Rocket Search and Rescue

 Things have picked up around here as we are getting ready for our county fair this week.  Sunday we launched J's rocket.  The rockets have to have been flown once and have to have a report on the flight as well as a couple of pictures when entered in the fair. This always makes me nervous.  My fears are that 1. The rocket will blow up/catch on fire/be damaged beyond repair or 2.  We will never find the rocket.

The rocket J chose to make this year is called "The Magican".  It has a clear plasctic tube between the nosecone and the body so it looks as though the nosecone is floating.  It used a "E" engine.  Which is a BIG engine so we were excited to launch it.   That bad boy didn't disappoint as it went up about 1000 feet in the air before it's parachute went off.  It was the best flight we have ever had. HOWEVER......it ended up the pasture ACROSS the highway from mom and dads.  Uh Oh.  D and J took off to go find it  and Dad, T and I took off in the car to go "watch" the recovery process.   After watching for  few minutes I started feeling guilty ( it was REALLY hot out.) so we dropped Dad off and T and I headed over to help, but ran into a rattle snake before we got there.  That sent us back to dads house until I get could my heartbeat slowed down.  By this time my sister was home so I left T to keep gramps company and we headed down to the pasture where we found the men hot, tired, sweaty and upset.  J was convinced it was lost forever and D was just mad because he saw about where it went down at, but couldn't find the "dang" thing.  E and K called and were on their way to help, so that would be 6 people out for the search and rescue.  About an hour in, M and D spotted a white flower on a yucca plant  up on a hill that they were convinced might be the rocket, but sent me up there to check it out.  I was almost there, but as I was headed up I looked to my left and saw...something white....with something that looked like fins! I took off screaming  and dancing I WON I WON I FOUND IT!!!  =) It ended up landing over 1/4 of a mile from the launch site!!   So, Mom saved the day, the rocket was fine, and D kept telling everyone that he really HAD looked in the place it was,  but he just must have been looking the other way. hehe   It really was lined up with the trees D had used for "markers" when it went down, just a bit further than thought.
So 2 and 1/2 hours after we headed out to launch the rocket "real quick" before lunch, we headed home. Hungary, hot, sweaty and tired.

But all is well again.