NARAM 33...

    The 33rd National Association of Rocketry Annual Meet was an experience. Because this year's event was being held in Elgin, Illinois, not far from where my brother lives, the idea of participating seemed workable. After a lot of coaxing by Mike Hellmund, and the foreboding choice of the LDRS-10 site, I was finally committed to this contest.

    This was the first event of this type that I participated in, and after attending LDRS 5 through 9, I was anticipating a change. Mike and I had been planning for this for several months, although it looked for a while that things may fall apart. Kevin Kuczek had planned on going, but decided to skip this year. Mike had to use most of his precious vacation time for an untimely personal matter, and at first it appeared he would also back out of the contest Somehow, he managed to find enough free time to attend the last three days of the event, otherwise I may have canceled my plans to attend, also.

    Our plan was to enter the contest as a team, and early on we decided on the name "Peripheral Visionaries". We talked Kevin into assisting us In preparing for the event, and he became our third team member, flying by proxy, sort of. Without his expertise, our efforts would has been far less than what we had accomplished.

    One event that really held my interest since it's announcement was the radio controlled rocket glider event (RC/RG), although afterwards I felt that I should have skipped the event, and concentrated on some ofthe easier contests. I spent most my free time the three previous months designing and building my model, and very few on any others. Our original plan was to enter all of the events, but as the time grew shorter, we knew we would have to skip a couple of the more time consuming contests.

    Kevin and I spent a lot of time trying to develop techniques for lightweight fiberglass tubes, and in fact had only created two useable tubes the night before I left. Kevin and Mike were still building models the next few days for Mike to take with him on the plane.

    I had decided early on to drive to the contest, and had left around noon on a miserable Saturday morning, as a steady downpour made me feel almost grateful to be getting away for a while. My trip out was mostly uneventful, although my 11 year old Toyota with 120,000 miles on it decided to come down with a case of vapor lock after the first 300 miles. I had just resumed my journey after stopping for lunch and a fill up when the problem began. I made it to the next exit off of Interstate 80, and pulled into the nearest gas station. I met a very helpful resident who said he used to work at the station, and was apparently just visiting his friends there, and I explained my problem to him. He was sure my problem was due to vapor lock caused by the 10% Ethanol gas that I had just bought and the hot weather. By the time I understood what he was trying to tell me, my car and the weather had cooled off enough to allow me continue without incident. Thereafter, I made sure I used only regular unleaded gas in my car!

    Around 11:00 PM I decided to find a motel for the night, and after my second fill up, I began looking for a place to stay. This turned out to be a bigger problem than I expected. There was a number of Best Western motels along the highway, but these and any others were already full. I decided to keep heading east until I found one with a vacancy, as I didn't see any other options. Finally, I found a "Travel Lodge" In West Des Moines, Iowa at about 1:00 AM.

    I had traveled nearly 700 miles on Saturday, so the remaining 300 miles was easy. I arrived Sunday afternoon at my brother's place, and had a few hours to visit before heading up to the Elgin Holiday Inn to register for the event and attend the flyers meeting. I finally caught up with Ed and Todd Schneider, who also drove out, and had stopped at the Flight Systems, Incorporated, facilities on the way. They had an interesting visit with the owner of the company, andpicked up a few FSI products during their stay. The flyers meeting wasn't particularly interesting, as only about half of the contestants attended, and the biggest issue was a lack of parking space at the launch site.

    I arrived at the launch site Monday morning. At first the field appeared adequate for the event, but as the day wore on, It was apparent that my first impression was in error. We would be flying "1/2A" Streamer Duration and "A" Parachute Duration events, and I decided to wait for a while and observe a few flights before attempting my own. I was hoping the low cloud cover and steady winds would subside soon. Todd had attempted one of the earlier "D" Streamer model flights, and as I tried to help him recover the model, I had my first encounter with the treacherous foliage found throughout the recovery area. To the west of the launch pads was a railroad track running about 20 feet above the ground, and was bordered by very large thorny bushes on each side. Todd's model landed right in the middle of one of these bushes which gave us a good fight before relinquishing the rocket. I returned with more scratches than I cared to count, but as the meet went on, this turned out to be the least of our recovery problems.

    Seeing that the weather would onlybe turning worse, I readied our first streamer model for flight. This time, Ed was on top of the tracks to attempt to recover the rocket, as I knew this would be a long duration flight. Kevin had put together a couple of very nice streamer models, and losing them was a distinct possibility. The first flight was perfect as the model drifted out of sight and never did appear to come down. Unfortunately, the low cloud cover and hazy skies made tracking difficult Our time was only about 2 minutes. This was typical of a majority of the flights, and luck was a big factor not only in recovery, but in getting good times, also. Since one model must be returned, I decided to reduce the steamer size for the next flight. I did recover the model, but had a time of only about a minute. The combined times weren't good enough to place in the event, but at least I was beginning to feel comfortable as part of the competition. Todd had a good second flight and took first in his division in this event.

