Georgetown 4-H team advances to national model rocketry finals
4-H Trail Blazers will travel to Washington D.C. for Team America Rocketry Challenge
By: Paul Schattenberg, 210-859-5752, paschattenberg@ag.tamu.edu
Contact: Mark Janecka, wajsaj86@gmail.com
GEORGETOWN — Members from the Georgetown 4-H Trail Blazers have qualified to compete in the national finals of the 14th annual Team America Rocketry Challenge.
The team of Mark Janecka, Joshua Thayer and Noah Irey will face 99 other top rocketry teams from across the country at the TARC Final Fly-Off May 14 at Great Meadow in The Plains, Virginia, near Washington, D.C.
They will compete for more than $100,000 in prizes and scholarships, plus the opportunity to represent the U.S. at the International Rocketry Challenge in July at the Farnborough Air Show outside of London.
“For the Team America Rocketry Challenge, we have to build and fly a model rocket that will carry two raw eggs — one horizontally and one vertically — to a height of 850 feet within 44 to 46 seconds and then return the eggs to earth undamaged,” said Janecka, 16, who serves as team leader.
Georgetown 4-H has participated in the TARC competition for five years and made it to the final fly-offs each time. In 2013, Janecka and his brother Matt, a Georgetown 4-H alumni now studying aerospace engineering at the University of Texas in Austin, were on the team that won both the national and international competition.
In those competitions, Mark was the junior member while his brother served as team leader. But for this year’s competition, he has taken the role of team leader.
“Being team leader requires a lot of coordinating and behind-the-scenes work, like preparing the rocket for launch,” Janecka said. “I’ve been involved in these rocketry competitions before, but hadn’t realized just how much time and effort goes into being a team leader, including being a mentor to other team members.”
In addition to their rocketry team leadership duties, Janecka and his teammates also hold rocketry workshops for younger students. This summer, he and Matt will work with high school-age members of Army and Air Force families at model rocketry camps coordinated by Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service. He also serves as a Williamson County and state 4-H ambassador for robotics.
“Mark is very patient and methodical in working with others,” said club manager Laura Epps, who has watched Janecka’s journey through 4-H since he was a Clover Kid. “He is also very meticulous, which is a quality that has allowed him to succeed in his rocketry.
“For example, Mark and the other team members make very detailed records of their rocket flights. After some of their initial flights, Mark reviewed the data and determined they needed more lift at the time of the launch to reach the desired altitude. So for the next launch, they patiently waited until there was enough wind and then made the launch. That time the rocket reached the required altitude.”
Janecka said he hopes to use the skills and the life lessons he has learned in 4-H in his academic and professional life.
“I’m hoping to be either an aerospace engineer or possibly a mechanical or agricultural engineer,” he said. “I’m interested in how things work and how you go about putting them together. My work with rocketry has given me a chance to do something that has always interested me.”
As far as the chances of his team winning this year’s national rocketry challenge, Janecka was cautiously optimistic.
“I think we have a fair chance of winning, provided we have warm and dry conditions for the launch,” he said. “It pretty much depends on the weather.”
This year, 789 teams representing all 50 states, the District of Columbia and the U.S. Virgin Islands designed and built model rockets in hopes of qualifying for the national finals in the Team America Rocketry Challenge.
