Tag: Ginger Burow

Day 56 – Rockets at White Sands Missile Range

While the more public focus of SystemsGo Rockets 2015, the launches of the Tsiolkovsky (1 pound/1 mile), and Oberth (Transonic) rockets may have come to a close for this year, the program has not finished for the year. The SystemsGo Rocket program now transitions to Goddard level rockets. These rockets and their subsequent launches at WSMR (White Sands Missile Range) are the culmination of all the skills the students have learned  throughout their years in the STEM program. This is their final senior project for those schools that participate in this level of the SystemsGo program.

By now these students have spent a minimum of 2 years, some three, and as the program expands with new STEM requirements in education, as many as four years will have been spent following and learning in this system of education. They have spent countless hours both in and out of class.

The year is divided by semester into two project bases. The first semester deals with early design phases including payload, performance, and vehicle configuration. Once the payload and an initial vehicle design concept have been developed the student project team begins developing a flight profile. This is used to predict what will happen during testing, including vehicle stresses and flight dynamics. By semester’s end, a test vehicle configuration should be fairly realized.

Semester two is the culmination of everything the students have learned in the first semester, and the continuation of using life and work skills to manufacture their test vehicle, perform a test and analyze their test vehicle findings. Success for this project is determined by two things.

1. Was the rocket finished by the scheduled date and delivered to the pad for testing?

2. How was the rocket’s flight performance in relation to its design parameters?

This translates to the students manufacturing a rocket from scratch; usually weighing in at between 250 to 450 lbs; to reach high altitudes and Mach 3 to Mach 4 velocities. This project is what all the previous years’ effort have been building up.

At this point, in order to achieve their goal, one large working team, divides into several smaller teams with designated goals for each part of design and development for the vehicles’ creation, propulsion, and testing. These component teams include:

Nose cone

Avionics/payload

Oxidizer tank

Injection

Fuel Grain

Nozzle

Engine case/forward skirt/fins

Each team first creates a workable timeline and then begins researching all necessities and questions concerning their team’s component. Questions they encounter may include function, simplicity, mass, etc. Students present their findings in the form of mathematical calculations for their design and these are reviewed and critiqued by aerospace professionals. Students must find their own solutions to any problems presented to them by these professionals.  Once a mathematical argument and a design drawing have been created, the team starts another research phase into the materials to build their component. In this phase students must be able to show critical thinking skills while studying different materials and their costs, safety, ease with which to work and whether they can be ordered in within time constraints. After the design is developed and reviewed and the correct materials determined, a Critical Design Review (CDR) is presented to the other teams for acceptance. If approved the team then begins development of the component, acquiring materials and enlisting any help they may need from local industry. If it is declined then the team redesigns it until the component is accepted by the entire group. If the original time line is kept each team’s component will be finished by the deadline. To ensure this each team must undergo a Flight Readiness Review (FRR) showing that their project is 100% ready. Once all components have demonstrated a 100% readiness, then the complete vehicle can be constructed  into a full standing rocket. SystemsGo calls this their “‘all-up’ configuration.” At this point, Standard Operating Procedures (SOP) must be developed and adhered to in order to test their rocket. To do this, students must be in communication with the launch facility, create support teams, and prepare necessary paperwork. Final preparations for the launch also include students working together to make sure the components are all prepped and ready, or working in mission control, meteorology, safety and other areas needed at the launch.

Next the rocket is tested and hopefully undergoes a successful launch. After this a Post Mission Analysis is done to evaluate the complete performance of the vehicle. This marks the end of the of the  program.

The knowledge base the students acquire through this program include: as quoted from the SystemsGo website: design and development, critical thinking, fabrication/machining, problem solving, teamwork, communication, analysis/application, documentation,  presentation, research, time/project management, budgets/purchasing, public relations, and computer skills in RockSim, Excel, Microsoft Word and PowerPoint.

These rockets which usually stand between 20 to 25 feet and range from 8 to 10 inches in diameter are an amazing sight to behold if for no other reason than that they are built by high school students, not professional aerospace engineers. They are built by the future of these industries. Many of these students go on to become engineers, machinists, scientists, physicists, mathematicians, and countless other business professionals. This STEM based program teaches them skills they can apply to life and use to continue into their future learning and job markets.  If you have a student in the STEM program at your school who is excited about what they are doing, take interest, get involved and don’t miss the chance to see what they is happening first hand whenever possible. You are watching the future in something we can all be proud. These students are doing truly amazing things.

