Hello All,
This evening I sent some “COVID-19-compatible” model rocket contest ideas to Stuart Lodge, the British space modeler—and long-time competitor *and* contest judge—who almost single-handedly got model rocketry legalized in the UK, despite their infamous 1875 Explosives Act (which prevented the British Interplanetary Society from engaging in any rocket experimentation, even just rocket motor and engine static tests). Plus:
A YouTube video that Tim Van Milligan (the President of Apogee Rockets
www.apogeerockets.com ) made, about 1/2A Altitude altimeter contests (see:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pG87iPDtBPM [incidentally, the plans for the rocket in his video would be great for would-be contestants, and it would also, I think, make a good Standard Payload model!]), suggests that such contests—if run like Hand-Launch Glider “Postal Contests”—would also be “COVID-compatible,” including here in the U.S., (as I’ll explain below). Below this “COVID-compatible” contest idea (which I’ve reproduced immediately below) are other contest ideas, which I also sent to Stuart, and:
The 1/2A Altitude altimeter contest would lend itself well to use during this “COVID-19 era.” Each entrant in such an Altitude altimeter contest could fly his or her flight (or flights—maybe, say, the best one of three) alone, in an isolated field, pasture, or meadow, so as not to ruffle the feathers of any of the official (or self-appointed—we have more than our share of them here...) “virus police.” Also, each entrant could photograph—or better yet, take videos of, including the actual flight or flights themselves—his or her altimeter’s displayed altitude (for the official flight or flights), and then e-mail the images and/or videos to the contest’s headquarters. Postal Contests have been, and are, traditionally done on the honor system, and while I wholeheartedly agree with that, these e-mailed results would also make it quite difficult for any would-be cheater to cheat. Also:
Even more importantly, having the e-mailed images and/or videos (as well as the tabulated contest results) up on a webpage of the contest organization’s website would make the contest more interesting, including to non-space modelers (some of whom—children and adults alike—would be attracted to join our madness...er, hobby and sport! :-) ). Think of the possibilities...even with a, say, two-minute total video time limit per flight, a lot of interesting human-interest material could be included. We could see the people, their homes and flying sites (no doubt including a pretty, grazing or galloping mare or two, in some cases), and even scenes of them building and prepping their models, as well as their flights and recoveries, and:
I imagine (as I told Stuart, regarding the situation in Europe) most aero and space modeling contest and demo activities have been quite restricted—if not verboten—lately (except maybe indoor micro-R/C and microfilm-covered, rubber-powered F/F indoor model airplane contests, held with no spectators and broadcast online). One permitted outdoor exception (it could also be done in space modeling, as described below)—which today’s e-mail, live online audio & video, and website score tabulation would (and already *does*) greatly enhance—would be the old-style national and international “Postal Contests,” often called “Postals” for short (which have long been held by HLG—Hand-Launched Glider [F/F—Free-Flight glider] enthusiasts, see [there are several Postals links here]:
https://www.google.com/search?sxsrf...HRTeDSMQ4dUDCA0 ^AND^
https://www.google.com/search?sxsrf...HcYpAFYQ4dUDCAw ). In addition:
Postal Contests are usually held by competing clubs, but they have also been—and could be now—held between ^individual^ fliers hundreds and even thousands of miles apart, in isolated fields, pastures, or meadows. The same thing could be done for space modeling, in contest categories including Streamer Duration, Parachute Duration, Altitude, Spot Landing, Egg-lofting, Drag Racing, Superroc Altitude competition, Boost-Glider altitude and/or duration, Rocket Glider altitude and/or duration, etc. For the judged categories—Sport Scale, Concept Scale (also called Future/Fiction Scale—its contests are usually run using the Sport Scale rules for scale documentation), measured Scale, and Super Scale—the judges could do their judging over the internet. For example:
For Sport Scale contests (in which the models are judged from a distance of 1 meter, with a color photograph [or an officially color-documented black & white photo] being the scale documentation), each entrant could—using a meter stick, or a metric (or dual English/metric) tape measure—photograph his or her model (from, say, two sides, the front, and the rear), with the meter stick or tape measure between the camera and the model—the judges would judge the models using those e-mailed pictures. Measured Scale contests would be handled similarly:
For them, one or more metric rulers would be placed next to the model by the entrant and photographed from multiple directions (two sides, front, rear, etc.)—the ruler or rulers would, to keep everything fair, *not* be printed on paper or cardstock, to prevent that possibility for cheating (*UNLESS* the rulers were all printed and issued by the contest organization, perhaps with serial numbers, to ensure that they weren’t “dimensionally-nudged” copies). Otherwise, any standard, store-bought metric ruler (one of the better-known brands, such as Staedtler-Mars, Starrett, etc.) would be perfectly acceptable. Each entrant’s scale documentation (the drawings, dimensions list, paint scheme documentation, etc.) could also be scanned and e-mailed (or faxed, or even photocopied and postal-mailed [as long as it arrived at the contest headquarters before the contest date]) to the organization running the contest.
I hope this information will be useful.