Rockets launched in Clarendon

by Charles Dickson
Clarendon
May 5, 2024
A dozen or so rocketry enthusiasts descended on a patch of wide, open farmland just east of Shawville on Sunday morning to do what they love to do most, launch their rockets.
Bill Wagstaff heads up the Ottawa Rocketry Group, the Ottawa-based club of approximately 20 rocket hobbyists that has been in operation since 1996.
“I was teaching model building and flying model rockets when I was 10 years old, back in BC where I grew up. So, it’s kind of followed me wherever I’ve gone,” Wagstaff told THE EQUITY on Sunday. “I’ve organized a number of clubs, depending on where I was. I’ve been flying rockets forever.”
This spring, approximately once a month, Wagstaff and club members have been launching rockets in Clarendon on a property owned by Angela Binda, next to the Don New airstrip on Moffatt Road.
At this past Sunday’s gathering, nearby dairy farmer and vintner Scott Judd was on hand to welcome the rocket enthusiasts to the site to which he had just given a fresh spreading of manure, giving the visitors from the city a particularly fragrant taste of authentic Pontiac life.
Wagstaff says the rockets used by his club are typically in the range of a meter or less in length and weigh in the order of 1.5 kg or less. They are usually purchased as kits that keen hobbyists can assemble themselves, though it is also possible to buy ready-to-fly rockets.
To launch the rockets, a button is pushed that closes an electrical circuit between a car battery and a little wire attached to the propellant in the rocket that becomes red hot and ignites the fuel. They are equipped with parachutes that makes it possible for them to return to Earth undamaged and reusable.
“Someone who knows what they’re doing in model rocketry can keep flying the same rocket for 30 to 50 years,” said Wagstaff. “I know plenty of people who have rockets they’ve had since they were kids.”
The Ottawa Rocketry Group has been in operation for almost 30 years, apart from a five-year hiatus due to the pandemic and challenges in finding a place to launch rockets.
The club had been using a site on the Connaught military range near Kanata until the government decided to charge what it thought was fair market value for access to federally-owned property, which was prohibitively expensive for the small group.
Angela Binda heard through a friend of a neighbour of her hairdresser that the group was looking for somewhere to launch rockets. She thought the large, empty fields at her place might be a suitable site so offered it to the club, and the idea, apparently, got liftoff.
Now, with access to the Clarendon site and the pandemic largely a thing of the past, the club is experiencing a bit of a renaissance. It gathers at the Clarendon location about once a month and invites anyone interested in finding out more about rocketry and possibly taking up the hobby to stop by. The next two launches are planned for June 2 and June 30.