This article was intended to be a synopsis of the program in hopes that others may take interest and pay attention to what these students are achieving, so that more schools might implement the program for their students. It is well worth the time an effort involved. What better way to learn than to have the students apply what they are learning first hand and achieve a workable goal. The teacher is the instructor, guide, mentor, and timeline manager, but  the  project’s success or failure is in the students’ hands. They are the project managers that do all that is needed to see that this vehicle makes it to the pad and then into the sky. If your student makes it to this level, don’t miss out, you want to see this monster fly. It is a proud moment you won’t forget, and even more importantly, neither will your student. Their future begins here, don’t miss out on the chance to support their dreams.

I hope I have done the program justice, as I tried to describe it in a way that might be understood by all and draw some interest. My husband Steve, said I should just say, “Kids make really bad a$$ rockets and launch them at White Sands Missile Range.”

Well he has a point and that is the just of it, but it is really a whole lot more than that!

www.systemsgo.org as always is the place for more information on this program. Take the time to get your school involved, the future of your students will be greatly benefited.

Tune again tomorrow for a schedule of the upcoming launches at White Sands Missile Range this week, and hopefully some daily high lights from the group.

Day 49-Summer Farm Fun Like it Used to Be!

My week was fun and nostalgic for me.

My son has been spending his summer cutting, raking and baling hay. He has wanted to learn this for a long time and just so happened that his girlfriend’s dad needed some help this summer. God bless that rain.

Of course on the down side of this is the place they have been at this week, has rattle snakes, and he has killed two, three foot ones himself, and seen several others. The rattles are currently decorating my kitchen table. There was a small piece of snake on one that he cut off and tried to give to our cats to eat, but they were not having any of that. Seems even in small chunks they know what that is and to stay away from it.

We have made hay at our place this year for the first year in a few as well. My dad baled 109 total and is hoping for another cutting. The first 50 made it to the barn right after they were cut a couple of weeks ago because they were on the barn side of the property, but the other 59 only made it to the edge of the field before it rained again. These were the fields on the other side of the property. We are now in the process of moving them in.

What is fun about all this you may ask? Well, I am glad you did, and if you didn’t, it doesn’t matter because I am going to tell you anyway.

As a girl growing up out here, we raised turkeys (about 100,000 a year), cattle (40 head), and hay (sometimes 1,000 square per cutting, two cuttings a year when things were good). Because of this we were always hauling something, usually turkeys, feed, poop, or hay throughout the months from February to October. Back then I drove tractors and trucks and drug trailers and grain auger trailers for various activities around the farm.

Since the turkey plant burned in 1999, they have become a complete thing of the past. In case you haven’t noticed, I am not lamenting that very much, at least not for me, but my kids could have used a healthy dose of it some of those summers they complained of having nothing to do.  They could have enjoyed dust so thick you can’t see,  poop slung in your mouth, eyes, hair, face, other places by a flopping turkey, staying up all night loading out birds during a thunderstorm, getting up at 3:00 am to unload baby  birds; albeit, they were at least cute at that stage (the turkeys, not the kids, kids are not cute when they are woke up at 3:00 in the morning, trust me I remember, I was one of them).

The whole ranch smelled like crap all the time because dad used turkey poop for fertilizer on his hay fields. He used to say that nasty smell smelled like money. I told him he needed to wash his wallet more often, in bleach or some sort of industrial cleaner. He probably should have burned the wallet and got a new one each year.

Because of all this, tractors, truck and trailers were part of my daily routine. In fact I think it was a requirement of being in my dad’s family. Mom always said that dad should have married a man and had three boys, but instead he married her and had one boy and two girls which were quickly converted to a country wife and two tomboys. If there was a boy or man around that could do something out there, then we three ladies, and I use that term loosely, had better be able to do it too, or better. What about my brother? Well, he was/is a guy so that was just a given.

My dad taught all of us to drive tractors to haul feed to the pens, pick-up trucks to haul turkeys, feed, hay, fence posts, and whatever else needed hauling around the farm, and to pull trailers to haul hay out of the fields, as well as grain trailers to feed turkeys in the range  pens. We drove manual and automatic transmission vehicles. It was farm life, and just part of what we did. Trust me, there are many stories that can go along with these activities as well, but they are for another time.

