Rockets 2018- Fredericksburg Launches Start in Willow City, Thursday

The SystemsGo team has returned from the Jal Launches of Rockets 2018, and immediately transitioned to Willow City on Monday as launches begin there Thursday for Fredericksburg Rockets 2018. Launches at the Stewart’s Hillview Ranch in Willow City will only be 3 days this year, Thursday, April 26 through Saturday, April 28. Teams are already well into all the preparation to make this another fantastic event.

This testing site covers the Fredericksburg and Hill Country area schools and all Texas schools not participating in the Houston launches. Currently there are 66 rockets scheduled for launch by 24 schools at that location.

Launches will begin Thursday through Saturday at approximately 8:30 a.m. and will last at least through 5:30 p.m. each day, wind weather and rocket readiness provided.

Phil  Houseal will be providing Livestream from the site again this year so friends and family can watch the action online if they cannot attend the event. Joyce BK Abbey the voice of rockets will be keeping us informed and up to date throughout each day, as well as providing Rocket Trivia,  and her special brand of on site entertainment. Be sure to also watch for interviews with the rocket teams.

Texas Concessions will be providing food, snacks, and refreshments at the launch site once again this year. Restrooms will be available on site as well.

There is an 80% chance of rain Wednesday evening, so be prepared for damp conditions on the range on Thursday if that actually materializes. Of course they still have a 10% chance in for Thursday too, but then all that may change again, because as we all know Texas weather doesn’t live by the weather man’s predictions. Therefore, it is always best to be prepared for all conditions as it may be cold in the morning, hot in the afternoon, windy, rainy, or sunny.  Sunscreen, rain gear and a chair are recommended. Also be advised that weather will play a factor in launch time availability and may cause delays. Please be patient.

Please remember that since there is public access to this event, there are registration tickets for order and those may be found on the SystemsGo website as well at this  link:  https://www.greateventseats.com/SystemsGo . They are FREE, but REQUIRED. There is a waiver for admission you will sign along with your admittance ticket. You can get them at the gate but it is strongly advised to do this online ahead of time so that you do not slow yourself or anyone else down getting onto the range. This could cause you and others to miss your intended launches.

Here is the link to the live stream again. https://livestream.com/systemsgo

Map links to the site in both PDF and Google graphics are on the SystemsGo website at the following link:

http://www.systemsgo.org/events/

But just in case here is a picture of the PDF style map:

And here is the PDF  map link and Google graphic map link to the site as well.

Pictures  will be available here in this blog and in Facebook albums for you to view at the end of each days launches.  Phil and SystemsGo will be posting throughout the event on Facebook as well. Links to both our Facebook pages are below.

https://www.facebook.com/ginger.burow

https://www.facebook.com/SystemsGoEducation/

Here is the schedule of schools launching Thursday. It boasts 10 schools and 19 rockets:

Thursday, April 26, 2018
School Name / Teacher 1/1 Trans
Fredericksburg HS
Andrew Matthes
2
Granger HS
Chaston Kubacak
1
Hamilton HS
Tom Parrish
1
Harleton HS
Hayland Hardy
1 1
Henrietta HS
Sarah Dickey
1 1
Hollenstein CTC
Rick Griffith
3
Maypearl HS
Allex Wilson
1
New Diana HS
Shawn Warden
1
Roosevelt HS
Jared Warsing
2 1
Union Grove HS
Greg Park
2 1
10
Schools Launching
Totals 9 10
Total Rockets                 19

I will post each days schedules in this blog. They can also be found in original format on the SystemsGo website Events page.

More event details will be available here after the completion of Saturday’s event.

If you follow this program and like to view the launches, Rockets 2018  will continue with one more launch series at this level in May. This launch will be held in Smith Point just south of Anahuac, Texas for schools in the Houston area, on the weekend of May 11-13, 2018.  They currently have 56 vehicles scheduled for test by 15 schools at this site.  If you have been to the Houston area launches in the past you may want to check out the SystemsGo website for information because this location is only in its second year for that area. Information and a map link are available. This launch will also be available on Livestream and the link is listed above.

The senior/graduate groups are tentatively scheduled to launch their Goddard level rockets at White Sands Missile Range (WSMR) in New Mexico in late June.  These are not available for public viewing or Livestream due to being tested on a military facility, but blog and SystemsGo updates will be posted online as available during that week.

More event details will be available here in upcoming days as events get closer. Daily reports featuring schedules, school names, results, pictures and some editorial content will be posted during the events.

www.systemsgo.org as always is the place for more information on this program. You may also email them at info@systemsgo.org . Take the time to get your school involved, the future of your students will be greatly benefited.

Hope to see you at the races, nope, but I will race you for a rocket!  #RideTheSky! #Launcher01 #ItISrocketScience #Rockets2018

Your local Recovery Team rocket Junkie wishes all the schools and students a picture perfect flight and recovery.

