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Solon got longer than 7 minutes when they stoped timing

robotman09 wrote:Solon got longer than 7 minutes when they stoped timing

That doesn't surprise me I know the winning team at my State comp rocket went almost a mile away from where it was launched I don't know what their time was. So did Solon win that event or where there more teams that had even more crazy times [would have been cool to have one up for 10minutes]. This is why there is a problem with this event weather is too much involved, if a team gets a good uplift from the wind the Para shoot stays up for a very long time, then a team without the aid of favorable weather only gets 30 seconds. Congratulations to Solon none the less for an amazing time, how far way did that rocket travel?

robotman09 wrote:Solon got longer than 7 minutes when they stoped timing

how is that even possible, the parachute must have been really high, wonder how they kept track of it!

They had people who would follow the parachute when it floated off

I got 56th at nats thanks to the failure of some last minute modifications. But I saw the 6th team (Troy) get about 40+ seconds on their second launch. And I saw another school (I forget which) get 4 minutes plus. The judges were talking about Solon getting over 10 minutes.

cypressfalls Robert wrote:

robotman09 wrote:Solon got longer than 7 minutes when they stoped timing

how is that even possible, the parachute must have been really high, wonder how they kept track of it!

They did have people that followed it, but you could see it from the launch site for 7-10 minutes. There were some beautiful updrafts and the parachute just kept rising. Centerville, who got 2nd, had similar conditions, except the parachute did not rise as high, and did not leave the area. There were a few rockets that would have been in the running for first or second had they launched in the afternoon with the updrafts, but weather is a major factor, along with luck.

the competitors from solon had a rocket rising a couple hundred feet..so yes luck was in play
but. the initial rocket height helps a lot.

even Dr. Putz during the awards said that "[the rocket] is still flying"

Any pics, or is it classified?

the ten minute launch was a result of a ridiculously large thermal? o_O

ridiculously large parachute. couple that with height and even the mildest form of wind, and you got it