August 14, 2002
Launch ignites local interest in rockets
WSH site of first Build and Launch model rocket event
By Carol South
Herald contributing writer
With a bang, a pffftt and a puff of smoke, rocket after rocket soared into the sky Saturday at Traverse City's first Build and Launch model rocket event.
Held at the soccer fields at Traverse City West High School, the event attracted around a hundred participants who came to either watch or build a rocket for launching or launch one of their own.
"I like launching them," said Brian Rodey, 9, who came to watch the rockets launch with his dad, John, and sister, Colleen, 7. "Me and my dad and some neighbors usually launch rockets together."
John Rodey, passing the torch to the next generation, still loves the big bang of the ignition.
"It is neat to build and it is loud and neat to shoot them in the air and see if it survives," Rodey said. "The key is to wait for a nice, calm evening; otherwise you have to chase them a long way if the wind carries them."
Shawn Roach, 10, is enthusiastic about model rockets and attended the Build and Launch event Saturday with his mother, brother and cousin.
"I like how they sound and I like seeing how high they go," said Roach as he watched rockets head skyward. "It is fun to see if what you do works because every rocket has a mind of its own."
Organizer Kyle Clark said it is high time that Traverse City joins the model rocket craze. He organized the Build and Launch event to spark that interest and offered participants a chance to build their own small rocket from a kit for just $8. The first round of 36 kits, which take about an hour to assemble, sold out shortly after the event started and Clark dispatched a helper to Trains and Things Hobbies on Front Street for more.
"I love to do this, my dad, brother and I got involved in model rockets 30 years ago," Clark said, who was surprised to find that Traverse City did not have a model rocket club.
Clark noted that the Detroit area has a very active club called Michigan Team One. Members of that group came up for the day to help staff the event and to launch their own rockets.
Jim Summers drove from Lapeer to help out at the event and launch some of his rockets. A member of Michigan Team One for three years, Summers said getting into rockets has led him to build and launch bigger and bigger rockets. He has since progressed through the alphabet from A to M, as the rocket motor sizes are designated.
"I just started small and kept going up and now fly everything," he said. "I'm kind of an egghead and like rockets because it combines physics, electronics, engineering and computer programming and you have to keep it all under control."
Clark ignited interest in rocketry locally when he taught a class on model rockets at Northwestern Michigan College's College for Kids this summer. The connection was classic small town: he contacted Trains and Things Hobbies to see who else was into rockets in the area. Coincidentally, the store's staff had just fielded a call from the college looking for someone to teach a class on model rockets. Clark was soon in front of a classroom helping the eight students build small model rockets from a kit.
The two launch days of the week-long class illustrated the students' fascination with rockets.
"The launches were from 10-noon but the kids were there until 2 or 3 in the afternoon," he recalled.