Mentoring
Many UKROC teams find it very useful to have an experienced rocketeer working as a mentor alongside the school team, particularly for schools where the organising teacher has minimal experience in rocketry. This benefits both the team, as it helps to encourage robust design that is sufficient for the stresses of flight, and also helps to ensure safe and proper procedures throughout launches - for example, issuing NOTAMs correctly to air traffic control.
We carry out mentorship through a minimal intervention approach - teams enjoy the ability to explore different possible designs, and it benefits their skills in project management and engineering design. However, we ensure to work through their designs with them before the purchase and build phase begins, and to keep in touch with team leaders throughout the term so that we can answer questions and suggest ideas. Having a design review before the build starts also helps to avoid some of the less obvious - but equally treacherous - pitfalls to ensure the team is equipped to do well in the competition.
