On Saturday June 13th, the Cambridge Rocket Club completed it’s fourth launch of the season. Approximately 50 people showed up to take in the launch under partly cloudy skies, warm temperatures and winds gusting at times. We had the full CRC launch system and flight card registration systems up and running for this event.
The launch featured two rockets launched to celebrate the lives of two club members that passed away in 2025. John Pershick was honoured by flying his Maxi Alpha 3 rocket on a D.12-3 engine. Mike Dennett was honoured by flying his S2P model with a D.12-5 engine. Both rockets flew perfectly as the crowd estimated at about 50 people respectfully cheered on the flights. I have attached a couple of cell phone videos of the launches and hope to have some high quality photos later.
We had 25 club members including four new members and two guests fly their rockets with us. we flew a large number of sport rockets, scale, two stage and cluster rockets. We also had a number of rockets carrying on-board technology such as altimeters, chute releases and GPS trackers. With thanks to John Pershicks’ daughters, the launches also included the giving away of 28 model rockets belonging to the late John Pershick. These flight proven rockets were flown and given new homes to the people that recovered them, I believe that just about every youngster present brought home at least one or more rockets to add to their collection. We also managed to give away about 10 model rocket kits and a number of assorted engines from John’s collection.
By the end of the day, we managed to fly 78 model rockets and burn 104 model rockets with a theoretical total impulse of 2,465 Newtons. A good time was had by all. I want to thank Bill Gee, Michael Robbins, Jeff Mensch and my son Nicholas for all of their help in running this event.
Our next scheduled launch is on Saturday July 11th and it will include an Open Parachute Spot Landing contest sponsored by the Canadian Rocket Store. The first place winner will receive a $75. gift certificate as well as have their 2027 CRC membership dues paid for. The second place winner will receive a $50. gift certificate and the third place winner will receive a $25. gift certificate. The contest is tentative subject to getting a sufficient number of participants. It is a very simple contest to fly. All you need is a model rocket that does not go very high on a small engine that comes down on a parachute and lands near a target about 60 metres away from the launch pad. I will be requesting that those interested in competing pre-register prior to the launch to confirm the number of participants. Give it a try and join in the fun.