Dan
Wolf's 14AL-2004 Launch Report
I thought 14AL went fairly well. We did have
excellent weather! We also had good participation from the Midwest. There were
contestants from Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, Minnesota, Massachusetts, and of
course Wisconsin there. We also had good sport flying activity with some good
HPR flights. The University School TARC team was there and it was great to see
them out kicking back and having fun flying. They really seemed to enjoy
themselves.
The competition was close in 3 of the 4 divisions and it made for an
entertaining weekend of flying, with the final outcome not decided until the
final flights Sunday.
The only disappointment was the continued downward number of WOOSH C division
competitors. In 2001, we were averaging around 9 C division contestants from
WOOSH. The last couple of years we trended down to 6 or 7. At 14AL 2004 we only
had 3 C division contestants from WOOSH and only 5 total. Not sure if this is
something to be concerned about but it is a noticeable trend.
In spite of that, WOOSH did well, taking 1st place in all but A division and
earning over 10000 points in the process. It was a fun weekend. Those who
weren't there missed one of the rare good weekends we have for any kind of
rocket flying.
Dan