I'll give Ms. McCluskey a call - I have a couple of launchers I can scrape together (I think).. and only 15 minutes from her school. Most likely can help her out on the 14th, however I do have a jury summons to report on the 13th. Based on passed experience, I think its unlikely I'll have to do anything,,, or if I did, it would be just on the 13th. But Murphy's Law and all. Anyone want to help / serve as a contingency back up?

I just talked to Tim Thomas aka Lawndartman about helping this teacher out. Tim and I are both willing to drive over and assist, we just picked up a new 6 pad set-up we would like to try out. It's a win -win we get to try out a pad and help some youngsters or totally embarrass ourselves in front of a bunch of kids who don't know us.... perfect.

dway - spooky... I literally just got off the phone with a client who wants me to be in Rangely on Tuesday the 14th. I'll need to postpone that jury duty and was fixin' to post something here about not being able to do this. Not just the timing,,, but your location tag says 'Rangely' - double spooky.

FYI - I had left a voicemail message for Ms. McCluskey, but haven't heard back. She works part time at Garfield and so is only in 2-3 days a week. You may want to call and let her know what your plans are - if I was going to be here, I'd come down - I'd love to see that 6-pad set up!

Jack, that is spooky,
not just the ESP outreach but the comming to Rangely on purpose! Just remember, I moved here, i'm not from here.
Anyway, I have also left a message with the teacher. Tim and I will be glad to do this if she needs us.

D. Way

Let me know the timing on the 14th. I may want to come down and watch and LMAO. I might be coerced into helping/assisting/making a fool of myself, bring along a "G" powered bird to show something bigger if possible. I should have been fired by then and will have a few minutes of spare time.

BEAR, thanks for volunteering for the LCO at the possible Garfield School launch. I'm glad to see there are still people out there who are not afraid to stick their necks out to help some kids. I'll let you know as soon as hear from the teacher in charge.
d.way...

Outreach report: It is done, completed, finnisimo. Dave Way and Tim Thomas were already at the school and made contact with the teacher when I arrived. I went in to the school to get my visitor credentials and Dave and Tim and Cathy decided on a launch pad location. The school ground is one city block by one city block, surrounded by houses and trees, lots of big trees. We did a test launch that worked pretty good and tested Tim's new launch controller. Nice cabinetry. I like the brass handles and the stainless steel switch cover plates.

The kids came out to fly, a dozen of them with their rockets. We taught them about how to use dog barf, and how to pack a chute. We showed them about installing igniters and prepping their rockets. Tim worked the controller, Dave loaded the rockets on the pads, and I looked for some way to make myself useful. As it was, the wind soon carried the rockets out of the school grounds and I started chasing rockets and getting them out of the streets. In the first four flights, we lost a rocket to a tree. In the next flights, the wind picked up more, we angled the launcher more and tried to keep recovery within the school grounds. We had quite an audience and the kids were taking a liking to us. We launched everybody's rocket and only lost the one to the tree. So we flew them again. By this time we had picked up two neighborhood boys who wanted to launch rockets also. And the neighbors were great. I saw one rocket come down in the middle of the street about two blocks away and a guy in a white car went down there and picked it up. I yelled and he got back in his car, turned around and brought it back to me. On another occasion, I had already recovered three rockets and I saw this couple on the porch of a house who asked me what I was doing. I told them about picking up the rockets and they said there was one in the street right behind me. It had just landed and I had not seen it. I got it and told them I had lost one down here somewhere. The guy said he would check in the backyard and came back with another rocket. I am 100% for recovery (except the one in the tall tree) and as I am walking back, this man came out and said that one of the rockets was in his tree at the corner. He goes and gets a rake out of his shed and hands it to me so I can recover the rocket. Another successful recovery and I go on.

On the second round of flights, we had a problem. We had picked up two boys who wanted to fly. One child had their rocket in that tree and could not fly, and one girl had a broken fin on her Alpha and no CA. So I reached into my box of rockets and came up with two Alphas, a Baby Bertha, and another Estes kit and now everybody gets to fly again. Tim was launching drag races and everybody was having a good time. I got all of my rockets back, we made new friends, and the kids had a great time. Tim, Dave and I had a great time also and said it was worth the time and effort. The teacher had a good time , too. I asked her how she was allowed to fly rockets at a school, since the school district in Fort Collins will not allow it. She said it took months to get permission and she had to jump through all kinds of hoops to pull it off, but it was worth it. I wonder how we can use this as a stepping stone to do more of this kind of outreach. I guess we will have to see.

I just wanted to write this up and let others know of the great time Tim, Dave, and I had. It was fun.

4 (5?) years ago I did a semester long project with a 4 very motivated high school students on propellant studies. You should have seen the hoops we had to jump through for that. But, it was extremely worth it - they kids learned a lot about real world math and science and got to play with rockets as a bonus.

Edward

Most excellant report and Outreach. Thanks Tim, Bear and Dave! Not to be cynical but the hoops and hurdles are in place for a reason. I may not agree with the School Districts about restricting FUN in learning situations, but as long as the Outreach is done in a safe and organized manner, the opportunity for growth and learning heavily outweighs the efforts to make it happen. THANKS!!!

Very cool, guys... wish I could have been there. As it is, still holed up at the Blue Mountain Inn west of beautiful downtown Rangely, America... home tomorrow.