Anyway, as I seem to have taken the long way around to the story of my week, the point is, I used to drive tractors for my dad and help with hay as a youth, but there really hasn’t been much call for me to do so in quite some time. The turkeys went away, and hay bales went from square to round. So the only real call to drive a tractor is when hay is being moved or cows are being fed.  Due to this, I haven’t driven the tractor in probably 27 years give or take.  Usually my dad, my husband or my son does whatever things need to be done that requires a tractor. Of course, I plan to change that because with my son working and not always around, and my dad getting up there in years, he’s 85, and my husband being on call for his job, it may mean that occasionally I will be the only one around to do what needs to be done.

It would seem I have gotten side “tractored” again, pardon the pun, but I couldn’t help myself. Of course that in a way is exactly what I did. In preparation to move the bales to the barn, we walked over to the field where the tractor had been left after moving the bales off to the side, so that the field could be fertilized. From there, Steve drove and I rode standing up on the side all the way back across the pasture and over to the barn. It was a blast. I haven’t done that in so long I can’t even remember the last time. I don’t know what it is, but there is something so mentally relaxing about just riding along on a tractor.  I have to laugh at myself too, because the song, “She Thinks My Tractor’s Sexy,” kept running through my head.

That was just such an enjoyable, relaxing evening. I am ready to do it again.

Last night, Steve borrowed Bryan Moellering’s larger tractor to load the bales onto Steve’s goose neck trailer, and then my dad used his tractor to load them into the barn after we brought them over and literally push rolled them off the trailer. That is a task that sounds easier than it is. Thank goodness Steve parked the trailer on a downhill slope to let gravity help. Even with that it took some doing. It’s kind of funny, because you think big round object, it should roll. Fifteen hundred pounds doesn’t roll easy, round or not. Once it hits the ground, there is no budging it, especially if it is a little dip. Nope, it is just not happening. Thank goodness for the tractor.

My phone camera does not do selfie’s because the camera is on the wrong side, so I could not get a picture of Steve and I riding on the tractor across the pasture Wednesday evening. Therefore, I took a picture of White Lightning loaded down with eight bales of hay as we moved them last evening. I wish I could have also captured the eight deer that were further down the field past the hay bales grazing, totally uncaring about us and all the noise we were making. Anyway, Lightning gets the prize, he gets to be my story cover photo, and he worked hard and has more to do, so he deserves it.

The fun begins again this evening as Steve gets off work, and then I will catch up to him when I get off. I am just a bail guide in the field when he is loading them on the trailer, and a pusher when we are unloading, but it’s fun. It reminds me of the old days of summer from my youth. Kids miss out on so much not having 100’s of square bales to haul each summer. We would haul the hay, and then go jump in the creek afterwards. Now that was a summer day!

Day 45-Monday Again

It’s Monday again, and the day after Father’s Day.

We spent ours with the family at my parents’ house. My parents had their kids there and two grand kids, but other than my sister, the rest of us didn’t have any of our kids around. That made the group smaller and a bit quieter, but we still had fun and had a lot of laughs.

We made home-made ice cream, one peach and one vanilla batch. That was the high light of the day and was it good! We all probably enjoyed a little too much of it. Kim brought eating entertainment with color changing spoons she found. They change color when exposed to cold and heat. Obviously we were easily entertained, but it led to its own jokes and silliness.

It rained a couple of times during the day, and so we ended the day with a double rainbow to watch fill the sky right before we all headed home for the day. It was a nice day.

This week doesn’t look to eventful at the moment. Steve goes off call today, so he will probably catch up on sleep. Brett loves his job working hay fields. He can’t wait to go to work each day. Literally, I jest not, he starts fussing when it doesn’t come soon enough in the day for him. I am glad he enjoys it. I just hope he stays safe. He already killed a rattle snake, and the rattle is still lying on my kitchen table.

It’s definitely a Monday though, I keep doing goofy things. The best one so far, I tried to use my car fob to open my cash drawer at work. It was a conscious mind, subconscious mind thing, because as I’m doing this and my conscious mind is thinking why isn’t it responding? I can literally hear my sub conscious mind practically yelling in my head, “What are you doing?”

Then I just had to laugh and shake my head.

 

Day 41-June 19-21, Fredericksburg Area Festival and Event Update

To start, the house has really been quiet since both the girls are back at their places again. We had a wonderful visit and I already can’t wait to see them both again. Of course that will be about 6 months for Kasey, possibly Christmas time.

