3-2-1 Near Perfect Launch — TARC Team Wraps Up Season

The Fishburne TARC team had their final launch last Saturday in Monterey on a beautiful sunny day with occasional gusts of wind up to 8 mph. Temperatures started in the morning around 52° F and rose to 68° later in the day. It was a perfect day for flying and Fishburne started the day with the first flight off the range.

Near perfect launch

After some practice, it was time to declare a qualifying launch. It was a near perfect launch with an overall score of 12.12, with 0 being perfect; if they could beat this number in a subsequent launch that day they would be in the nationals. Their second qualifying launch, I am unhappy to say, came in around a 36.08. Although this is still a good score, this year’s competition should see scores in to around 10 max according to the event coordinator, Tripp Barber. However, stranger things have happened and there is a chance they will still be in if Mr. Barber’s predictions do not hold. We had the full team at this launch. In attendance were cadets Zachary Carroll, Charles Cole, Ivan Gray, Gabriel Lamphire, Sadik Abdelrhim, Alex Sprouse, and Andrew Watkins. Cadet Sadik led the group this year as team president.

Competitive since first launch in 2012

Our teams have come a long way since our first launch in 2012 and have been competitive every year since. Other schools and organizations have taken notice. Last weekend, the director of a Staunton group home commended our boys for helping their boys work on launching some smaller rockets. Other people attending the event have had nothing but positive remarks on the behavior and helpfulness of our guys. I am very proud of this year’s team as they pulled together to make this the best launch ever. For a picture of the best team ever, please see the attached.