Launch Party

Yesterday, Saturday, we had our private launch party. We invited some family and friends and all of our sponsors and helpers. It was a great time. I was very nervous for our first launch. Let's be honest, these people have been waiting to see this for over a year. What if something went wrong now? I've told them that it has worked but it's one thing to hear it and another to see it. We launched out first pumpkin too. It was grown in my backyard. It was a little heavy, 9.8 lbs, but it flew well and landed hard. I took a bunch of the people into the field to see it hit and it was pretty cool.
One thing that was of interest. The last time we launched before this we had been checking the release angle. Our last launch of the day had been shorter than the previous so we knew we had turned it too far. When we launched yesterday, it was far short of where we left it. Nothing had changed, just was shorter. We were able to get it back to a normal distance but it was weird. I guess that's the "nice" thing about using wood.
Also, we are going to have some shirts for sale on our website through Zazzle.com. We are also going to be selling our release pins on the website. These are great if you want repeatability out of your machine.