5-4-3-2-1 Blast Off!

I may not agree with all of the political and philosphical beliefs of the Boy Scouts, but Pack 46 knows how to show boys a good time. We are mostly off of scouts for the summer, but this weekend we had the Rocket Derby. I wasn't sure what to expect, as the instructions for this event were much more casual than for the better known Pinewood Derby. All I knew was to buy and construct a rocket (with help from Grampa--check) and buy several engines (aka firecrackers).

Pack 46 has a 12 rocket launcher where the scouts placed their creations under the watchful supervision of the Cub Master. As usual, siblings--male or female--are encouraged to participate.

After the scouts are safetly behind the yellow line, there was countdown, and the scouts pressed the launch button by twos.

No one advised me on the size of engine to buy so I bought powerful ones. Bigger is usually better, but not when you want your rocket back for future luanches on a windy day. On his first
launch, Evan's rocket went impressively high and completely out of the field toward a residental area. Despite lots of searching, no one could find his rocket.

The leaders do a good job at preparing the scouts for this possibility, and Evan handled it well. He continued to have fun watching and chasing the other rockets and enjoying his free hot dog, Dorito, and Gatorade meal with Grampa.

Then about an hour later, one of the dads came over the viewing area with a mangled rocket looking for an "Evan." A neighbor had found his rocket on the roof of their garage, retrieved it and brought it to the field. I did do something right by having Evan write his name on the rocket. Another dad mended the rocket and let us use some less powerful engines, and Evan was able to launch his rocket a few more times before it split in half.

A fabulous day!