NARAM 58 Summary

It's been almost a month since NARAM ended and I didn't do any of the posts that I planned on doing giving updates on how great it was!  I thought I did a post about Tuesday, but I guess I didn't, so this post is going to be a summary of all things NARAM 58 post Monday Madness.

Tuesday was D Rocket Glider Destruction day and the carry over from G Streamer Duration.  D RG was a fun event that I finished building our model for the night before.  Tuesday morning, we went out and set it up on the pad and it went straight up beautifully, arced over and snapped the wing spar in two places.  The wing stayed intact, so we glued it back together and tried again and had a repeat. The wing is still in perfect condition... maybe I'll try again another time.

Tuesday night was also the Cannon Benefit Auction.  The auction was run by Randy and Amanda Boadway who did a phenomenal job auctioning off the items!  There was also a special guest appearance by Vern and Gleda Estes.  Vern brought a couple of items from their private collection to auction off.

Wednesday began with what some of us lovingly refer to as Stupid Roc, or (1/2A) Super Roc altitude, and A Helicopter.  Team Qualified Flight came, we flew, and we hit the pool, until the SQS meeting that afternoon.  The Expanding Competition Subcommittee had their formal presentation at 6 pm and personally I thought it went really well.  The committee gave a basic overview of the draft of SQS and answered questions and addressed concerns that were presented at the presentation.  They also explained that a draft of SQS will be on the NAR website for members of the NAR to make recommendations on how to make the draft better.  They said the page will be up only for helpful comments and suggestions, not as a forum for members to go back and forth, that is why Croc exists.  Wednesday night was also the night for A and C division R&D report presentations.

Thursday was all about C Parachute Duration Multi Round.  There were a lot of great flights on Wednesday and a lot of models that were thought to be lost forever that kept making their way back.  B and T Divisions gave their R&D reports on Thursday night.  Downstairs, scale models were on display for everyone to look at and admire.

Friday was Plastic Model Mayhem and E Scale Altitude.  There were a lot of beautiful and successful flights, but there were also some heartbreaking crashes.  Plastic Model Mayhem always keeps everyone on their toes!  

Throughout the week, there was a Fly-It-Take-It tent where kids visiting NARAM could go pick up a premade model and fly it over on the sport range before taking it home.  Also on the sport range were a couple of fun high-power competitions that received recognition at the banquet Friday night with the other competition awards.  Another award that was presented Friday was the Gregorek Award.  This award recognizes an A division competitor that shows excellent craftsmanship in a non-craftsmanship event.  This year, the award was presented to Ryan Estrada for his D Rocket Glider.

John Hochheimer was introduced as the new NAR president and thanked John Buckley and the hosting sections for putting on a wonderful NARAM.  Mr. Buckley also thanked the sections who helped him put together NARAM, as well as his mentors who were former contest directors, and his wife who helped to set everything up and keep him sane.  As of right now, there has been no official announcement of where/when NARAM 59 will be.

Thank you to John Buckley, Jackie Buckley, Saint Louis Rocketry Association, Kansas City Association of Rocketry, Kansas Organization for Spacemodeling, Launch Crue, Missouri Civil Air Patrol, and Teeniemunde Rocket Club for putting on a fantastic NARAM!  Thank you to the new national board for sacrificing your time and energy to improve the hobby, and thank you to the committees that have been formed, both past and present, for the work that you have done, are doing, and will do to promote and expand model rocketry as a hobby.

At this point I am back at college, so I will update the blog as much as I can, but school comes first.  Hopefully I'll be able to post something once in awhile.  Until next time, fly high, stay safe, and have fun!

NARAM 58- Monday

The first official contest flight of NARAM was flown by Qualified Flight, Pool, then Beverages on Monday morning.  Our Open Spot Landing model, Bunny, flew great but was outside of the  measuring circle around the spot.  The spot was a florescent orange cow skull.... welcome to NARAM at Missouri, there's always something interesting and fun!  G Streamer Duration had to be pushed off because of the low cloud deck.  Because of that, there weren't a lot of flights yesterday.

The Town Hall Meeting was Monday night with the elections of the Board of Trustees and the State of the NAR.  The 2012-2016 NAR President, Ted Cochran, made his last Town Hall Meeting presentation and was presented a plaque for his service, which was followed by a standing ovation from the entire room.

