Modular rockeTs Building Baffles - National Association of Rocketry

My First Capitol Cupby Caleb Boe NAR 83769Capitol Cup was a great event. This was my first time,and I had a lot of fun. I flew in three events: streamer, boostglide, and gyrocopter. Boost glide and gyrocopter are mychosen events for the World Championships, but I flewstreamer to try for some extra points.This was my first experienceflying to a rocket eventand taking everything withme on the plane. This wasalso my first time flying somewherealone. I flew to Chicagomyself and met Pat Butlerfor the flight to Virginia. Afterarriving in Virginia on Fridayafternoon, we spent the restof the day purchasing itemsthat we could not take on theplane, assembling rockets,and getting things ready forSaturday.Despite the not so perfect weather on Saturday, I managedto get two streamer flights in. My first streamer flightof the day, landed in a cow pasture with “No Trespassing”signs, a barbed wire fence, and mean-looking cows.I decided to try to get the second flight back instead ofthis one. In an attempt to return the rocket, I attached theshock cord such that the model will descend vertically insteadof horizontally. But to my surprise, it caught a thermaland drifted away.Sunday was a beautiful day for flying rockets. Boostglide was originally scheduled for Saturday, but waspushed to Sunday because of the weather. Boost glide andgyrocopter were now scheduled with one-hour overlappingrounds for Sunday morning. I was constantly busytrying to get a flight up every half hour. I barely had timeto watch my models descend. Both of my boost glidersdrifted away. Even if I could see where they landed, therewasn’t time to recover them. This seemed to be the casewith most fliers, since it was fairly breezy. In gyrocopter,my first flight drifted a little ways, but I didn’t have time torecover it since I had to prep my next boost glider. As I wasprepping my boost glider, Mrs. Berk found my gyrocopterwhile looking for her son Matthew’s rockets. I was verygrateful to have this model back so I could make a thirdflight in gyrocopter.It was a busy morning, but it was good practice workingunder pressure. After the flying was over, the medal ceremonystarted. There were medals handed out for both theNAR competition and the FAI competition. I was shockedto learn that I had three golds in the NAR competition, onebronze in FAI, and one gold in FAI. I was speechless whenI received the gold FAI Junior Champion medal.I enjoyed the competition experience. The experiencesof competing under the pressure of time and taking all ofmy equipment will benefit me in Serbia next year. I had agreat time at Capitol Cup and am looking forward to theWorld Championships next summer.three years. It was a dual contestwith NAR members flying sideby-sidewith other NAR memberswho held an FAI license. Awardswere given out in each category.This sort of setup allows you toenjoy FAI type of events withouthaving to be a hard-core FAI com-Above: Steve Foster makingadjustments to his RC gliderat the 2008 Capitol Cup.Left: Alyssa Stenbergat the 2009 tryouts.Ryan Woebkenberglanded his S8 RCglider very closeto the target spot.40 MAY/JUNE 2010 Sport Rocketry