By Kathleen Williams

    Call us "CRAZY", but we did travel from Colorado to Pennsylvania with our four children for NARAM 41. We took it relatively slow on our way to Pennsylvania taking in a few sites along the way. Our first stop was the Cosmosphere in Kansas. This was a definite hit with all of our children. We also stopped at the St. Louis Arch, Kirtland, Ohio, Lake Erie and finally to Pennsylvania for NARAM 41.

THE MINUSES

    We had some problems with our room reservations at the host hotel with lasted throughout our stay. The field was small and surrounded by trees with wild roses, black berries rambling across the forest floor. My first thought was, we could hold a NARAM at C.R.A.S.H.'s regular launch site at Bear Creek Lake Park! The only thing different would be having enough parking. I wondered why Bruce Markielewski and other past NARAM competitors felt that our field was too small for such an event. I quickly found out on the first day of competition. It wasn't much fun to watch your competition rocket models end up in a "rocket eating" tree. Although, I much prefer our launch site hazards (i.e. the reservoir, the long hike around the dam or the golf course).  At least in most cases we able to successfully retrieve our models.

    The small field made NARAM 41 more of a competition for strategy rather than one of those for competitors who like to "push the envelope" for models designed to catch thermals or drift quite a distance. Many of the timers would also stop their watches once they could no longer see a model even if for a second while it turned "edge on" to their view. I feel that it would have been more competitive if the events had been better suited to such a small field with a somewhat hazardous border. Sometimes the time given for competitors to launch their models on a given day seemed a little short. For example on B Egg Loft Duration day the range was only open for four hours. One of these hours had to be spent doing your assigned range duty.  If you didn't already have a model built, you were at a definite disadvantage.

THE PLUSES

    We met many people and were able to put faces with familiar names. The NARAM 41 committee members were very hospitable. The meetings were spread out so that you could attend most if not all of them. The sport range was well suited to the small models we brought to launch on it. Our youngest son, Ferrin, launched his Estes "Moon Dog" twice. Todd launched his QCR "Mary Poppins Bumbershoot" successfully only to have several appeals from the crowd to launch it again, which he did.

     Our children probably had one of the best experiences because there were so many playgrounds to choose from and so many other children close in age for them to play with. Our eldest, Christiana even managed to bring home a fourth place trophy for "B" Rocket Glide Duration.

    Overall, NARAM 41 was a success. We had an enjoyable trip with our children, brought home a trophy and they some some parts of our country that they had only read about. Our NARAM experience is probably best summed up by Christiana, "It was okay other than the trees.  I liked competing, but I agree that there were problems withsome of those who timed events. Overall, the competition was fairer because I competed with others in my age division; but I still like competing against adults. It's more fun to beat them!" Watch out A Division competitors; she'll be ready for our NARAM in Colorado next summer.

Monday, 8-9-99
C-Payload and A-Helicopter Multi-round:

    My C-Payload qualifies on Estes C6-7 at 400-something meters on the first flight and then goes 566 meters on Apogee C10-7 power on the second flight. This motor is "major gas". It lands off the field but does not hang up in a tree (a minor miracle).  It was returned for qualified flight and 5th place.

    A-Helicopter Multi-round was my usual mystery event. My tested and usually reliable models suddenly would not deploy.  Flying on Apogee A2-3 power, they boosted high. Three flights were:  SPLAT! - 115 seconds - SPLAT! The result was two broken models and 10th place. Sigh.........

Tuesday, 8-10-99
1/2A SR Alt and B Rocket Glider:

    My 1/2A SR model went 92 meters on first flight with Apogee 1/2A2-4. The model was standard 10.5mm Apogee tubing by 1 meter long, launched from tower. I should have used piston launcher.  Chad Ring used one to win at 162 meters. Impressive. My second flight not as good at 80-something meters.  I finished somewhere in top 10.

    My proven slide-wing B Rocket Glider goes up as the first flight of the day, boosts real high on B2-0, finds buoyant air and disappears into the woods.  Timers clicked off at 70-some-odd seconds. I looked for the model for 1-1/2 hours, no luck. No return, no placing - I got flight points.

Wednesday, 8-11-99
1/2A Flex-wing and A-Streamer Multi-round:

    I finished up the flexies in NARAM tradition the night before the event - the 4th and 5th flexies that I have built. These are 110 degree angle style, standard diamond shape. First flight was a real lucky one - boosted well on Estes 1/2A3-4T but spun about half way down, then leveled out long enough for the RSO to call it qualified, made two nice gliding circles  and then spun in.  Actually worked out OK since I needed a return flight and the field was REAL small for flying these floaters.  I changed to second flexie which was trimmed somewhat better for second flight. I got good boost and ejection into a marginal piece of air and the model floated in light drift to the very edge of the trees. I was in 1st until around 2:00PM when the other  fliers pushed me down to 5th place.

    I totally blew it in A-Streamer Multi-round. My 13mm streamer models using Apogee A2-5 power work great in Colorado, not so well here.  After watching Paul thermal his number one model into the trees and putting my first flight there also, I cut down the streamer on my second model. This, plus crummy air picking on my part, gave me three average flights which placed me somewhere around 10th.  I lost the second model anyway.

Thursday, 8-12-99
B Eggloft Duration:

    This event was a reminder to always test out my designs BEFORE the contest. I was flying my more or less standard Egglofter design with Apogee B7-4 power, with a 36" mylar chute. If I had test flown this combination I would have seen the problem and made the necessary changes. As it was, the Egglofter / motor combination went well over the top of apogee and lost considerable altitude before ejection. I only put in one flight on this, of about 45 seconds duration, good for around 13th place.  I should have used Estes B6-2 in this model.

Friday, 8-13-99
Sport Scale and Open Spot Landing:

    I did not fly sport Scale at this contest.  I guess I'm not much of a Scale builder.Open Spot Landing - Lets just say that my flight strategy resulted in a flight that probably qualified as landing the farthest from the spot - DUH!, wrong move, Sparky.

Impressions and opinions:

    This was my first trip back East to fly rockets and it was something of a shocker.  In some ways, I suppose I let the size of the flying field psych me out.  I tell you what, kiddies, it was SMALL.  Of course, it was the same for everyone.  If I were to do it again, I would wait until later in the day to fly.  Where good lift is prevalent here in Colorado early, the best air back East seems to occur somewhat later in the day.  The good fliers there exhibit great patience, flying only when the conditions are really good.

    I didn't observe anything radical or unusual in the models.  The majority of the Egglofters were of the shroud type of construction and were very light. They flew real well on low power B motivation.  Glenn Feveryear won C Payload at 721 meters (wow!) with a very nice fiberglass model and Apogee C10 power.  Ducky Klouser won both glider events (B Rocket and 1/2 A Flexie) with superb patience and air picking. Chad Ring went 162 meters in 1/2 A SR.  Amazing.  Bob Kaplow parked his Egglofter in a  thermal for over 30 minutes only to have it go bye-bye for No Return.  There were other superior performances, but these are the ones that stand out for me.

    In closing, I need to do my "Proud Daddy" bit. Paul had a really GOOD contest, winning two 1sts, two 3rds, four 4ths and two 5ths in his events.  He finished in Fourth Place in his division in this contest - out flew the old man, as usual.