This was the first time I've run one of these as a Cub Master. There were a lot of things to resolve. Compared to the rain gutter regatta this was not a walk in the park.
First I found out we were going to have to build the rack to hold the lines to run the rocket on. We based it off of the information provided in the cub leader how-to book Cub Leader How-to Book I decided to make the rack of the Inverted "T" format. This seemed simpler though I did add the gating system on to one side. More on that fiasco later. There were problems through out the process. Nothing seemed to go as expected. And since this competition required such a technical track just like the pinewood derby you add an additional element that can go wrong.
And you have all the issues with the rockets. These rockets require a set of rubber bands inside to make the propeller function. That in itself create issues. We had mostly broken rubber bands at the end of the night. You also have issues with weight. Several of the rockets could go no more then 1- 1 1/2 feet max even with the propeller wound 100 times. They were just to heavy or unbalanced like the one I created.
Strangely we have some of the parts coming unglued as well. We are not sure if it was the type of glue used, lack of glued used or a combination of the two. We had the plastic carrier piece that fits at the top of the rocket come out on at least 2 rockets. One was put in with Gorilla glue and eventually came out. It may have been something to do with plastic to balsa wood. Hard to say.
Not much was consistent at the event. Just problem after problem.
The rack was giving us tension issues. The fishing line has to be tight or there can be some sag in the line and performance issues shortly there after. In the end we have a person on each end holding back the rack. It tended to want to bow inward and stability being and issues we could and did have the rack fall over more then once during the night.
We also had issues with the courier mounts. Cheaply made out of out plastic the ones we got from the scout house had to be hot glued to even get some use out of them. Some one has to design something better. Expecting to have 2 small plastic knobs hold a critical piece together does not make good engineering sense. I know that due to weight the whole thing could flop if the couriers were not designed as light weight as possible. possibly a thin aluminum one would work better. Just too many things that could and did go wrong to make this worth the effort.
It would be better to do a rocket launch for height then this event in the future. I'll be sticking to the Rain Gutter Regatta when we decide to do big events like this. The major issues with this is how to drain the gutters. Mild compared to the Pinewood Derby or Space Derby. And if outside how to make sure you have a level location and not let the wind effect things to much.
I did find a good multi-lane round robin scheme. See Below. This allows the person to race on each lane at least once and also against each other participant. Good for 7 racers.
| Lane | |||
| 1 | 2 | 3 | |
| Rocket | 1 | 2 | 4 |
| number | 2 | 3 | 5 |
| 3 | 4 | 6 | |
| 4 | 5 | 7 | |
| 5 | 6 | 1 | |
| 6 | 7 | 2 | |
| 7 | 1 | 3 |
So put this down as one more learning experience. I'll include pictures or the like in a future post.
Buaidh - NO - Bas
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