The events for Tuesday are D Rocket Glider and potentially G Streamer Duration.  In the evening will be the Cannon Auction at 7 pm, so bring your money!  Wednesday is  1/2 A Super-Roc Altitude with altimeter and A Helicopter Duration with the SQS presentation from the committee from 6-8 pm and the A and C division R&D reports following the presentation.  Questions will be answered after the presentation from the committee.

Stay tuned for Tuesday's updates tomorrow, now that my D Rocket Glider has been built.... twice.  Until next time, fly high, stay safe, and have fun!

NARAM 58- Travel and Sunday Night Meeting

Springfield, Missouri in the summer is hot, humid, beautiful, and this year it is where NARAM (National Association of Rocketry Annual Meet) 58 is being held, which makes it fun!  My dad, my sister, and I made the drive out to Missouri and made it to the event hotel around midday on Friday.  Missouri looks a lot like Pennsylvania in Springfield, but around other areas, it's really flat.

The Lamplighter Inn is a nice event hotel for this year.  The staff is really nice and helps in anyway they can to accommodate all of our needs.  The rooms don't have a lot of storage space in the double bed rooms, but it's very doable.  For the first time ever I have taken advantage of the build room.  I never knew what a fantastic place it is!  My D Glider is coming along a little slower than I intended, but it's more fun piecing it together while talking to other modelers that are doing last minute builds and adjustments as well.

Saturday afternoon, my mom joined us in Springfield and Sunday morning we decided to checkout the field and walk down vendor row.  The field here is fantastic!  We are on a big farm field with lots of cows all around us.  There were a lot of vendors on the field on Sunday and lots of locals were taking advantage of the Fly-It-Take-It tent.

After a quick trip to the field, we decided it was time for a little tourist attraction trip... yes you can do that at a NARAM!  We went to Fantastic Caverns and explored their really cool caves.  The caves are 60 degrees Fahrenheit all year round, so it was literally cool.  There was a lot of history with the caves and it was a really interesting and fun experience.  Fantastic Caverns has one of the only driving tours through a cave in the world.  If you get a chance to go, you definitely should check it out.

My teammate and I took the afternoon on Sunday to decorate our PMC (Plastic Model Conversion) before turn in and had fun with decorating "The Bunny" for Open Spot Landing and a G Streamer model that our other teammate sent and swore would be decorated before he sent it.... Mike this is what happens when you leave Bubbles and Sparkles to decorate your models.

Sunday night was the competitors' briefing and scale turn in.  The briefing was pretty short and answered a lot of questions about the field and the rules for first time competitors.  There were reminders about rules and requirements for scale and some of the altitude events, which led to some hole drilling for our E Scale Altitude model before turn in.

NARAM 58 is going really well so far and has been a lot of fun.  Competition started today with a couple of hitches with weather.  We will have the Town Hall Meeting tonight starting at 7 pm central time.  Tuesday is the Cannon Benefit Auction at 7 pm, Wednesday is the presentation on SQS at 6 pm and Research and Development for A and C divisions from 8-10 pm.The NARAM 58 website is staying updated with the announcements about the field, flying, and other events, check there if you have any questions: http://www.naram58.org/.  Chris Taylor has been taking amazing pictures of everything going on and got a video of last night's meeting, so check out his website, NARAMLive, for pictures of the fun and maybe some videos later too!

I'll try to do more updates throughout the week.  Until next time, fly high, stay safe, and have fun!

Letter to You, My Friends

Hey everyone!

My first year of college is finally under my belt and I have made the adjustment from dorm living back to living at home and back to working.  Because of finishing my Spring semester of college, taking finals, making those transitions, and having a social life (yes I do have one!), it's been a bit of a struggle making it back here to give you all an update.  I am finally back with an update/letter that I felt was necessary for myself and that I hope you will read all the way through and consider.

A lot has changed since my last update.  The new system WILL NOT be in effect for the next NARAM, it will only be formally presented at NARAM 58.  There will be a period of time for evaluation/revision.  Please take note of this.  There has been a lot of confusion, frustration, and fear about this, it will not be in effect immediately.  Next, the committee knows there are concerns and skeptics (keep in mind I do not speak for them and am not part of the meetings, ContestRoc is an open source for everyone).   They are still competitors and know your concerns, they have been listening to them for years.  They are transforming ideas every day to make this new system fit the needs of the hobby as best as possible.  Please trust them to do this.  I know trusting people is hard sometimes, but I think you will all be very happy with the results.  Trust the people in the committee, they were chosen for a reason and come from all realms of the competition world.

