Newsgroups: rec.models.rockets Subject: NARAM 38 Competition - Day 1 From: Dan Wolf <73165.1463@CompuServe.COM> Date: 17 Aug 1996 01:11:14 GMT I haven't seen any posts yet on rmr regarding NARAM. Here are some summaries of the competition side that I posted earlier on the Compuserve. Some thoughts on the first day events from a competitors perspective: B PD What made this event interesting was the variety of approaches to it. There were airframes of all sorts of diameters and various motors as well. Most competitors used standard 18mm motors but a few Apogee B3s were flown. However they weren't needed to be competitive. As expected, how and when you flew was more important than what you flew. As a case in point, my daughter Mary flew an "Ozone Baby", a Matt Steele design that uses 3/32" swept back balsa fins, a balsa nose cone, and about 10" of BT-20. The flight was nominal at first, but when it moved downwind to the north over "death valley", it found good lift and thermalled out of sight. She did the same thing on her 3rd flight, both using a 24" plastic chute. Both flights were near maxes. Her 2nd flight was angled upwind and used a small 15" chute to get a return. All 3 flights were made with B6-6 motors for a 519 second total, easily taking first in A Division, and one of the best totals in all four divisions (can you tell Dad was proud). The fins looked like they were cut out and sanded by an 8 year old. The Fill and Finish coating gave a bumpy finish. Yet she managed one of the top performances by qualifying every flight and flying at the right times. I had plans to do the same in C Division, but poor time management resulted in the range closing down before I made my 3rd flight :-(. C B/G This seemed to be the "year of the Deltie" as Edmonds gliders could be seen all over the place. When they worked, they seemed to glide well, but many separated from their pods early, and/or shreaded under boost. Some that did work proved hard for the timers to follow with the open wing design. Mike Filler took first in A Division with a Flat Cat, but he beefed up the wing to 3/16" balsa. Shaun Smith took first in B with a QCR kit. I took 1st in C Division with my own design, the "Golden Girl" (plan in the next issue of Sport Rocketry), and of course Southern Neutron took first in teams with an R/C model. As a point of comparison, my glider had a 3/16" wing with an 18" span, about 55 square inches of wing area. It weighed just over an ounce. Southern Nuetron's R/C glider had 144 square inches of wing area and weighed 4.5 ounces. For the record, Southern Nuetron had times of 133 and 166 seconds (nearly identical to Shaun Smith's flights of 136 and 164). My times were 101 and 123. In reality, the first flight was up much longer, but the timers lost sight of it sooner. One of the best flights was made by Trip Barber whose 171 second, second flight was pretty to watch as it seemed to hover forever at one point, nose pointed directly into the wind. Again, Apogee motors weren't needed here and most competitors stuck with C6-3s. Finally, whoever found my gliders, thanks a whole bunch. I just wished I had know they were returned, so I could have made my 3rd PD flight. My wife tried to reach me on the walkie-talkie at 4:10 to tell me someone had returned them, but I had turned it off and I didn't return to the range until 5:00, a half hour after it closed. Had I realized my PD flights were competitive, I might have waited to look for the gliders. So it goes. In general, it was tough flying these two events on the same day as it meant several long walks into the field. Once you headed north through the field, it dropped off into a small depression where there was virtually no wind. After walking out to where the models were landing, the walk back through the hot, no breeze, "death valley" was a killer, especially the last few yards up to the access road. After about my 3rd "round trip", as I collapsed in a chair under our canopy, I noticed Barry Satterwaithe's Radio Shack electronic thermometer showing a temperature of 101 degrees! ======== Newsgroups: rec.models.rockets Subject: NARAM Competition - Day 2 From: Dan Wolf <73165.1463@CompuServe.COM> Date: 17 Aug 1996 01:12:11 GMT Tuesdays events were D SD and C HD (MR). Again it was hot and humid with light winds from the south most of the day. D SD D3s were popular in this event. If you were fortunate to have the timers see your flight you were in good shape. Most models were varying lengths of BT-20 sized tube. Those the timers did see had some incredible times with 4 minutes or more not being uncommon with a couple over 5 minutes and one over 7 minutes. However, amazingly my daughter again proved you didn't have to fly D3s to win. Mary put up an 18" length of BT-50 with a 10" x 65" red Micafilm streamer late in the day on a D12-7 for a 181 second flight. After Dad made the now familiar long walk out to retrieve it, she DQed her second flight when the streamer got stuck halfway in the tube. But the single 181 second flight was good for 1st place (and a new A division record). This was a tough event on the timers as well as the competitors. My only complaint was the inconsistancy in allowing reflights when the timers didn't see the model. Some were called for impound, others were given a reflight regardless. It varied throughout the day. In retrospect I wish I had stuck with D12-BT50 models. C HD (MR) The fourth and final duration event, times again were good when competitors found lift over "death valley" north of the range head. Personally I was disappointed when my