Rocketry Planet

Kansas State University student Amy Howell became the youngest female member of the Tripoli Rocketry Association to certify Level 3 last Tuesday. Photo: Terry Smemo.

ARGONIA, Kansas USA — A growing folk story is winding its way out of the Kansas heartland about a young lady who would go on to become the youngest female member of the Tripoli Rocketry Association to certify Level 3, an event that occurred over the Labor Day weekend and the LDRS national launch.

Amy Howell, TRA# 11096, hails from Linn, Kansas, and is a member of the Kloudbusters rocket club. She turned 20 on June 20th of this year, and has been flying rockets since she was a youngster.

"I got started in rocketry when I was really young," Howell stated during an interview, where she explained how she and her brother would build and fly Estes rocket kits. "He grew out of rocketry but I never did."

Howell is like many of America's youth, being interested in football, softball and basketball. But her interests also include space and space exploration, particularly rocketry. She is currently a student at Kansas State University, where she is a junior majoring in Mechanical Engineering, with plans to graduate in 2011.

Howell was surrounded by onlookers all weekend as her project took on a life of its own. She was rewarded for her hard work with a successful flight. Photo: Terry Smemo.

"When I get out of college, I plan to go to work for an aerospace company, or hopefully NASA," Howell said.

Her path to the Kloudbusters began while still a junior in high school, where one of her co-workers she met at the Kansas Cosmosphere and Space Center in Hutchinson, Kansas, turned out to be a member of the club. And, she was building a high power rocket. After talking about the project, Howell ended up going with the co-worker to a Kloudbusters launch, where she says she fell in love with the hobby. Howell would go on to building her own rockets, joining Kloudbusters, and at the age of 18, she got her Tripoli Level 1 and Level 2 certifications.

Howell had been considering building her Level 3 certification project over the summer, to fly it at LDRS 27 since the Kloudbusters were hosting the annual event. "I figured it would be perfect," Howell said. However, her summer job wasn't as cooperative, demanding more of her time than she had expected, which totally stagnated her project.

The stress of a Level 3 certification attempt is just horrible. Here, Bernie LaLime of Florida offers a stimulating brain massage to soothe Amy's jittery nerves. Photo: Lance Lickteig.

But she showed up at LDRS anyway, and committed herself to working RSO duty at the LDRS 27 range head, and while there she met and worked range safety with TRA TAP member Debra Koloms from New York, who it turns out will be one of the hosts of next year's LDRS event. Koloms and Howell began talking, where it came up about Amy's plan to certify Level 3 at the event, but that she wasn't able to complete her rocket over summer break.

Koloms' response? That there were plenty of TAP members on hand and that Howell should build her rocket during the event weekend, and make her certification flight. Koloms even agreed to sponsor Amy by donating to the cost of the motor for the flight. Koloms then rounded up a second TAP member, James Russell, who seconded the recommendation.

Wasting no time, Howell headed over to the Giant Leap Rocketry tent and bought the parts she would need to build her rocket. Her Level 2 rocket, a 6" bird that had already successfully flown numerous times, would donate the avionics and nose section of the rocket, so what she needed was a new booster section, and Giant Leap equipped her to do just that.

At GO:thirty, the Loki M1882 roared to life, sending the rocket into the sunny Kansas sky. Photo: Lance Lickteig.

With parts in hand, Howell retreated to Wichita, where she converged on the home of Kloudbusters member Bob Block, taking over his garage and setting to work. Fins were cut and fiberglassed, then set aside to dry before being assembled the next day into a new fin canister and motor mount assembly.

"She became a phenom of LDRS," said Darren Wright of Loki Research. "And many of the day's participants stopped in to offer their encouragement." Wright, after hearing about her attempt, agreed to provide her with an M1882 for her certification flight, a 6300ns 76mm motor. Between Wright of Loki and Mark Logan of the Science Education Center, Howell's certification attempt would indeed fly, while member Mike Tyson agreed to let Amy borrow his Loki 7600ns motor casing for the flight.

With propulsion resolved, Howell went back to the task of getting her booster assembled and applying the epoxy fin fillets. With no time for fancy paint, Howell agreed to "fly naked," something her parents shouldn't worry about — it just meant her rocket would fly without the benefit of a pretty paint job. And her hard work paid off, with the rocket being ready to fly by Monday afternoon. She was ready to launch.

And up, and up, and up, and ... Photo: Lance Lickteig.

Assisted by Susan Lickteig, daughter of Kloudbusters President Lance Lickteig, Howell began packing everything inside, to head to the pads.

"Once I got it all ready and was headed to RSO, my TAP members came over and started asking me all of their questions," Howell said. "We got to talking and decided that I needed to set the Mach delay on my Co-pilot altimeter." With only 30 minutes left before the range closed, Amy decided to wait until Tuesday morning to press the button.

"Tuesday morning, Susan helped me again by pulling everything out of my rocket and helping me to get my altimeter out to set the Mach delay," Howell added. "Once I got that done, Susan and I repacked everything into the rocket and we took the rocket over to RSO."

