SOD BLASTER 2022

Sod Blaster IV Launch Report
 
This might sound like a broken record (reference only us old guys would get) but we broke another record this year. We had 153 flights on Friday, 208 flights on Saturday, 225 flights on Sunday, and 57 flights on Monday for a total of 643 flights. Go figure – we had a record shattering 610 flights last year! I thought for sure the count would be down because everything seemed to be going so well, even though we had a total of 250 attendees for the weekend.  Friday ended up being 10 degrees cooler than the predicted 103 degree high. Due to divine intervention, a large smoke cloud rolled in before lunch and helped block out the intense sunshine until late in the afternoon.
 
Once again the launch was very busy: many high power flights, a NAR L3 certification, a very well attended raffle after the cookie and ice cream social, a silent auction, freeby table, dual egg launch altitude contests, spot landing contest, and night flights. Thanks to the tireless help of our club members who stepped up to do range setup, LCO duty, RSO duty, and teardown, the whole launch went very smoothly.
 
Dual egg lofting altitude contest winners:
400’ – Bernard Cawley, 405’
1000’ – Jim Pommert, 1013’
2000’ – Jim Pommert, 1638’
Congratulations, winners!
 
We had very generous sponsors again this year with hundreds of dollars of really great raffle prizes – many thanks to Aerotech, ASP Rocketry, Boyce Aerospace Hobbies, Discount Rocketry, Dynasoar Rocketry, Estes Rocketry, Front Range Rocket Recovery, Lab Rat Rocketry, Loc Precision/PML, MadCow/AeroPack  Rocketry, Qualman Rocketry, SBR Fusion Rockets, SMT Designs, Stickershock 23, Sun River Nature Center, Top Flight Recovery; and to all who donated to the raffle. Stickershock 23 also made and donated our sponsor banner for us! Thanks to the very generous donations from our sponsors and club members, we had a really big turnout for the raffle.
 
Special thanks to Dave Davis who handled all of the NAR certifications, and to Rich Harshberger who worked his butt off as RSO and pad manager. Once again many thanks also to all of you who helped make this our biggest and best Sod Blaster (again)!