Hi. My name is Randy Whitcomb. I an a Level 2 flyer who is one of the charter members of the Champlain Region Model Rocket Club.  I have been building and flying model rockets in Vermont since 1976 when I built my first Estes kit in school.

I continued to build and fly rockets through out high school.

After graduating school and starting a family, time was a rare commodity, and my flying days became fewer and fewer.

Then one Christmas I discovered a beautiful thing on the shelves of my local hobby shop. An Aerotech Initiator kit. This was no model rocket I had ever seen. It was a "Mid-powered" kit that could fly on motors as big as a G-80. I had never flown, much less heard of anything bigger than my Estes D-12's. These motors were up to 16 times the power of the ones I had been flying for years.

Santa Clause was kind and delivered me my new found treat. Unfortunately I would have to wait to actually fly it, as winter in Vermont was not (as I thought) the best time to be launching rockets.

This gave me time to do research on my newly rediscovered hobby. To my amazement there was a wealth of information to be found on these and BIGGER rockets.

When spring arrived I could hardly wait to launch my new bird. As I live only a couple miles from the airport and the field I was flying from was close by, I would make my first flights on the E's and F's that came with the kit.

WOW, what a blast! I fell in love with the hobby all over again. I couldn't wait to see what this could do on a G-80. That opportunity came later that summer when my wife and I decided to take our summer vacation at Niagara Falls.

I had seen through the NAR web site that there was a club in the Buffalo area that was having a launch featuring many "High power" birds.

High power? What do you mean? OH MY GOD! THEY GET BIGGER!

After more research on high power flights, I could hardly wait to get to the launch site. The 7 hour drive flew by and the night in the hotel room was restless as I imagined the next days events.

When I woke up, I discovered a dreary looking sky with a light rain falling. My fears of traveling this far and having a wash out cancel the event raced through my head. A 1/2 hour drive south from the hotel to the launch site later and my fears were lifted when I saw the smoke trail of a newly launch rocket streak upwards.   

After spending a while walking around to check out what people had displayed and signing in at the flight desk, I decided it was time to see what that G-80 was going to do.

My rocket was set up on the pad. The launch controll officer made his announcement. "Now on pad 3A, Randy Whitcomb flying an Aerotech Initiator on a G-80. This should be interesting."

GULP! What do you mean? What do you know that I don't? Should I stop the launch? They wouldn't let me launch if someting "interesting" was going to happen.

LCO: "Going in 5...4...3...2...1..."

Too late. Whoosh. Where did it go?

LCO: "And it's gone"

"Someone said they think they saw it headed over the corn field at the back of the launch site" I was told by one onlooker. Great! Its August and the corn is 10 feet high and wet. I thought about going in and looking for it for a while, but I had no clue of where to start. I did want to see more flights, and my wife again, so I decided otherwise. Another lesson learned I guess.

As the day drew on, I watched dozens of spectacular mid and high power flight. I learned not to feel so bad about my lost $50 rocket after seeing a few $200 and up rockets suffer the same fate.

The event drew to a close with a spectacular Level 3 Certification flight of a 10 foot high Warlock on a M motor. Absolutly amazing. I was hooked. I couldn't wait to get back to Vermont and start building and flying.

I have since built several mid and high power kits, including an Aerotech Stromg Arm, a Loc Vulcanite, a Launch Pad Nike Ajax, and PML's Phobus and Eclipse. I have also built a high power kit of my own design based on the mid power Nike kit that I had buit prior.

I still fly the Aerotech and PML kits. The Vulcanite was used on my first level 1 certification flight.  It was a good flight, up untill about 300 feet when the motor catoed and blew apart.

More to come......