After getting the rocket RSOed, Kloudbuster Mike Dickinson agreed to shuttle Howell's rocket out to the pad, so is was loaded into the back of his Suburban and the team headed out. Once there, Howell, with help from Dickinson and Bob Block loaded the rocket on the rail and got it pointed in the right direction.

Full recovery has never looked so good. Photo: Lance Lickteig.

After arming the altimeter and putting the igniter in her motor, Howell headed back to the LCO table to watch her rocket launch. It had all come down to this, the whirlwind weekend, where she built her Level 3 rocket in between working event range duty. She was rewarded with a perfect flight to 9,144 feet, and with little to no wind, her rocket landed about 150 feet from the west end of spectator parking.

Collecting her capable assistant Susan, Amy made the short trek to retrieve her rocket. "It was all still in great shape," Howell declared, "nothing was wrong with it and everything worked perfectly."

"I would like to thank Deb Koloms, Mike Tyson, Darren Wright, James Russell, Tim Lehr, Mark Logan, Lance Lickteig, Susan Lickteig, Bob Block, Mike Dickinson, Bob Brown, all of the Kloudbusters, and everyone else who stopped by to encourage me or lend suggestions or offer help," Howell added. "Thank you all so much for everything. I am so appreciative of all everyone did."

Congratulations to Amy Howell for becoming the youngest female Level 3 certified Tripoli member. With her determination and drive, she is an inspiration to others both young and old, and a good indicator that our future's success is in good hands.

SLIDESHOW: Additional photos of Amy Howell's successful Level 3 certification launch

(Photos provided courtesy of Bob Block, Terry Smemo and Lance Lickteig.)

Reader comments:

#1 Re: Article: Big dreams can become big realities, in Kansas

Amy is one of the most dynamic and brilliant rocketeers I have ever had the pleasure to meet. I expect to see her in the Astronaut program or working on the Ares in the near future.

If you are ever in Argonia.....go say hi to the woman with the giant smile. That'll be Amy.....and she'll teach you a thing or two about rockets.

-Darren

dwright on 09-05-2008 10:26 PM

#2 Re: Article: Big dreams can become big realities, in Kansas

Congrats Amy, Great Flight, and Nice article!

Mike

mikeyd on 09-05-2008 11:58 PM

#3 Re: Article: Big dreams can become big realities, in Kansas

I would love to see her certification package. The ones that I have seen in the past were very complicated and extensive. She couldn't have done it prior to LDRS, so that means that she did it during the event--and built a Level 3 rocket at the same time. That is very impressive. I have yet to start my Level 3 quest because I hate paperwork. It sounds like she has found the secret to a speedy certification package that is acceptable to all concerned. I hope that it is made public. It would be an inspirational guide to all--especially to those of us that have yet to achieve Level 3.

madsen on 09-06-2008 04:04 AM

#4 Re: Article: Big dreams can become big realities, in Kansas

My 10 year old daughter who came with me to LDRS needs to read this story. This is amazing. I was at LDRS and had no idea this was even happening. I missed the flight because I had to drive back home Tuesday. Thanks to RocketryPlanet for sharing this great story.

-DAllen

DAllen on 09-06-2008 06:24 AM

#5 Re: Article: Big dreams can become big realities, in Kansas

Amy

You did a great job, I am very proud of you. Wish I could have been there on Tuesday to see the flight, but it looked like it was awesome.

Again great job, I am proud to have been part of your TAP team



Debra Koloms

debrak on 09-06-2008 10:02 AM

#6 Re: Article: Big dreams can become big realities, in Kansas

I also had to leave on Monday afternoon and I also had no idea about Amy's flight. All I know is that several times I saw this very poised, self-assured young lady and that impressed me. This is even more impressive.
Good job Amy and kudos to the folks that helped make it happen, especially Debra K.

Steve_Shannon on 09-06-2008 12:32 PM

#7 Re: Article: Big dreams can become big realities, in Kansas

It certainly was fun watching a bit of HPR history in the making last week at LDRS 27 as Amy worked out the design details and construction of her project. It was also a fine testament to our rocketry brethren who pitched-in various components to allow Amy to pull it all together.

Congratulations, Amy, on a job well done and your Level 3 certification.

This is just one of the many back-stories of a great week at Argonia. Each photo and project has its own story, and I can't wait to see them in print in the other rocketry media.

--Lance.

llickteig1 on 09-06-2008 07:41 PM

#8 Re: Article: Big dreams can become big realities, in Kansas

Congratulations, Amy, on your Level 3 Certification.

rwt on 09-07-2008 07:40 PM

#9 Re: Article: Big dreams can become big realities, in Kansas

Congratulations on an awesome flight! It looks like it was a great shot.

KeenanC on 09-09-2008 11:09 PM

#10 Re: Article: Big dreams can become big realities, in Kansas

Amy, it was fun to be involved and to watch you work though the different challenges you faced. The decisions that you made and the way you worked with the different challenges really shows that you were ready for your L3. I can see you making it to an aerospace company solving their problems. Great job, Great flight! I just hope the next one you take enough time to put some paint on it

I had no idea that I would be part of making history.

JamesR

JamesR on 09-18-2008 01:09 AM

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