I went to the Great Lakes Cup model rocket contest this weekend. It had both an international (FAI) component as well as a National Association of Rocketry (NAR) sanctioned contest. I nominally competed as Bumbling Brothers Flying Circus as an NAR team. Because of the specific bizarre nature of the contest rules, I flew a couple of very big models with small ("A" sized) rocket engines. Specifically, I flew a "Big Betty" quite a bit because the owner of Quest, Bill Stine, was at the meet and and the Big Betty is a Quest kit. I teased him mercilessly about the performance of the model.

Despite the nature of my models, I did end up placing second in one event, B-altitude.

As my brother Peter peteralway said the other day, girls don't fly rockets. As proof, see the photographs after the cut.


Emma Krystal and her father at Great Lakes Cup 2012




Emma and her rocket flying medals



Another girl and her high performance altitude model.



A picture of most of the kids in the contest. Notice how there are no girls flying rockets.