Chelsea will be in and out some during the summer months. She will actually be in for the Goddard rocket shoot at WSMR in July. Of course she won’t be here much. Hopefully I will get to go along this year, but I am still not sure at this point. The Goddard level rockets are the “big dogs” of this program, hence why they have to haul them to a missile range in New Mexico to test them.

I will probably be doing an informational piece on them closer to the actual date, but if you just can’t wait, as always the address is: www.systemsgo.org

Looking ahead a bit to the rest of the week, there are a whole lot of things going on in Fredericksburg, Stonewall and our great area this week and weekend. The Chamber Calendar is full. Here is a calendar copy and recap.

6/18/2015 Summer Farmers Market “Get Fresh, Buy Local”
6/19/2015 Annual Stonewall Peach JAMboree and Rodeo
6/19/2015 Fredericksburg Trade Days
6/19/2015 Fredericksburg Theater Company presents “Evita”
6/20/2015 Father’s Day Food and Wine Pairing at Rancho Ponte Vineyard
6/20/2015 Thomas Michael Riley Music Festival in Luckenbach
6/20/2015 Cooking Class at Urban Herbal
6/21/2015 Fredericksburg’s Weinstrasse Father’s Day Event

This calendar can be found here: http://www.fredericksburg-texas.com/events/

The next four days really have a little something for almost everyone. Thursday, the Farmer’s Market has lots of fresh items from vegetables, fruits, cheeses, canned good, Gulf Shrimp, pizzas, live music and a relaxed atmosphere to enjoy while you shop. For more information on this weekly summer event here is the address: http://www.fbgfarmersmarket.com/

Friday evening, The Fredericksburg Theater Company begins their summer production of “Evita”, a musical production by Andrew Lloyd Weber and Tim Rice. This story portrays a rag to riches story of an Argentina First Lady. Show dates are Friday and Saturday at 7:30 pm, Sunday at 2:00 pm, and July 4th at 3:00 pm. The theater is located at 1668 S HWY 87. Tickets are $29/Adults and $12/children. For more information call 830-997-3588 or go online at http://www.fredericksburgtheater.org/

For Friday through Sunday, the direction for fun, food, entertainment, festivals, wine and shopping is definitely east. East US Highway 290 houses the locations for most of the places to be and see for the weekend. The Stonewall Peach Jamboree, The Thomas Michael Riley Music Festival, and the Fredericksburg Trade Days begin Friday.

The Fredericksburg Trade Days runs Friday and Saturday, from 9:00 am to 6:00 pm and Sunday from 9:00 to 4:00 pm. Parking is $5 and good for the whole weekend. The venue is located 7 miles East on US Highway 290 across from the Wildseed Farms.  There are over 350 vendors of all kind.  Food, music and refreshments for adults and children are available.  For more information: http://www.fbgtradedays.com/

Luckenbach, Texas hosts the Thomas Michael Riley Music Festival starting Friday at 5:00 pm to 11:45 pm, Saturday from 1:00 pm to 11:45 pm, and continuing on Sunday from 1:00 pm to 5:00 pm. Tickets are $20 for Friday or Saturday night, Sunday afternoon is free.  Twelve different performers, including Larry Joe Taylor, The Wolf Sisters, Jamie Richards, and Cooder Graw will take the stage on hourly intervals ending Friday and Sunday evenings with Thomas Michael Riley. A complete schedule is available at http://www.luckenbachtexas.com/ or http://www.thomasmichaelriley.com/8thannualmusicfestival.html

Stonewall hosts its 54th Annual Peach Jamboree Friday and Saturday. This is a family fun event with nightly CPRA Ram Rodeo and dance featuring Jody Nix on Friday and John Conlee on Saturday. Tickets are $15 Friday, $20 Saturday or a weekend pass for $30. Children ages 3-12 are $5. Entrance to the grounds on Saturday during the day is free. There is a parade, mutton bustin’, Peach Queen Contest, baking preserves, and salsa contest, 42 tournament, washer pitching, Kids patch, BBQ, peach eating and numerous other activities for your daytime entertainment. Rodoes begin at 6:00 pm both nights followed by the dance.  For more information call 830-644-2735 or http://www.stonewalltexas.com/

Saturday from 1:00 pm to 3:00 pm there is a Father’s Day Food and Wine Paring at Rancho Ponte Vineyard at 315 Ranch Road 1376. Cost is $90 and includes demonstration and three food and wine parings with Chef Rachel Ponte. For more information http://www.ranchoponte.com/

