DARSTAR...A Look Back

DARSTAR XI is upon us! I thought it might be fun to look back at the very first DARSTAR, many years ago.....

DARSTAR (Dallas Areas Rocket Society Texas Area Regional) was born in April of 1989. It was flown on a field in Rowlett, Tx that is now houses and a Tom Thumb grocery store. There were 12 fliers who competed in six events. The events were:

1/2 A Parachute Duration
B Streamer Duration
C Superroc Duration
C Boost Glide
F Dual Egg Loft Altitude
Plastic Model Conversion

The contestants were (In order of their overall place at the event:)

1. Sam Baxter
2. Ace Disaster Company (Stu Powley, Chris Garrett, and Wayland Scott)
3. Kelli Gaither
4. Tim Barklage
5. Scott Hunsicker
6. Terry White
7. Gina Gaither
8. Martin Catt
9. Jack Poehlman
10. Tony Gaither
11. Ron Goforth
12. Kay Goforth

John Dyer was also there, but just helped run things. It's probably just as well that he didn't try to get anything in the air! The force was NOT with him! His car was attacked by one PMC and a cato, and he was kamikazed by Scott Hunsicker's F-16. In fact, even today, if you look at the Colossus launch controller, you can see a dent that could have been in John's head!

By the way, the very first DARSTAR Prang award was handed out to Scott Hunsicker for the assault.

Other interesting notes:

None of the F DEL Alt flights closed.

FSI black powder motors and "new" composite motors were both used in the event.

The fog was so thick on day one that John Dyer and I sat at opposite ends of the field for 30 minutes before we saw each other.

We had flyers come in from Louisiana.

Some of the flights came within a few feet of swimming in Lake Ray Hubbard.

I was moving into my new house that weekend, so I ran the contest in the day and moved at night. I went for 48 hours with no real sleep.

DARS lost our flying field less than a month hefore the event. Since notices had to be mailed snail mail, this was a huge problem!

First places in the events were:

1/2 A PD- Gina Gaither
B Streamer- Terry White
C Supperroc- Sam Baxter
C Boost Glide- Ace Disaster
F Dual EL- Ace Disaster ( flight points only for returning eggs intact)
Plastic Model Conversion- Sam Baxter (Lunar Module)

So there you have it! Hopefully at DARSTAR XI we can all...
Fly 'em fast and high!