    I had some problem in the parachute duration event as my first flight ejected the engine, a disqualification, and the second had a parachute deployment problem. Todd has a couple of good flights, and ended up in second place. I gained a new appreciation for test flying before a contest. I felt somewhat disappointed, wondering what Mike had talked me into, and wishing he was there already, sharing in the frustration.

    The annual business meeting was held Monday evening. The highlights were the NAR board member elections and the announcement by Pat Miller of next year's NARCON in Colorado Springs In May 1992.

    Tuesday's events consisted of "C" Helicopter Duration and "A" Rocket Glider. The weather was a carbon copy of Mondays, and I decided to try the helicopter event first. I began with Kevin's version of a Rose-a-Roc design, expecting this model to sail out of sight. My expectations proved to be correct as the model flew perfectly, and vanished over the trees in the west. Unfortunately, our time was only 110 seconds, as the model disappeared into the mist long before it came down. I attempted the second flight with a model I designed. It had flown once before on a B engine, and had less than a minute time. I fully expected to return this model as required for a qualified flight. To my dismay however, the rocket nearly matched the previous flight, spinning out of sight before landing beyond the tracks into or beyond a field of 12 foot weeds. I saw no hope of recovering the mode, and while we had a 79 second second flight, I thought we were out of the event. Later, however we heard that Kevin's model was returned in time to qualify, so our points would be counted, but when we tried to get the model back, no one knew where is was. Todd didn't fair as well as he did the day before, as his first helicopter flight DQ'd and the second one was lost over in the same area as mine.

    The "A" Rocket Glider Duration contest was also a major disappointment, again with an untested model. While the model glided nicely, it performed a giant loop during the boost phase, and was very low during the glide phase. My attempts to correct the problem only resulted in a bigger loop. On bath flights, the model nearly flew through the range official's tent, and I was concerned about a DQ for flying a dangerous model. However, the officials were extremely lenient during the contest, and both flights qualified. Neither time was good enough to be competitive. Todd had problems with his entry in this event Hs spent the last evening building the model, but broke the rocket while trimming the glider, and the field repairs didn't hold up to the launch loads, resulting in a spectacular shredding of the model.

    Well, Mike finally arrived Tuesday night, and wasn't real pleased with our results so far. I knew however, that his viewpoint would be improved as soon as hs saw the launch site. The manufacturers forum was held that evening. Representatives from many of the rocketry companies, including Estes, AeroTech, North Coast, and a new company called MicroBrick were on hand to answer questions and promote their products. Most had some new items to announce, but in spite of Mike's heckling (almost to the point of embarrassment), Mary Roberts covered inquiries on Estes' plans by neither confirming or denying anything. One item of interest was North Coast's radio controlled glider patterned after a space shuttle, was made from styrofoam and should sell for around $40.

    Wednesday was not a good day, as the rain came early. Mike and I had just about finished prepping our "B" Eggloft Altitude model when the range was shut down due to rain. We decided that this was a good time for lunch, but when we returned, everyone had left. We felt that canceling the events for the day was a premature decision, as the rain had subsided by that time.

    So, while I spent the rest of the day finishing my radio controlled rocket glider, Mike scouted out the manufacturers' offerings and generally menaced anyone he could find to converse with. Since we lost most of a day of flying, the decision was made to allow only one flight each for the "A" payload and "B" Eggloft flights the next day, and move the 120 second precision duration event to Friday. The R&D presentations were held Wednesday evening, although only Ed and Todd felt compelled to attend. I was locking for a good night's sleep, as I had been averaging about 5 hours a night since 1 arrived.

    Thursday started out with a rain shower. but it subsided shortly after we arrived, turning out to be a fairly nice day. Today, Mike would gain some firsthand experience searching through the Illinois Jungle. We began with our "B" egglofter, and the flight was a very good one, with an altitude of 106 meters. For a while, it looked like the model was lost in the high weeds, but I just happened to walk by it, finding it hanging from the side ot a bush. The egg survived intact, and we thought our score would be enough for a trophy, but as the event progressed, our altitude was exceeded several times. Ed flew his egglofter, but his 40 meter altitude was not enough to place well in the stiff "C" division competition. This was the only event he competed in, but hopefully he'll enter more next year. Todd had more problems as he DQ'd on his Eggloft attempt. We flew our "A" payloader next, and because we had only one flight to qualify, we decided to fly it without the piston launch accessory Kevin included in the design. We felt we had an optimum model, and wanted to eliminate any possible problem during the flight. The model performed flawlessly, as ws obtained a 116 altitude, and were tied for first place for a short time. Two other models beat our score, as we ended up tied for second as a team and tied for third overall. For some reason, the "C" Division competitors were combined with the Team Division. Obviously, someone was too cheap to award separate trophies for the two groups, and members of both expressed some negative feelings about this scheme. This was done last year also, and was not supposed to have been repeated. Hopefully, this policy will not reoccur next year. Todd had another DQ in this event, but ended his streak of troubles in the next event.