 

 

Rockets 2017-Friday Day 2 Report and Saturday Schedule

Friday had another slow start for rockets. The ceiling was a low again. SystemsGo was able to load 24 out of 25 rockets listed on the schedule onto the rails and launched all 24.The 25th was an abort by one of the schools.

Here are a few of those smiling faces taking their rockets down to the pad.

The north end of the range seemed to be the prime spot for landings today, which kept recovery in that area fairly busy. Unfortunately that left those of us on the south end a little bored so we went to help our northern friends quite often. So then how many recovery teams does it take to find one rocket?

As is normal, Transonics amassed most of those still missing in the field. They also made up the bulk of the final ones shot due to waiting on that cloud ceiling to clear. Coordinates for those have been generated, and the search is ongoing.

David Willden and the group from New Mexico helped out until around noon when they had to launch themselves back towards home. There help was greatly appreciated, and for them it was also further training for next year’s second launch series in Jal.

Phil Houseal was busy interviewing spectators, students and volunteers today. He even managed to catch me and coerce me into another interview this year. We seem to have a continued game between us. We both prefer to be behind the camera instead of in the pictures, so I make sure to catch him and get him in the pictures I post, and he catches me and makes me talk on camera.

Tomorrow is another big day on the range, with a full docket of rockets and extra curricular activities after launches are done as well. It will be a busy and long day. It should be fun though. Hopefully the cloud ceiling will open up earlier so we can start those rockets in a more continuous pattern. And the rain can hold off until after dark and all will be good.

Below is the launch schedule for tomorrow, Saturday. There are 7 schools launching a total of 22 rockets tomorrow.

Saturday, May 20, 2017
School
Name
# 1st Level
Tsiolkovsky
# 2nd Level
Oberth
Akins High School
Joyce Sayce
5
Fabens High School
Manny Moreno
3 2
Henrietta High School
Doug Underwood
2 1
Maypearl High School
James Herrod
1
McGregor High School
Chris Kuhl
1 1
North Lamar High School
Kathy Stewart
1
Northwest High School
Elizabeth Mitias
4 1
7
Schools Launching
Totals 17 5
May 14th Total Rockets 22

 

The following is a link to the album of pictures from today’s launch. Have a look you and your school rocket just might be in there.

https://www.facebook.com/ginger.burow/media_set?set=a.1477962108891582.1073741889.100000334203350&type=3&uploaded=221

Good luck to all the schools launching on Saturday. I will update the blog after we complete our day again tomorrow. Here is the link to the live stream again.

http://livestream.com/systemsgo

Please remember that although there is no charge for the event, and these launches are open to public viewing, parking and seating is limited due to safety requirements. For this reason, SystemsGo has a provided a link for you to pre-order tickets for those in your party. This also provides SystemsGo with a way to monitor the number of people in attendance each year. This is in no way meant to discourage your attendance, but is instead to help them provide a great experience for students and spectators, while doing all possible to monitor safety issues and attendance numbers at any one time during the launches.

http://www.systemsgo.org/events/

Event details will be available here each day of the event. Daily reports featuring schedules, school names, results, pictures and some editorial content will also be posted.

www.systemsgo.org as always is the place for more information on this program. You may also email them at info@systemsgo.org .Take the time to get your school involved, the future of your students will be greatly benefited.

#SystemsGo #Rockets2017 #FredericksburgSTEMAcademy #Launcher01 #SystemsGoNewMexico

Fredericksburg Rockets 2016-Thursday Day 1 Report & Friday Schedule

Thursday went well. It started off a little slow due to a rain delay and low ceiling. Fortunately, it burned off by lunch time and launches started lining up quickly.  We had a little issue with  quite a few coming down ballistic so that made recovery difficult on some where there wasn’t much visual or tracking. All in all we still had an 80% recovery rate with only 4 left in the field. Hopefully they will still be recovered before the end of the weekend.

This year is a special treat for us. We have a third party in our recovery team. Our Navy daughter is home on leave, and joined us to work recovery. We had a real good time. There was a lot of goofing around during breaks in the action. Her dad and her were quite entertaining to watch as they had plant war, trying to pelt each other with beggers lice bushes, and other burr covered plants.

Once again SystemsGo has a truly talented group of team members and volunteers that put full effort into a great experience for all the students involved.

We have a shadow group from New Mexico this year. They have recently come online with the program and are helping in all areas to try to learn and mimic what we do here in order to  replicate it in New Mexico starting next year. Here’s a great shout out to them and their group, it is wonderful to have them here and on board with SystemsGo.

Below is the launch schedule for tomorrow, Friday. There are 8 schools launching a total of 25 rockets tomorrow.

