Announcing public practice field in Hampton Roads, VA

[ToddF]

Team 2363 wishes to announce that the Virginia Air & Space Center practice field is ready for use! Many thanks to the members of team 1610, 1793, and 2890 that came out to support the build activity at the VASC on September 28th, and to team 122 for painting and supplying the goals and feeder stations currently in place on the field. Photos of the build effort and the current configuration of the field may be viewed here.

The teams of Hampton Roads FIRST and the Virginia Air & Space Center extend a cordial invitation to all FIRST Robotics Competition teams to utilize a new practice facility at the Virginia Air & Space Center, 600 Settlers Landing Rd, Hampton, VA. The field is full regulation length, however, due to the interference of some structural support columns, the field is only 21 ft wide as opposed to the regulation width of 27 ft. This results in two driver stations at each end of the field instead of the traditional three.

Should you wish to utilize the field, which should be available for team use 7 days a week, please contact Matt Wilbur (mattw@team2363.org) or Todd Ferrante (toddf@team2363.org) for scheduling and instructions on how to access the field. We are currently seeking teams to use the field specifically on Saturdays for the remainder of the calendar year so that Hampton Roads FIRST teams can support the VASC’s “Robotics Saturdays,” advertised here. Our team will be there most Saturday afternoons, so come join us so that we can get more than one robot running around on the field at one time! As of this moment, the field is expected to remain installed at the VASC at least through the 2014 build season, and then is planned to be reinstalled any time the museum does not have a traveling exhibit occupying the space.

Finally, we would like to recognize the many sponsors that provided the funding to purchase the materials for the practice field. There is $1500 worth of 2x4s, plywood, paint, hardware, and fasteners in the field, and none of it would have been possible without the fantastic and awesome sponsors of our FRC team.

Todd F.