to get their design and parameters dialed in.
I also witnessed qualification flights by Northboro's Algonquin High School which had two DQs (both problems they'd never seen before during practice flights). This was their first year and they did really well with their design and practice flights. They had several spectators at their practices including Algonquin's principal at one launch. The whole team will be back again next year. They flew at their high school's sports field which is around the same size as Acton's field.
Cambridge Ringe and Latin also had a great design and I believe had some qualification flights mid-week. Arno was there along with their long time supervisor, Liza Hansel. Don't know the results yet.
I'd encouraged all the teams to attend the May 15th TARC launch but they couldn't do it due to schedule or transportation issues. Both Lexington and Northboro did attend the April general CMASS launch in Amesbury.
A note re: the 2021 deadline extension
None of the successful teams would've been able to qualify without the date extension granted by TARC this year. I hope they continue to extend the qualification deadline into May which really helps northeast teams given our weather.
A note on the slingshot recoveries
In 2021, recovered 4 of 5 rockets that I attempted to recover using Howard's "Big Shot" 8' tall slingshot. Thank you, Howard! The only one not recovered was about 100' up in a tree in the middle of Northboro woods. Fortunately, there was a family connection to an arborist who quickly scaled the tree and cut off the offending branch.
Do we have any CMASS connections to arborists? They might be able to make a few dollars by providing "on-call" recovery services.
Jim
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