It was a cold, cloudy day, with temperatures around 40 and a moderate breeze - not exactly ideal rocket weather. Still, we made more than 100 flights (109 to be exact) over four hours, not bad for February. This was also the occasion for our winter section meet, featuring Predicted Duration, 1/2A SuperRoc Duration, and A Parachute Duration. We had eight official contestants plus several more unofficial entries.

Predicted Duration was the first competition event to be flown. Tom McAtee started the day out with a flight of 42 seconds, only 6.7% off of his 45 second prediction. This looked like the score to beat, until Mark Henriksen put up a perfect 36 second flight, dead on his prediction. Next was the SuperRoc event, in which the flights are scored based on the rocket length plus the flight duration. This is the first time our club has tried it, and it turned into a real horserace with five entries. John Buckley took the early lead with a good first flight with his 100-cm model, but dropped out of the running when his second flight didn't eject for a DQ (disqualification). When the dust settled, Jeff McCoy had taken first with two good flights of his 100-cm rocket; Tim and Michael Sears were next with their 95-cm models, followed by Tom McAtee's 85-cm model.

John took his revenge by winning the A Parachute Duration event with a 100-second total, with Tim and Michael Sears following at 76 and 73 seconds respectively. Bruce Weidner also chalked up qualified flights in Predicted Duration and A PD to bring his point total for the year into double digits - he's making sure he won't end up at the bottom of the NAR point standings this year :-)

Along with the contest, we also put in plenty of sport flying. Michael Walsh brought out his new Initiator. The RSO expressed concern over his choice of powerplant, a D12-5, but things turned out fine - the rocket fell sideways, landing a few seconds before ejection, and did not sustain damage. Larry Mills made one of the day's most spectacular flights with an F24 in his Long Shot upper stage.

For the first time I can remember, Bruce Weidner had something new to fly - one of the new Estes ready-to-fly rockets. Actually, several members, including myself, showed up with new ready-to-fly rockets. Jeff Brundt went the traditional route - he's been building rockets over the winter, and had a fleet of gorgeous new old classics - a Mars Snooper, a Trident, and an Andromeda, all of which flew, along with a neat Ariane IV plastic model conversion. Also in the classic vein, Jerry Hook had an original Patriot (the colorful Citation Series rocket). Jerry Rutherford also brought out an old Scrambler, the original Estes 3-engine cluster egglofter.