BattleSim Training
The Christa McAuliffe Space Center held its first Officer's Camp last week. While still a day camp, the Officer's Camp gives the camper four class sessions before the camp's extended mission. Fifty campers arrived for the full day experience.
Silver Perry (Phoenix Set Director) was The Troubadour's reporter on duty that day and filed the following breakdown of the camp's events.
The First Officer's Camp
The Space Center's first Officer's Camp when from 8:30ish A.M. to 8:30/8:40 P.M. We had a full house (minus 2 kids), with all ships flying at or really close to max capacity.
The camp started with four rotation classes.
- Leadership Training (Led by Wes K., Magellan FD)
- Security training (Led by Tyler G., Magellan FD)
- Planetarium activity/show (led by Gracelyn U., Navigator and Falcon trainee)
- Battle Gaming Simulations (led by Hyrum S., Cassini FD trainee and supervisor).
The volunteers helping for the rotations were Aiden, Kayla, Jackson, Micah, and Max. The rotations went from 9 to 12:40ish, including lunch. After lunch, the campers were divided up into simulators. The missions started at 1:10 P.M. Some of the flight directors greeted their crews in character as a member of the ship's crew, something I hope to keep doing for officer camps to help immerse them as much as possible.
The simulator staff for the Officer Level Flights were:
- Tyler G flew Paradise Lost in the Magellan with Cecily and Wes as supervisors
- Ian flew Rules of Engagement in the Cassini with Ellie and Hyrum as supervisors (and I believe Kaleen was training)
- Natalie flew The Edge Principle in the Odyssey
- Brylee-Ann flew Zero Hour in the Galileo
- Mr. Porter (with JJ training) flew Hearsay in the Falcon.
- I flew Fatal Error in the Phoenix.
We ran the camp seriously short of volunteers (only 7 signed up to help with the camp to work between all 6 simulators). I called in a few backups to help with the Phoenix flight. Thank you Aaron K, Hayden and Scott for jumping in and helping. Our awesome volunteers for the camp were; Aiden, Jackson, Kayla, Max, Micah, Michael P, Michael W, and Oliver.
The flights went from 1:10 to 8:00 P.M. We took a 45 minute dinner / outside time break at 5:30 P.M. The campers went home at 8:00 P.M. The staff and volunteers stayed to review the camp.
The Phoenix (barely) took the camp with a 98.29. Right at our heels was the Cassini with a 98.18. I took a picture for the full breakdown that I'll attach to this email.
Some other smaller general notes of interest are:
- BattleSim was a huge hit (all the rotations were, but BattleSim had gone under a huge remake going from digital to more of a physical board game style)
- You (Mr. Williamson) brought donuts and because one of the campers had to come and go a few times during the mission, the camper's mom brought us Crumbl cookies as a thank you for being accommodating.
- The bridge supervisors were all in character helping out the kids which sounded like it went really well.
- I don't know exactly what everyone did, but it sounded like most of the flight directors and supervisors pulled out some last second additional scenes or away missions to fill the extra mission time.
All in all, this summer's first Officer's Camp was a success.
Matt Ricks and Daughter
- Silver
New Volunteers Start With Mission Observations
New Volunteers at the Christa McAuliffe Space Center
Tabitha Ricks got a new gaggle of Space Center volunteers off to a good start by bringing in to do their required mission observations this last week. All new volunteers are required to do a mission observation at both the CMSC and The Space Place at Renaissance Academy. An observation gives the volunteer a chance to see what happens behind the scenes. They meet flight directors, supervisors, and other volunteers and can ask questions. This group of new volunteers has a father / daughter starting together. What a great opportunity for a parent to enjoy an activity with a child.
Speaking of fathers and daughters, waiting patiently for mom to finish with the new volunteers is Matt Ricks and daughter. "Give her a few more years and she'll be here doing her observation," Matt said. "She's a Space Center baby. It is in her blood."
A Space Center baby is a youngling born to parents who met while working at the Space Center. There are a growing number of Space Center babies out there and all are duty bound to put in their time for the cause when they reach the age :)
Imaginarium Theater
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