Gentle Folk in Lab Coats are 2015 TARC Finalists!

The Gentle Folk in Lab Coats TARC team from Fairhaven (MA) High School are among the top 100 TARC finalists for 2015 ! They are going to the finals.

Congratulations to Paul, Jared, Connor, Tristin, Brandon, AJ, Nicole, and Pike.

This is the fifth year for Paul, Jared and Connor and their second time to the finals.
They wisely expanded the team this year, adding several enthusiastic members, and all their hard work has paid off.

The team produced 5 different rockets and flew many test flights. Four rockets with 3D printed fins and one finless rocket that will not be forgotten by all who witnessed it - or ever flown again.

On March 21st the team drove 100 miles to the launch as light snow was falling.
Snowfall tapered off during the first hour of the launch window.
Winds stayed extremely low and the team kept flying.

Three hours into the launch, with only an hour of flying time left, the team finally got the excellent practice flight they had been looking for. They immediately flew their three qualification flights with their last 3 engines, flying the last qualification flight 5 minutes before the close of the launch event.

Their first two qualification flights were only 5 and 13 feet off from the 800 ft goal, and had good recoveries, with scores of 11 and 27. These added together to a low enough score to get to the 2015 TARC finals.

Good Job team!

Thank you to all the hard working CMASS volunteers who make launches possible and fun.

The cut off for the top 100 teams was a combined score of 40 or less.
If one of the team's flights were just 3 feet further from goal or one second further outside the time window, they would not be among the finalists this year.

TARC keeps getting more and more competitive each year.

Yea ! Nicely done Gentle Folk. We'd be out in the field in March regardless, but its especially gratifying to have the pay forward pay off from time to time.

Have an excellent time at the TARC Finals.
-Alan