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 GREELY, Colorado USA — Future astronauts took center stage at the 2007 Weld County Fair on Wednesday. The Model Rocket Fly Day attracted about 25 entries and featured model rockets 8-10 inches in length to those upwards of 6 feet tall.
Weld 4-H'ers were judged on the construction of their rocket, range safety while launching them, flight stability, parachute deployment and the rocket's landing in relation to its launch site — the closer it returned to earth to its launch site resulted in higher points. And one of the earlier flights, by Donovan Thomalla, 11, of Ault, returned to earth in the maximum point range of zero to 10 yards, a near perfect flight. Not bad for a first effort. "This is my first year in 4-H. I just saw it as a fun thing to do and a good learning experience," said Donovan, a Wyatt 4-H Club member. The rocket he flew was one of two he built for this year's fair, but said it probably won't be his last and he indicated that being an astronaut might be in his future. Cody Pfleiderer, 14, of Kersey, spent the better part of two weeks getting a replica of the SR-71 Blackbird built for the fly day. The sleek, black spy plane rolled off the launch pad much like a space shuttle launch, roared skyward then popped its parachute as the solid fuel rocket burned out. He's a member of the Box Elder 4-H Club. "I just hoped it would deploy right and everything would work, and it did. It worked just like I wanted it to," Cody said. He said he's built almost 15 rockets since joining 4-H, but the one he flew Wednesday was the hardest to date. The model was dye cast with several different pieces being glued one at a time. Then the entire model was covered with a light, cardboard skin before it could be painted and all the proper decals attached. He's been building rockets for the last five or six years. "This is the first year I've been in Unit 3 and I'll stay there unless I win a unit championship, then I'll have to move up next year," Cody said. Each unit requires more advanced rocketry in the 4-H program. Cody plans to stay with the project throughout his 4-H career, then come back and help with it once he's older, which would fit in with his goal of becoming a teacher. Andrew Gaona, 13, of the Calico 'N Jeans 4-H Club of Johnstown had the biggest rocket, the 6-foot high "Mean Machine," that he said took about two days to build. He had a perfect launch and the big rocket almost went out of sight before deploying its parachute. A breeze kicked up at about the same time so it drifted about 50 yards from the launch pad, but Andrew was happy. "That was neat. I hoped it would fly that good," he said. Copyright © 2007, The Greely Tribune. |
VIDEO: Video from Weld County Fair. 