Also on Saturday, located at 407 Whitney Street, Urban Herbal presents a cooking class on “Farm Fresh class of Salad, Quiche and Tart”. Reserve your seat in advance. Class starts at 11:00 am at a cost of $75. This recipe session will also include a wine paring for your new do it yourself easy menu. For more information call 830-456-9667 or online at http://www.urbanherbal.com/

If you are at a loss as to what to get Dad for Father’s Day, and he is a wine lover, then, Inwood Estates, Mendelbaum Cellars, and 4.0 Cellars have an event that’s “just for Dad.” They are hosting a mini wine tour event, called Fredericksburg Weinstrasse Father’s Day Event, with wine tastings, food paring and live music. Tickets are $35 and include all three wineries. Visit between noon and 4:00 pm and receive a 19 oz. crystal Bordeaux glass. For more information call 830-997-2304 or visit http://www.fredericksburgweinstrasse.com/

There is an event and entertainment for all ages in Gillespie County and the Fredericksburg, Stonewall area this weekend. Hope to see you at one or perhaps all of them. Have a great weekend.

 

 

Day 26-Yes, I know, I Missed a Few-“For A Little While”

Well, I was a little busy late last week and managed to miss a few days. Plus at first it seemed really hard to follow that last post about the boys. It was and still is such a tragedy for so many reasons. God rest their souls, and God bless their families.

On the lighter and better side of things, I am super happy right now, because I have a very special young lady from the US Navy home right now. My middle daughter, Miss Kasey Burow, is home for a visit. She came in Sunday evening. We had a nice fajita lunch in Austin at my sisters so that her girls could visit with Kasey. We played some games and had a nice time before heading back home for the evening.

We celebrated a late birthday with Kasey when we got home. She finally got to open the rest of her gifts that we didn’t mail to her since she was coming home. She said we should keep them for her visit. Then she and I played a few rounds of Hell, our favorite card game. It was a nice day.

Monday I spent the day with her as well. We got her truck registered here in Texas instead of Virginia, and then went to Kerrville for lunch and shopping. We even caught a movie while we were there, and then came back to town to Dairy Queen for a shared dinner and ice cream with a friend.
Back at home, we played dominoes with her dad for a while. It was another great day.

Today I had to work, but I did have lunch with her and some of her girlfriends. Later her and Cynthia came to the house, I made supper and then we all watched a movie before the girls ran off to town again. It was really nice.

Kasey will be with us until the 10th. Chelsea comes in this weekend and we will all 5 be together doing family things for once. That will be great. It has been a while since the 5 of us have been together on a non-holiday to just spend time without the hustle and bustle of Holiday schedules. Don’t get me wrong I love having them all here for the holidays too, but they are just so planned and scheduled. This time will just be us doing what we want to do. I can’t wait.

For A Little While

My heart beats with joy,
There is no greater day,
For today my baby is home,
No longer so far away.

I see her smile,
I hear her laugh,
And know she is home again,
For at least a little while.

She makes us proud;
Every day she serves with honor,
This country we love so dear;
Showing strength, proud and clear.

For that we thank her;
For being who she is,
A Navy Airman,
And my beloved daughter.

She is part of the 1 percent,
That live in service for us all,
Living and working so far from home;

Answering the call.

But today she is home,
Making me smile
Sharing her heart with us all
For a little while.

By Ginger Burow
6/2/2015

Ok, I know it wasn’t much, but that’s it for tonight.

Day 21- A Memorial to Young Lives Lost Too Soon

I hadn’t planned to write today, I had just planned to take a break for a day. Unfortunately a tragedy occurred that I feel warrants a few words.
Today, as many of you here in Fredericksburg already know, two young men lost their lives in a traffic accident. Two twenty year olds, Brandon Strackbein, and Hayden Pfiester, with their whole life ahead of them, left this world early this morning, in an instant.

There are no words for this really, only shock and despair. I know that when we finally heard the names, my heart dropped into my stomach and my soul just literally ached for them and their parents and families. No parent deserves to live through such a tragedy.

My heart and prayers go out to both boys’ families. I can’t even begin to know what they are feeling, I only know that I wish I could give some sense of peace and understanding which I know is hard right now.

As a community, I know there are literally hundreds of us that are here, crying with them, and lending them whatever support we can that they may need.

