2023 Rotary Rocket Contest Winners
The wind felt much stronger than the predicted 9mph from the Northwest. The first test rocket with a D12 engine started up fine but suffered an unusual engine failure just after liftoff, it went only about 30 feet high before then coming down nose first, with the nose cone stuck in the ground and fins sticking up above the ground.    It was an ominous precursor of things to come.   The launch team quickly put the second test rocket up which flew flawlessly, but once the parachute came out the wind blew it a long way past the launch pad, putting likely recovery of the more powerful contest rocket at risk.  The third test was aimed slightly upwind, also flew flawlessly, and came down in close proximity to the launch pad.   Thinking they had the “secret sauce” for successful recovery of the twice as powerful contest rocket, they set it up on the launch pad and aimed it about 15 degrees into the wind.  The countdown began, ignition was flawless, but about 10 feet off the pad the rocket suffered a catastrophic separation of the engine fuel from the engine housing. The fuel charge shot up through the rocket and pushed the nose cone up and off the main rocket, separating it.   The altimeters on the nose cone measured a scant 64 feet. Contest rules allowed using the backup rocket if the prime rocket did not ignite, but any movement after successful ignition counted as the official contest flight.  So 64 feet was the official height the contest rocket reached.
A quick look at the contest entries sorted by height showed the closest guess was 37 feet by Victoria Hopcroft, an Oscoda estate planning attorney well known for her leadership of local Special Olympics.    She entered at the Oscoda Concert on the Beach last Thursday, and wins $500 AND the contest rocket.   
Photo caption: Contest chairman Rick Ruth presents winner Victoria Hopcroft with first place prize
The next closest entry was 200 feet by Carolyn Plamer of Clawson, MI. She bought her ticket at the Oscoda Art on the Beach fair in June.   She wins second place of $200. The next closest guess was 245 feet by Karen Zera of Tawas city, claiming the third prize of the backup contest rocket.  
Third place winner Karen Zera
While the contest rocket engine failure was spectacular, everyone wanted to see how high the rocket should have gone, so a new package of engines from a different build lot was opened and inserted.   During the final prep the wind blew the rocket off the prep table but no damage was done, so the launch proceeded. The flight was high and arced beautifully into the wind, and returned to earth behind the launch pad.   Alas, both altimeters had triggered when the rocket fell off the prep table, registering 1 and 2 feet respectively.  This did not satisfy the crowd’s curiosity, so the rocket was loaded up again. This time everything worked perfectly. The rocket soared to 578 feet, 29 feet higher than last year’s contest flight. The wind blew the rocket back over the launch pad and it landed 171 feet past the launch pad.  Had the prime contest rocket not blown up, the “backup” winner would have been Bill Friske of the Livonia AM Rotary, second to Miranda Johnson of Oscoda Parkside Dairy, with third to local L. Ostrander.
The Tawas Area Rotary and Oscoda Rotary would like to thank everyone who took a chance or made a donation.  The contest raised $1266 for local youth development, and helped people to have some fun.   
Submitted by Rick Ruth, Rotary Rocket contest chairman