burn thread got caught in the grain of a rotor on my second flight, knocking me out of the running. For the record, I flew a Whirl-A-While for the first flight (no lift, but an okay time) and the second when the rotors didn't deploy. My third flight on a banged up and NARAM-35 veteran Rose-A-Roc worked well and headed northwest at the close of the day. Again, timer inconsistancy was the only complaint here. Some timing teams kept there watches running while the RSO or chief timer helped them to find the model. Others didn't, and in some cases timers were told to turn the watches off by an official which cost at least one competitor a place. In summary, most competitors were glad when these two grueling days of duration flying were over. As was the case last year, timing was not what it should have been and it was not helped by the hazy skies, long duration events, and too many inexperienced timing teams. For the National Meet, we need to do better in fairness to the contestants. After looking at those assigned to be timers, Gary Miller volunteered to help out by taking a timing shift on Monday and I did the same on Tuesday, even though we were both trackers and didn't need to. I would encourage more of the veteran flyers and trackers to volunteer to time next year as timing range duty tends to be where the inexperienced often end up. ======== Newsgroups: rec.models.rockets Subject: NARAM Competition - Day 3 From: Dan Wolf <73165.1463@CompuServe.COM> Date: 17 Aug 1996 01:12:53 GMT Wednesday was the first altitude day with A Altitude and B SuperRoc scheduled along with Open Spot Landing. A Altitude This seemingly easy event turned out to be hard to fly and hard to track. The hazy skies continued and they served to camoflauge the smoke trails. Whereas at meets earlier in the year, I had no problems tracking these 10.5 mm models, I found it much harder to do so at NARAM and I was not happy with the number of "lost tracks" I had to report. The flying strategy seemed to be to use the A2-7 in a model with as much tracking powder that you could fit, and hope the trackers saw it. Adding to the frustration of the flyers was the difficulty in getting the motors to ignite. After two misfires, my daughter had Tim Van Milligan install the igniter on her 3rd attempt (I hope this doesn't violate any rules) only to see the model hang up in the tower. She then elected to fly her spot lander with an A8-3 to get a qualified flight. Some who "stayed" with it were eventually rewarded with closed tracks. When they were tracked, some great altitudes were reported. B Super-Roc Altitude Both 10.5mm B2 models and 13mm B7 models were used. There was a surprising high number of "loop under boost" flights. Maybe as many as last year in D Superroc. Personally, I DQed my first flight in this event and after seeing the frustrations with the A2 motors, I decided to "throw in the towel" on these two events and I volunteered for an extra hour of tracking duty (the range was open until 5:30 due to rain and A2 ignition problems and volunteers were needed to man the range for the extra hour). I was rewarded by having the honor of tracking "Mr. Eclipse's" (Todd Schneider) VERY high A2 flight which I think took first in C Division. In summary, I had expected Altitude day to offer some relief from the grueling duration days, but the tough tracking skies and difficult to light igniters made it another challenging day for the contestants. My hats are off to all the trackers for tracking under these very difficult conditions. ======== Newsgroups: rec.models.rockets Subject: NARAM Competition - Day 4 From: Dan Wolf <73165.1463@CompuServe.COM> Date: 17 Aug 1996 01:13:33 GMT Thursday was "payload event day", with C Payload and F Dual Eggloft Duration on tap. F Dual Eggloft Duration Those who arrived on the range early were rewarded with good skies for flying this event. Winds were almost nonexistant at times but thermal activity was high. Many egglofters seemed to hang over the range. Jon Rains flew early and won C Division with a 4 minute plus flight. Jon's model appeared to have a CMR style dual eggloft capsule on top of an 18" length of BT-55 sized tubing. Another early flyer was Jim Filler. Jim's model hung over the range area for the longest time before finally heading towards tracking east. As Jim passed by our tracking station, the model was still high in the air on a 22" chute. Jim finally gave up on it and radioed his wife to pick him up almost 5 miles away from the range head! As the day wore on, it got windy and after 12:30, it became a challenge to be able to fly and return models in this event. Fortunately for me, I flew before it got real windy at around 11:30 and managed to get a return after a 2 1/2 minute flight to take 4th. As I was retrieving my model I heard someone running behind me. I turned around and saw Rod Schafer fly by, chasing his egglofter still in the air. The winds had shifted and were coming from the northwest. It looked like Rod's models was headed for a tree line at that edge of the field. I talked to him later and he said that he had a 3+ minute flight and a 4+ minute flight but he was only able to return the shorter one and on that one he broke an egg. So it went for many contestants. Apparently many had their bottom egg break under the high thrust acceleration of the F motors when the top egg pressed down on the bottom one. Seems that many have not heard of separating the eggs into two separate compartments. I think an article on how to fly Dual Egglofting would be appropriate for an upcoming issue of Sport