Friday, May 13, 2016
School
Name
# 1st Level
Tsiolkovsky
# 2nd Level
Oberth
Akins High School
John Sayce
6
Fabens High School
Manny Moreno
3 1
Hardin-Jefferson High School
Mike Fogo
2 1
Hollenstein Career & Tech Center
Richard Griffith
2 2
Maypearl High School
James Herrod
1
McGregor High School
Chris Kuhl
1 1
Tom Moore (Ingram) High School
David Bunch
2
Union Grove High School
Greg Park
2 1
Schools Launching  8
Totals 19 6
May 13th Total Rockets 25

The following is a link to the album of pictures from today’s launch. Have a look you and your school rocket just might be in there.

https://www.facebook.com/ginger.burow/media_set?set=a.1137664469588016.1073741862.100000334203350&type=3

 

Good luck to all the schools launching on Friday. If I get a chance to do some updates during the day tomorrow , then I will but don’t count on it. It will probably just be one at the end of day. Here is the link to the live stream again.

http://livestream.com/accounts/3165037/events/5367166

Please remember that although there is no charge for the event, and these launches are open to public viewing, parking and seating is limited due to safety requirements. For this reason, SystemsGo has a provided a link for you to pre-order tickets for those in your party. This also provides SystemsGo with a way to monitor the number of people in attendance each year. This is in no way meant to discourage your attendance, but is instead to help them provide a great experience for students and spectators, while doing all possible to monitor safety issues and attendance numbers  at any one time during the launches.

https://www.greateventseats.com/events.php?lID=92

Event details will be available here each day of the event. Daily reports featuring schedules, school names, results, pictures and some editorial content will also be posted.

www.systemsgo.org as always is the place for more information on this program. You may also email them at info@systemsgo.org .Take the time to get your school involved, the future of your students will be greatly benefited.

Day 9-Fredericksburg Rocket Launches Day 2, Rain, Sun, and Rockets

We awoke to rain this morning. The gauge at my house showed and inch and 40 points. This made for a wonderfully cool start to the day. It stayed cloudy a good part of the day, but the ceiling lifted so that we were a go for launches,

We actually started the day by locating a rocket we had all searched for numerous times yesterday to no avail. We decided to make a pass by the tank in the back, and there it was just waiting to be found. This made five finds for us for Thursday’s rockets. Today was a different story though. None of the rockets were in our area, and though we did search for several, we ended the day with two nose cones, and then we helped Team Five recover one we had walked right past earlier and they had gone back and found.

The Recovery Teams were all having a great time. We do get a little competitive and do all love to find the rocket first, but at the same time we all search well together. Recovery is the name of the game, and  finding and returning those rockets to the students is the main objective. We have a really awesome group of recovery volunteers, and we really enjoy working with each one of them. They are a fun group. Of course, the whole SystemsGo organization is like this, they all work hard, and have fun while they are accomplishing the goal of the weekend.

Mission Control launched 21 rockets today  and only had 2 others that didn’t pass to the final stage to launch. Recovery located and returned all but two back to the students, and those are still being sought after.

Mid way through the day, the clouds burned off and rewarded us with  a bright blue sky to continue launching. The schools involved in today’s launches included: Fabens High School, RL Turner High School, Marble Falls High School, Akins High School, Maypearl High School, North Lamar High School, Tom Moore High School, and University High School. Once again I want to extend congratulations to each of these schools and their students for a successful program in making it here with their vehicle, and a successful launch.

Tomorrow, Saturday May 16, there are 20 more launches scheduled.  Following is the launch schedule which can also be downloaded and the SystemsGo website, which is www.systemsgo.org .

Saturday, May 16, 2015
School
Name
# 1st Level
Tsiolkovsky
# 2nd Level
Oberth
Alamo Heights High School
Colin Lang
3
Fort Stockton High School (Midland)
Jim Hatcher
5
Henrietta High School
Doug Underwood
1 1
McGregor High School
Chris Kuhl
2
Northwest High School
Ashley Mitias
4 2
Union Grove High School
Greg Park
1 1
6
Schools Launching
Totals 13 7
May 16th Total Rockets 20

Tomorrow is a very  special day in our family in that our other wonderful daughter, Kasey Burow, turns 20. She is in the Navy, stationed in Norfolk, VA. She was also a STEM student and built and launched rockets here in Willow City as well with her classmates. She is now an Avionics Structural Mechanic, working on Sea Dragon Helicopters.  She is planning to take courses through Embry Riddle University to pursue an Engineering Degree as well.  We are so extremely proud of her and all she is doing. I hope you have a Happy Birthday tomorrow Kasey. We all love you.  Don’t  worry you will hear about it again tomorrow as well, I would never let you off the hook this easy on your birthday.

Look for more pictures from today’s launch on Facebook and be sure to come back for more high lights. Have a wonderful evening.

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.