It all began when the Skywatchers/ROMAR rocket club of Colorado Springs, Colorado got a call from Houtz’ Drug Store in Limon, Colorado. They had just started carrying Estes model rockets in the hobby section of their store, and decided it would be nice to host a demonstration launch by someone who was experienced with flying model rockets.
The club gleefully accepted the invitation.
On the appointed day, half a dozen stalwart members of
ROMAR, including myself, loaded up two vehicles with the club launch rack,
P.A., range boxes, and a bunch of rockets, and hit the road for the wide open
plains of eastern Colorado.
Now, friends, we would have thought that a model rocket
launch at a small rural town would have meant flying from a spacious, open
field with unobstructed views to the four horizons. We were thinking F-engine country, here!Instead, upon arriving in town, and speaking with the drug store owner, we learned that our designated launch site was to be the parking lot adjacent to the business’ building, right smack-dab in the middle of downtown Limon!
We’re talking a very small asphalt-covered space with maybe
50 feet on the longest dimension, surrounded by three story buildings, tall
trees, and plenty of power lines.
Hmmm….It was quite obvious that our hosts were unaware of the altitude capabilities of even the smallest of model rockets.
We huddled and held an impromptu meeting to decide whether
we wanted to try this or not.
“Yeah, why not? We
traveled all the way out here! We don’t
want to chicken out and dis-appoint our kind hosts!”
So, we bravely went about setting up the range equipment,
the display table, and prepping the models that were to fly that day.
Once all was in readiness, our LCO conducted a test of the
launch system.
Dead as a doornail.
What else could go wrong? By now, a substantial number of spectators had
shown up to see the demo.
As the equipment team scrambled to troubleshoot and repair
the system, one of our members engaged
the crowd with a lengthy description of what model rocketry was all about, and
demonstrated prepping a model.
Finally, we got the word that the launch system was
operational. Huge sighs of relief!
As the rack was being loaded, I started things off with the
first flight of the day – my Cold Power Convertible Yankee 5. Since it was a warm Colorado day, the model
lifted off and flew quite high. The best
part is that it was successfully recovered.
We managed to fly about two dozen models over the course of
the demo. Most of them were recovered, thanks
to the owner of Houtz Drugs, who had stationed some of his employees and other
townsfolks volunteers on the rooftops of several nearby buildings. A few models were still lost, nonetheless.
I had taken along a few birds from my personal fleet to fly
in this demo:Astron Spaceman – this one flew nicely and landed on top of the local theater building. It was retrieved by a kind gentleman who was stationed at that location. The Spaceman did, however, sustain a broken balsa brace piece.
Estes Starblazer (The old K version with curved fins and
carved canopy) - This model turned in a very nice flight, but was never found. I was somewhat sad at the loss because it was
my second ever rocket build.
Skeeter Eeter – This one was my BT-60 upscale of the Estes
Mosquito, powered by a D engine. It was
the only model flight of the day flown with a larger impulse engine. I had a little trepidation about flying this
one, but went ahead anyway. A real cloud
pleaser, it was, achieving a very respectable altitude. Unfortunately, it too, was lost, despite
descending in sight on a large streamer.
Despite the flying conditions and loss of some models, our
demo drew a good sized crowd, and can be classified as a success.
On the drive back to Colorado Springs, one of the club
members made the comment:“That’s the first time I’ve ever flown rockets out of a broom closet!”
Addendum: After submitting this post on the old version of this blog, I managed to get in email contact with the owner of the drug store in Limon. It is no longer Houtz Drugs, but is still in business as Howard’s Drugs. The gentleman remembered this rocket demonstration event from so long ago, and said that it sparked some interest among some of the townsfolk, who afterward purchased rockets and flew them in and around Limon.
-Ed