Space Rocket Derby

Saturday, January 17th Nathan and Topher participated in their Cub Scout Pack Space Derby. Each boy made a rocket from a little kit which contained two balsa wood halves, plastic fins, rubber bands, numerical stickers and a bunch of tiny pieces easily lost by an eager child opening the box too quickly. Topher painted his blue with orange tiger stripes and Nathan went with green as a base coat and camo markings (as to confuse his competitors... "did you see something?"). Patrick did a great job working with each boy to create the rocket exactly as they instructed despite his inner voice telling him otherwise.

Each boy had 5 runs which consisted of an adult using an electric winder to turn the inner rubber band as tight as possible. After the rocket was very tightly wound it was then handed back to the boy who had to stand in line and hold it while waiting for his turn to race. Side note: an announcement was made, many times, of where to find band-aids for those boys who let go of their wound rocket and were cut by the propeller - uh, ya, this seems safe. Once at the starting line the top fin was attached to a small piece of plastic suspended on thin string which was hung between large wooden frames reaching from one end of the gym to the other. Two rockets raced and their distance was then measured and recorded.

While neither boy placed in the top 3 spots they were both great sports and had fun (flash back to the Pinewood Derby last year when Dad gave Nathan the "winning isn't everything" talk when his car placed last each run).