On the 23rd of July instead of traveling to work as normal, I drove to a local Radio Station and got ready for my 2nd ever radio interview and my first ever live radio broadcast.
The radio had a number of school children helping with the radio station and soon I was surrounded by a number of children who were all interested when I walked in to the office carrying my 6 foot AMRAAM missile on my shoulder.
I spent the next few hours talking to the radio staff and giving a member of staff some background information on myself and HART before I met the DJ and was given a tour of the station and told what and how the interview would happen.
I had about an hours wait for my interview which gave me enough time to go outside and examine the launch site and decide what and if I could launch a rocket safely.
The station had a massive field behind them so I decided to launch a small Estes HIJAX rocket on a C6-7, this was my choice as I had about 5 spare HIJAX kits with me but, which were soon donated to the radio station as prizes for an on air competition.
The interview time soon came - and apart from a few nerves the interview went really well and then we had a ten minute break while I went outside and set up for the launch.
Two school children had helped me a lot and had followed me through out the morning so I decided to let one of them launch the rocket live on the air - (this also gave me a excuse if the rocket did not launch !!)
The Hijax on the pad just before
launch
While waiting for the broadcast to come to the outside presenter I had a few spare minutes to explain how the launch system worked and did a few last minute checks.
The time soon arrived and after a nice loud 10 second countdown the launch button was pressed by school child Danny Coxs.
The rocket immediately leapt off the pad under the power of the C engine and headed for the clouds.
A few seconds later the rocket was spotted with a perfectly opened parachute and the few children went off to recover it.
The rocket was unfortunately never found even though we had seen it almost all the way down. but I really enjoyed myself and so I gave the Children a new rocket kit each and I hope to be called to their school next year for a proper workshop
The Rocket returning after a perfect
flight
Myself with the School children in
the LINK FM office