The Egg lofting event of the Techno Games 2000 T.V. series was held on the 5th of March at the Rockets & Things" rocket meeting in Kent.

Myself, Laurie and Tony Bailey set of from Hornchurch and arrived at the site just before 11.00 a.m.

A small number of rocketeers had already arrived and had set up their pads but most were waiting for the dreaded wind to die down.

Slowly more and more rocketeers turned up including a Ivan Jarvis and Paul and Hannu of H.A.R.T.

Soon rockets of all sizes were being armed and launched.

Rockets on G's and H's were regularly heading skywards with a large roar and leaving either a white or large black smoke trail and several amazed rocketeers.

Most of the rockets were reaching 1,500 feet or more and drifting a long way down range giving their owners a long walk for recovery, but luckily a number of kids were soon helping to recover some of the rockets and saving the legs of the dads.

Ivan Launched a number of big rockets including a Loc 4 and a Mirage which unfortunately "lawn darted" and was reduced from 7 feet long to around 2 foot 6 !!

Paul and Hannu also launched a few rockets including their newly named 5 D cluster rocket "Shark" which did 1 nice flight and then one amusing launch as one of the D's cato'ed sending bits everywhere.

H.A.R.T. member Tony Bailey's Sci-fi rockets were brought along for show and everyone were amazed at his "Thunderbird 3" and "Angel Interceptor" and other great home made flying models of various classic Sci-fi shows.

After a lot of waiting as the T.V. sorted out various problems the Egg lofting competition was finally started.

5 rocketeers entered including myself and Ivan.

Each competitor was given a numbered raw egg to put in our rockets.

I was given egg number "5" and as we put our fragile cargoes into our rockets we each had an interview with the "Techno Games 2000" presenter "Edd"

Soon, one by one the 5 rockets took to sky.. mine was the 3rd to launch. I had built an H.V. Arcas for the event and it was loaded with an F20-4 for the event.

Quickly I must say thanks to Ivan, Tony and all the other rocketeers at the site for letting me borrow there launch equipment and for giving me help and advice with the Aerotech engine.

The countdown was given for my launch and at zero I pressed the launch buttons and looked at my rocket, for a split second nothing happened and I thought the igniter had failed.

Then after what seemed like a lifetime to me, but which was probably less then a second, the engine chuffed 3 or 4 times, each time producing a small flame and a bit of smoke before it finally lit fully and my rocket leapt off the pad and headed skywards.

The rocket soon reached an estimated height of around 1,200 feet before slowly deploying it's bright yellow parachute and drifting slowly back to earth.

I felt a bit funny as I went to recover the rocket with a cameraman and sound man following and recording my every move, I was reminded a bit of the old T.V. series "Treasure Hunt"

A little while later all the rockets had been launched and recovered. The rocketeers were then interviewed and filmed while they checked to see if their egg had survived.

I was a bit nervous when I opened my small container and wondered if my egg would still be in tact or in a wet and sticky mess but on opening the lid I peered inside to see the egg was still intact.

Out of the 5 eggs, two of us had got them back safely, amazingly both of us had flown an H.V. Arcas on an "F" engine so it went to the judges to be decided on design of the egg carrying.

Unfortunately the judges decision went against me and so I came second as the judges decided that the "Pig" puppet protection on the other rocket was better then my cardboard tubes and cotton wool.

I felt a bit sad on losing to a toy Pig, so next time I think my "Garfield" will give me some help.

Overall it was a good day and a lot of fun and I am looking forward to Techno Games 2001 !!