Their children’s friends, and their parents loved and miss the boys, and we are all here as a community to surround these families and help. Lean on all of us. Lean on your family, your friends, your boys’ friends, and your community.

As hard as it is right now, because I know understanding at a time like this is near zero, lean on your faith and your Lord. He is here, and He is holding you up in His arms giving you strength, peace, comfort, love, and even joy at knowing His promises are real. Lean on Him, and lean on Him hard, as you gather together and lean on each other.

Friends and community, put aside what you may know or think you know about things and just be there to support and help these families. They are all good, hard-working, families that need every ounce of whatever good you can show them right now. Just be there for them, however you can.

To the Strackbeins, and Pfiesters, and their extended families, may God bless and keep you, may He give you His strength, may He bathe you in peace, and the joy that comes from knowing that your boys are with Him now. Even though, they are physically gone from your sight, they are forever in your hearts and memories, and in the hearts and memories of everyone that knew them.

Share those memories with each other and keep the good things alive through these memories. Share your love for them and one another with their families. Nothing else matters now except supporting these families and each other through these next few weeks.

God bless them and all who knew and loved them.

Day 20-Rocket Recovery Teams

What would a rocket launch be without a bunch of crazy, fun-loving, competitive people willing to trompe through water, mud, trees, tall grass, and thick underbrush in order to see who can recover the most rockets and bring them back to smiling students? And let’s not forget encounter, pigs, snakes, ants, wasps, bees, chiggers, mosquitos, cows, cup eating donkeys, and any manor of small animals that run out from under foot unexpectedly.

This crews hardest job, is not locating and recovering the rockets, but instead getting the compass to give an accurate azimuth, (sometimes they stick), and inputting the coordinates in the Garman in time to beat the other team to the location.

Finding the rockets depends a lot on good coordinates, a good sense of direction, good eye balling of where you saw it go down, and a whole lot of pure luck.

A perfect launch and recovery deployment can put the vehicle almost back in easy distance and sight to find. On the other hand a high altitude deployment can carry the rocket for a long time, making what  looks like right over there, end up to be a few pastures over, which entails a whole lot of walking and searching. And of course a ballistic landing means searching and digging.

No matter the circumstances, each rocket is a valuable learning tool for each class, and the ultimate goal of these teams is to recover all of it they can, and return it to those students.

Quite honestly, the recovery teams, probably have the most fun, and least stressful job of the group. Most of them are repeat crew members from year to year and wouldn’t miss it given the chance.

They all work closely with the Rocket Cops Crew, who also lend their ears, eyes, and communications to the teams on the ground. Officer Braxton Roemer coordinates the recovery teams.

This years’ teams included: Team 1, Jeff and Tina Landis; Team 2, Jerry and Judith Luckenbach; Team 3, Barry and Ann Bradley; Team 4, Steve and Ginger Burow; Team 5, Todd and Troy Kneese; Team 6, Guy Chadwick, Brett Burow, and Brittany Beisert ; Team 7, Freddie Kruse. There was also a 3 person team from Alpha Search and Recovery out of Houston that was here to observe, and helped in place of Team 7 on Sunday.

This group works and plays hard the whole weekend. They love to have fun while out there searching and recovering rockets. They are each here because they want to help SystemsGo and the students be successful and they all take that very seriously.

Thank you recovery teams for being a vital and important part of the project. This year this group had 97% recovery rate for all the rockets launched. Congratulations and thank you all for all your hard work.

www.systemsgo.org as always is the place for more information on this program. Take the time to get your school involved, the future of your students will be greatly benefited.

Day 19-Keeping Rockets Live

Three people devote their time out at these launches, to keeping Rockets live. They even have a trailer out there that houses a broadcasting “mission control” to ensure that all live streaming and uplinks stay active.

Zack Pooser is the main force behind allowing internet communications to go out on live streaming to everyone with a desire to watch that cannot be there. His broadcasting control trailer keeps the launch site connected.

Phil Houseal provides daily interviews with staff, students, visitors, Embry Riddle University reps, and volunteers, giving short insights to those watching as to how this program works, who is involved in it and why. He catches the stories behind the scenes that might not otherwise be heard or told about each type of experience and involvement for those in the program in one way or another.

Joyce Bk Abbey is the voice of rockets. She is the voice everyone hears commanding the attention of spectators before, during and after each launch, whether on site or watching on Livestream. She engages the students as they wait and watch for their vehicle to lift off and be recovered.

