Quote from Eric Becher on March 30, 2026, 9:54 pm

March 29, 2026 Launch Report

This was another breezy day, but sunny, which made the chill a little easier to take.

Engine totals:

0 – 1/2A Engines
10 – A Engines
8 – B Engines
5 – C Engines
5 – D Engines
0 – E Engines
30 – F Engines
0 – G Engines
Total of 58 engines on 55 flights.
View Launch Statistics

 

Once again, ARC flights dominated the day. The deadline for the teams to submit their qualification flights is the 30^th, so it was “crunch time.” (maybe that is a bad term to use) Because their target altitude was 750ft, they had to put them up there, but with the wind from the south, quite a few rockets headed across the street and even into the ponds. Our intrepid flyers took the plunge time and again to retrieve their rockets, with eggs and data intact. But overall, I think some teams had promising flights. We’ll just have to wait and see if any of them make the cut to go to Virginia for the finals.

A couple of ARC numbers this month: we had 94 launches for ARC teams in the month of March over the 4 launches that we held. Out of 229 total launches for the Club in general, 41% were for ARC.

We know that ARC teams take up a lot of our time, efforts, and launch capacity, but we think it is well worth the effort to support these young folks in their challenge. Many of them have expressed a desire to go on to higher education in related fields, which would be great. And hopefully a few also continue in the hobby, either now, or in their future. So thanks everyone for your patience and understanding. Going forward, we should see an easier time at the rails for our other sport rocket flyers until ARC ramps up again next season.

And for any ARC teams reading this, the targets and requirements for next season are usually released in June. Start planning and building over the summer and be flying by the time school starts if at all possible. Weather may not cooperate, and conditions over the winter and early spring can be challenging!

So there was some other great activity going on for the younger kids too. Dominic flew his “Red Sled” to great success. Linden had a few nice flights too. And Indigo flew his “Intelligent Space Alien 2”, which if the name gets any longer, will require a page 2 for his flight card! For the other “kids,” Dan flew his “Sputnick” a couple of times on B4, and a D12 motors, demonstrating flexibility. Brian had a bunch of interesting rockets, as always. Donald flew his little “Jetliner” and the “BIG Bertha”, renamed the “Bye-bye Bertha” because that’s what it did! And if you stayed late enough, you saw Manav, newly minted Jr. L1, fly his “ORCA 2” with a 3-engine booster to a 3-engine sustainer. Unfortunately, one of the booster motors didn’t light, so its matched sustainer didn’t either, but even on 4 motors, and a hard landing, it was a cool flight. Manav promises a rebuild!

Pics are in the Gallery. Joe says video coming soon.

The April launch will be on the 12^th, to allow families to have Easter Sunday at home. We’re looking forward to some nicer weather to go along with whatever the Easter Bunny may bring.