Rocketry. F25s were the popular motor here. C Payload I wasn't sure how it would work flying a duration event and an altitude event at the same time and I was pleased to see that it actually worked fairly well. This was one event where composite C motors were needed to win. I suspect that all of the top flights in all divisions used them. C10-7 motors seemed to work the best although many used C4-5 motors. These proved to be a challenge to track. Even so, many outstanding flights were made with the winning C Division flight over 600 meters. But an A Divisioner, Mike Filler, actually had the highest closed track, an incredible 700+ meter flight but he was unable to return it. The winds in the afternoon made recovery of even C Payload models a challenge. More than one modeler left a "placed" entry in the field. One final comment. It would have helped if check-ins people had told contestants (particularly A divisioners) not to remove their payloads after the flight except at the returns table. We heard of one A Divisioner who was literally reduced to tears when he happily came up to the returns table after managing to get his flight off, qualified and returned, with his payload in one hand and his rocket in the other. His smile dissappeared when the returns person DQed him. We need to do more to make the first NARAM experience an enjoyable one. ======== Newsgroups: rec.models.rockets Subject: NARAM Competition - Day 5 From: Dan Wolf <73165.1463@CompuServe.COM> Date: 17 Aug 1996 01:14:10 GMT Friday was craftsmanship day with Plastic Model Conversion and Sport Scale on tap. Plastic Model The success rate was respectable for this event. F-104 Star Fighters seemed to be a popular choice for conversion and most worked. Other jet conversions included F16s and F14s. On the rocket side, there was a couple of nice DML V-2 conversions, a couple of Glencoe Juno 1s, an Apollo Commnad Module and a few Lunar Landers. Tom Cambell jumped from 3rd to 1st when his Lunar Lander "hovered" and he recieved mission points. Trip Barber, the leader in static points in C Division had tough luck when his composite motor had a too long of delay and the model "rekitted" itself. Other notable prangs included Ken Browns 1/32 F16 complete with battle damage that also augered in when the D21 delay was seemingly longer than 4 seconds. Sport Scale There was some interesting flights in Sport Scale as more modelers elected to go for mission points. A Nike-Ajax flew on 2 D12s in the Nike stage to 1 in the Ajax for a perfect flight. There were many other good scale flights as well including Bruce Markelewski's scale Lunar Lander on a D21 that worked perfectly. In summary, Friday's flying was a relief and relaxing for most competitors. The temperature was only in the mid 80s and everyone seemed to enjoy themselves, knowing they had survived one of the most grueling NARAMs flown in recent memory. Cheers to all the contestants who worked hard at flying and at range duty. It was a hard card of events for the RSOs to deal with under hot and humid weather. Timers and trackers also "earned their pay" this year. And through it all, most everyone kept their cool and had a good time, welcoming the challenge. ======== Newsgroups: rec.models.rockets Subject: NARAM - Misc thoughts From: Dan Wolf <73165.1463@CompuServe.COM> Date: 17 Aug 1996 01:14:52 GMT Other miscellaneous thoughts on NARAM: The Hotel: The hotel was in a good location and for the most part worked out well. My family hit the pool every day after the range closed and it really "hit the spot". The last NARAM where I went swimming every day was NARAM-21. The continental breakfast worked out great and was a nice time to meet and smooze with the other participants. With all of the restaurants on Green River, and Buy Low, Walmart and Hobby Town nearby, it was a very nice setup. A gas station was also conveniently located on the corner of the road to the field that sold ice. Awards Banquet: Too long. I saw more than one attendee fall asleep during the proceedings and I'm not talking about A divisioners. It's a shame they couldn't keep things moving a little faster. I was also kinda disappointed that there were no gift certificates for the places and that there was no "receiving line" to congratulate the winners. I kinda missed that. I think it's a nice thing for the first timers. Trophies: The championship trophies were just too darn big, IMHO. I managed to get mine home without taking it apart, but have no place to put this monstrosity in the house so it's destined for a corner of the basement. If John DeMar's daughters would have been there, they would have asked why there was a "naked lady" on top instead of a rocket. Of course unique awards at NARAM are part of the tradition and the huge NARAM 38 championship trophies will go down in history along with the "bowls" awarded at NARAM-19, the Olympic medal style awards given at NARAM-21, and the "we ran out" no trophies in C Division at NARAM-22. Best sight was Southern Neutron having to take their pair of Team Championship trophies apart in the Robert's Stadium parking lot just to fit them in the car to get back to the hotel. Final thoughts: A good but grueling NARAM. The events were said to be chosen to "level the playing field". But the same people won who always do, so I dunno. It was fun to fly these events during the contest year 'cause each meet only had a couple of them. Flying them all together was harder than I expected, especially in the heat and humidity. Is there a Minnesota or Maine club interested in hosting next year's NARAM?