Space Derby track

[briantshore 14]

Our Girl Scout Troop has asked us to do something different. As one of the girls put it "Why can''t we build something like the cub scouts do" I am thinking of space derby, becouse it would be easier to make a track. Our local pine wood derby person is booked up a year in advance for all the cub scout packs. Does anyone have plans on how to build the starting gate for this?

Thanks

[scottteng 11]

the easiest one to do is the rain gutter regatta. They build their puff powered sailboat and race down a rain gutter you could have a kiddie pool for practice sailing.

[Pack212Scouter 10]

Yep...we just completed ours. Everyone had a great time. Ran it double elimination so that everyone got to race at least twice.

[robbyynn 10]

Space Derby plans, supply list, pictures

 

http://www.pack80.net/space_derby/Track_Plans/sd_track_plans.htm

[fotoscout 15]

One of the most difficult events to run has to be the Space Derby. I have never seen anyone setup and run a Space Derby with the same organization, reliability and repeatability as with the Pinewood Derby. Everything that can go wrong does go wrong. The spaceships don''t always travel down the line and very often break in mid flight. That''s if you can get them to fly at all.

 

Since you''re doing this outside of Cub Scouts, my suggestion would be for you to pick something that has a greater potential for overall success.

 

That''s not to say that the Space Derby isn''t a great event, it is. But if your going to show-off some of the terrific CS activities, I''d just pick one that had a really high quotient for success.

[msnowman 10]

Our Pack''s experience echoes fotoscouts. We found there to be way more down time between races and more things to go wrong. Now when rockets where flying the boys had a great time...it was just the 5-10 minutes between flights that were a killer.

 

However - if you do go this route, make sure the carriers on the rockets are put on in the correct direction. Some of our were on backwards, causing the rockets to fly off the track when they hit the stopper at the end. That was, without a doubt, the boys favorite part.

 

Good luck with whatever you decide

 

YiS

Michelle

[briantshore 14]

We only have 7 girls, and this is more of a (Building) activity than a racing activity. We were going to build them at our meeting. Thanks of all the help. I found some plans on the internet

Brian

[nldscout 17]

We have always had great success with our space derby. Our track is small and portable, easy to use and store