Back In The Day, Part 34 - The Ru-Jan Demos.

 The Rocky Mountain Association of Rocketry/Skywatchers Rocket Club of Colorado Springs was featured in a series of annual Spring demonstration launches that spanned the group's entire eleven year existence. 

These large all-day events were sponsored by the Ru-Jan Party and Hobby Shop located in the Rustic Hills North Shopping Center on North Academy Boulevard, and were flown in the center's large parking lot. The store's owner, Tom Hemry, was a perennial supporter of the club.

One of the static displayy tables at the 1982 Ru-Jan demos.

The demo launches were always well-publicized in advance, and full club participation was always in effect.

The demos were conducted with a high level of organization and efficiency. Club members were assigned to various teams: model prep, model recovery, and crowd control.  In addition was the launch control officer who kept up a constant chatter and countdowns on the P.A., and controlled the launch panel. 

ROMAR/Skywatchers Club member Lester Coburn provides
launch commentary during Ru-Jan 1978.

A couple of other members served as PR representatives whose job was to man the display tables, answer spectators' questions, and hand out club and hobby information material.

ROMAR's Glade Gordon shows off an FSI Black Brant II to an interested guest at Ru-Jan 1982.

A Maxi Alpha and Cobra 1500 ready to WoW! the crowd at Ru-Jan 1978.

The display tables themselves held a large variety of models, representing all aspects of the hobby, and many different manufacturers' products.  Every club member brought along their best models to  showcase at these events.

A display table at Ru-Jan 1978 featuring a number of big birds.

The launches were usually conducted in regularly scheduled rounds of twelve models each - the number of rods on the launch racks.  Prepping of models for the next round would take place as the previous group was being launched.  Most of the demo birds flown were owned by the club for this express purpose, though individual club members could fly models from their personal collection provided they were proven designs.  I recall launching my MPC Lunar Patrol at several of these demos because it was a great 'crowd-pleaser' model.

An Estes Goblin caught at liftoff - Ru-Jan 1978.

An Estes Solar Sailer stands ready for ignition at Ru-Jan 1978.

Occasionally, a club member could even be talked into launching a Cineroc or Astrocam for the benefit of the spectators. The launch control officer would play these flights up big time, encouraging the crowd to say 'cheese' as the models lifted off.

Your humble blog author mans the P.A. and launch control panel at Ru-Jan 1982.

A Red Max streaks off the launch rack at Ru-Jan 1979.

Other popular models were, of course, the big Saturns and Estes Maxi-Brutes.

Needless to say these demo events drew a lot of spectators, and the club usually enjoyed a spike in new memberships following each one. The final two years of the demos (1982-83) we even enjoyed the presence of a local radio station broadcasting live from a mobile. The station DJ would put in a lot of on-air plugs for the event and conduct periodic interviews with club members. 

Here are some more photos:

Glade Gordon readies a demo bird for launch at Ru-Jan 1978.

Another display table loaded with club members' models - Ru-Jan 1982.

Rocket Away!....Lester Coburn launches a model while club member Dave Wright and a crowd of spectators looks on.  Ru-Jan 1978.

I've featured this photo on an earlier blog post, but it deserves to be included in this Ru-Jan demo post.  This is NAR pioneer Bill Roe visiting Ru-Jan 1978.