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This sorry tale starts in December last year at the second EARS launch at their new flying site. Let me set the scene, it's windy, it's cold, it's getting late and the light is fading fast. You pull out a new rocket, it's never flown before, you've just finished painting it and you shove the biggest motor you've ever used into the bottom of it.
It's getting dark and there's no sign of the rocket, you'll have to come back in the morning to continue the search. Over the next day, three different people spend up to 4 hours each looking for your rocket amongst others, but to no avail. Your rocket is lost. Fast forward to July, you're sadly happy that your rocket has probably turned to mush throughout the winter, as it's lain undiscovered. Imagine your shock and horror when you're told exactly what infact befell your rocket. As I was putting the direction signs up for the 1st July EARS launch a lone woman in a car stopped to ask me a couple of questions. She asked if we were going to be launching rockets, what time we were going to start, would they be big, should she come up and watch? I answered all the questions wondering why she was so interested, then she told me. She told me that she'd found a rocket round about Christmas time, so I asked her if it was big and blue, she said yes. Ah, I though, I know who's that is he'll be well chuffed to get it back. So I told her that I knew the owner and he'd be pleased she'd found it. Oh, she said, I don't have it any more, there wasn't a return address on it, so I think we took it to the tip in the end. I had my head in my hands. Four hundred odd pounds worth of rocket sent to the tip because it didn't have a phone number on it. So we get to the moral of this tale, just like flying in crops without a beeper, always put your contact details on your rockets. If you don't you may as well just take them to the tip yourself. Copyright © 1999-2007, Fatboab, all rights reserved.
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You're up in a drag race, everyone is watching. The other rocket is away first and shoots straight up into the reddening sky on it's way to apogee. After a short delay your rocket joins it, but because it's got a bigger motor is out of sight in the gathering gloom. Some people say they hear the ejection charges go off although not everyone is sure as they desperately search the sky for any sign of a chute.