This crew of individuals is responsible for keeping rockets open for all to see during these launch weekends. They do a wonderful job of sharing this experience with everyone. They are rockets’ broadcasting extraordinaire.

Thank you all for all your hard work. 

www.systemsgo.org as always is the place for more information on this program. Take the time to get your school involved, the future of your students will be greatly benefited.

 

Day 18-Stage 1 & 2-Flight Readiness Crew

Today I want to continue my series of thank yous for all those that helped with the SystemsGo Rockets 2015 launches. I still have a few groups to send these out to, so bear with me, I am trying not to leave anyone out. Each and every participant, is a vital necessity to keeping the program operating to the best possible potential.

The crew in the spot light today, is the group that each school’s students meet up with first. This group sets up shop at the Willow City Fire Station, and the Willow City School and Community Center.

This is where the work begins to qualify each vehicle for flight. Small repairs that are needed and can still be made at this point in order to prepare it for flight are also done here.

The crews at Stage 1 and 2 have the responsibility of determining if the vehicle can be tested safely, and if it is completely ready. They have to determine if the guidelines and specifications given to the classes ahead of time have been met correctly. They do this by following a check list called the “Flight Readiness Review.”

Each vehicle must pass this set of checks and balances to be approved to move on to Stage 3 and ultimately to the launch pad. This crew also has the occasional unpleasant job of having to inform a group that a vehicle has been declined for flight due to simply not being ready or that it has some factor that has caused it to be deemed unsafe to fly at this time.

This doesn’t happen often, but it does happen. They try their best to help and correct whatever can be corrected, so that all vehicles will get their opportunity to fly. They never want to disappoint the students, these guys want more than anything to help and see everyone get to a successful test. But, safety and readiness have to come first.

They probably have one of the hardest and sometimes unpopular positions there, but at the same time it is very rewarding for them when the can safely approve the rockets for the next stage. When all the rockets for the day have moved past Stage 1 and 2, then this crew comes to mission control to see where they can further assist the group for the rest of the day.

They have a long day because they usually have schools waiting as early as 5:00 in the morning to have their rockets checked.

This group really deserves a big thank you for all they do. This year’s Stage 1 and 2 operatives were, Captain Gene Garrett, Doug Kimball, Pete Jenson, Harold Vanick, David Miller, and Danny Bell. Great job, gentlemen on another successful year.

www.systemsgo.org as always is the place for more information on this program. Take the time to get your school involved, the future of your students will be greatly benefited.

Day 17-Hill Country Flooding

Ok, a short change of subject for today. I still have some thank yous to throw out there for rockets, but we have another subject for today.

How about that rain? Facebook is literally “flooded” with pictures and videos of flooding from all the rain this evening. It looks as though, as usual, Gillespie county has been mostly spared.

Comfort has reported at least 5+ inches and the Guadalupe River and Cypress Creek are flooding. Videos show the bridge coming into town off I-10 crossing the junction where the river and Cypress Creek meet and it is well past flood stage. Comfort has multiple outages and CTEC crews have been in the area since around 2:00 this afternoon.

Boerne has reported flooding in town, along Flat Rock Creek, and River Road. One video even showed a small car being swept away and rolling over at Tapatio in Boerne. No report on the outcome of the folks in that car.

The Blanco River in Blanco is encroaching on houses on the banks and well as the river bridge on 281. A flood emergency has been issued for  areas along the banks of this river in the Wimberly. This area  has been designated devastating and life-threatening and residents in this area have been advised to seek higher ground. This river is now 17 feet above flood stage.

The Llano River is flooding over the dam in Llano. Kingsland’s Slab road is well out of its banks and over the bridge. Lake Marble Falls is above flood stage and downstream as at Starke Dam the flood gates have been opened to allow release for the first time in quite a long while.

The Pedernales at Johnson City is at dangerous levels as well and is best avoided.

Rain has been falling for several hours and accumulation reports vary from one to as much as 8 inches in some areas. Most creeks, rivers and streams are affected and caution needs to be exercised when out driving. The ground in most areas is already saturated and run off will continue as rain continues. The first and larger band of storms is passing to the east, but another line is forming and moving this way. Storms are expected to begin again during the overnight. Because the ground is already wet more flooding can and most likely will occur.

The Weather Service has extended the Flood Warning for Blanco and Gillespie County until 6:15 Sunday morning.