Newport High club testing flight plan | Team to compete in nationals next month

Published 12:53 pm Monday, April 20, 2015

The Newport Rocketry Club was done in by equipment failure at last year’s Team America Rocketry Challenge, but sophomore George Eller says he isn’t leaving room for error at the 2015 competition next month.

Eller started the rocketry club at Newport High School his freshman year, having been hooked by his first hobby kit in fifth grade.

“I discovered the TARC and I thought that was a good goal for the team to go for,” he said.

The team made it to the national competition last year, but was disqualified when the rocket broke up in flight due to an inferior rubber shock cord. Eller said the team has corrected this flaw by using a kevlar shock cord, but each competition brings with it new challenges. Having made one of the top-100 scores in the nation, the team qualified again for this year’s competition.

Rockets blasted hundreds of feet into the air last Sunday at 60 Acres Park in Redmond, the Newport Rocketry Club attempting to reach the altitudes and flight durations required to rise above the competition at the 2015 TARC just outside Washington, D.C., on May 9. Rockets must carry a payload — one raw egg — to precisely 800 feet on its first launch, the flight lasting 46-48 seconds. The second flight must be 775 feet in altitude and last 45-47 seconds, with teams losing points for every foot too high or low and missing time requirements.

Mentor Bruce Buswell, who got to work for NASA when he was 16, monitored each launch and advised students where improvements needed to be made, such as balancing the launch pad better or correcting the weight to reach the desired altitude. The rockets disappeared in the sky, breaking apart hundreds of feet above the excitable teenagers, who then rushed out to collect it and the detached payload. Buswell said it’s not often an egg breaks, but it’s obvious when they do.

“It’s the payload section that counts when it hits the ground,” said Emily Flanagan, one of the newest team members. She is also president of the high school’s robotics club. “I like trying to solve the problem and I like all the doors and opportunities it opens for me.”

Buswell advised the team to pack for formal meetings with U.S. Sen. Patty Murray of Washington while in the nation’s capital, as well as the astronauts sure to be in attendance for the aeronautical competition.

“These go on your resumes, guys,” said Buswell. “I know it seems pretty far now, but it all adds up.”

If the Newport Rocketry Club is victorious in D.C., they will represent the United States at the International Rocketry Challenge in Paris. Teams at TARC are also competing for scholarships and prizes totaling more than $60,000.

Club adviser Rick Kilcup said Eller led the charge to create the team and his passion continues to motivate the group, which is most visible when they’re working out the finer details behind a well-executed launch.

“George has these real quiet leadership skills,” he said. “They are so amazing to watch work as a team.”