    Todd had a couple of nice flights in "B" Boost Glider to earn him a second place. Mike and I eventually trimmed and launched our "B" Boost Glider. The first flight begun perfectly, as the model floated in gentle circles above the launch site. Suddenly, the glider began stalling wildly, and was nearly lost In the waist high field next to the launch site. Apparently, the clay weight we used to trim the model fell off during the flight, and caused the problem. Our second flight wasn't very good, as our trimming wasn't as desirable as the first flight, and our score in the event was somewhat of a letdown.

    Finally, the radio controlled rocket glider event was underway, and I had some doubts concerning our entry. We never had a chance for a good test flight, and I had never flown an R/C glider before. I tried to build the model to practically fly itself, and all I hoped for was a qualifying flight. The weather was turning bad as we prepped the flight, and at liftoff the wind suddenly picked up. The model took off very nicely, and deployed its folding wings as expected. The high winds then proceeded to push the model directly in the opposite direction of the landing spot. Any attempt to turn the model only resulted in a loss of altitude, and it finally collided with a tree and hung suspended about 30 feet up.

    My brother climbed up to retrieve the model, and I was surprised to see that no significant damage was done. The wind wasn't letting up, so we decided not to attempt another flight Still, I was pleased with the results. The flight wasn't as good as we hoped, but better than we expected. We ended up fifth out of six as a team in the event, as another competitor's model got up to about 25 feet high and then buried itself into the ground next to the pad.  

    Thursday evening's auction was uplifting, as a lot of interesting items were sold, some at outrageous prices. An old Estes Mark kit that Jay Apt carried on his Space Shuttle flight went for about $100. I bought a Scud and a Klingon kit, and a pile of old Estes catalogs. Mike got some old Estes range box stickers, decals and assorted items. Todd bought a couple of kits, and Ed bought a range box. I donated an old "C.R.A.S.H." shirt to the auction, and it went for $25, along with some MPC engines. All of the money raised went to a fund for new launch equipment for future NAR events.

    Friday had only half the day scheduled for launches since the flights in these event were not expected to travel very far, I felt my excursions through the perilous vegetation were about over, however Mike had other ideas. Our attempts at the day's events were less than spectacular, although Todd took second In Precision Duration and third in spot landing.

    Mike flew his Estes Black Brant with an E30 motor for Precision Duration. It was a great flight, but only stayed up for 70 seconds or so, far from the required two minutes. We thought it was lost in the high weeds, and Mike was ready to leave the model behind, as he wore shorts that day and didn't want to brave the wilderness. I volunteered for the dangerous duty, and once again I got lucky and walked right up to it.

    I built an Estes Scout III the night before for spot landing, and Mike and I argued about the best engine to use. He wanted to use an A8-3, while I felt a C6-7 would do the job. We compromised on a B4-4, but this tuned out to be a poor choice, as the model landed farther from the spot than we started. Once again I was plodding through the weeds to recover it, and it turned out that it didn't even land there; it was right next to the road into the launch area. We still had opposing opinions on what engine we should have used!

    We watched a few flights of the Peanut Scale models. Todd took a second place with a nice Little Joe II model. I left early to put new brake pads on my car, and Mike attended the Jay Apt slide show in the afternoon. He thought it was an impressive presentation, with a lot of fine photographs from the Space Shuttle.

    The Awards banquet was held that evening, and although the food was good, the rest of the evening wasn't very enjoyable. Since we tied for third in the "A" Payload event, only one trophy was available, and we will have to wait for ours to be mailed to us. Not only did nearly everyone at our table collect a number of trophies, Mike, Ed, and I were shut out of the drawing prizes. Todd, however, won a rocket kit and fifty dollars in the drawing. He also collected $65 worth of Estes gift certificates with his 6 trophies for his efforts.

     My return trip was uneventful for the most part. Overall, I enjoyed NARAM 33, in spite of our poor showing. Mark Bundick and the rest of the contest officials did an outstanding job organizing and running the contest, even allowing for the terrible field and conditions. The contestants showed a high level of sportsmanship, particularly in returning other flyers' models.

    I met a lot of people that I had only read about, including Pat Miller, Vern Estes, Bob Sanford, Matt Steele, Jay Apt, and George Gassaway, and I was surprised that people recognized me from my work on our club newsletter. This was a great learning experience, and am actually looking forward to NARAM 34 in Las Vegas! The most important advice I can pass on to those planning to go next year is to start building your models NOW!!