Please give the committee a chance.  Please give the new system a chance to finish being developed before you start over analyzing details that aren't even on paper yet.  Please wait for the committee to present what it has, you will get better results by giving them time and room to work.

I apologize for the late update, but before I end this post, I have something I would like you to consider.  How can you judge a child's attitude, performance, behavior, ambition, or personality before it is fully formed and born?  How can you judge this system when it is also still being formed and not ready to be introduced to the world?  Have patience, have faith, have trust because I have hope that this system will solve more problems than I ever intended it to solve, just as a child can grow to become so much more than you could ever imagine.  When I sat down during NARAM 57 and wrote my article, I only had the basis of an idea to help B Division.  Now the committee is working on so much more than just helping to save B Division, they're helping to restore the hobby.  This hasn't been my project since last summer, it is theirs and they are doing amazing things!

Yours,
Michala

Board Meeting Update

I did everything I could this morning to keep myself busy and to forget what time it was.  I went to my class, stopped by the research lab, began doing my make-up work, watched YouTube videos, I even cleaned up  my dorm room!  It felt like today went on forever.  I was completely aware of the time throughout the entire day.

As 3:00 approached, I became more excited and anxious.  I found more things to do, more ways to distract myself.  3:30 came and slowly left, then 4:00, 4:30, and then 5:00.  I still hadn't heard any news about the presentation on SQS.  Dad promised to let me know how things went as soon as he could.  What was taking so long?

I was getting worried around 6:00 when I still hadn't heard anything.  I started to think that maybe the board didn't like the idea after all, maybe everything was going too fast.  Just as I was starting to think that he wouldn't tell me until after dinner, Dad sent me the text I had been waiting for at 6:19.  I held my breath as I opened it.

"Unanimous approval to move forward.  Full final package to be ready for presentation at NARAM town hall.  NARAM 59 will be the first under the new system."

It's happening!  SQS will be implemented!  When I got the text, I couldn't believe it.  We were all expecting to have more revisions and for a longer process.  From the moment I put thoughts to paper, this entire process has never been slow.

via GIPHY

I am so excited, blown away, and humbled right now.  It's so amazing to think that at this time next year, I will be getting ready to fly at the first NARAM under SQS rules and guidelines.  The committee has done such an amazing job getting SQS this far and there is no doubt in my mind that they will have the "final package" ready in time to present at the Town Hall meeting in July.  There's still a lot to be done and I will be starting an outreach to help give SQS a kick-start here at Penn State.  

This is just the beginning of the journey and I can't wait to watch this all play out!  Until next time, fly high, stay safe, and have fun!

Where Are We Now?

Three weeks into my first semester at Penn State, I was sitting in my room about to put a bag of popcorn in the microwave when I got a text from Mom, "Call your dad.  It's important."

I sighed, threw my popcorn in the microwave, hit start, and brought up Dad's number.  The phone barely rang twice before he picked up.  The first few kernels started to pop as he began to talk.  As the kernels popped faster and louder, so did my heart.  I couldn't believe what Dad was saying.  The committee he was working on had started the first draft of a statement that would announce their intentions to use my idea to change competition flying forever.  As the smell of salty, buttery popcorn started to fill my dorm room, tears flooded my eyes.  I sank to the floor in front of the microwave and began to laugh.  It was happening.  My idea was going to become a plan, a proposal to change the hobby I love.  I was going to help make an impact and hopefully keep people interested and involved in the hobby.

After that night, the committee began to move on to expand upon their proposal.  Drafts of possible rule sets and guidelines were made.  A completely new form of competition began to be developed.  My idea was given a name, NAR Spacemodeling Qualifier Series, or SQS.  I have been given a couple drafts of SQS to look over and make comments on, and Zach just saw SQS for the first time earlier this week.

I could not be more excited about what the committee is doing to shape SQS.  My ideas are still the basis of this new form of competition, but SQS has evolved and developed into a great concept that I could have never created on my own.  

I am so thrilled to report that SQS will be making its first public appearance this Friday, February 26, 2016 at NARCON (National Association of Rocketry Convention) in Dayton, Ohio.  SQS will be presented to the board, sometime after 3:00 pm Eastern Time, by the committee that has brought it this far.  This committee has developed a great set of rules and has thought of different aspects that I would have never thought about.  I look forward to seeing how this committee continues to transform and adjust this idea in order to make it practical and plausible to help drive competitive flying and the hobby in general forward. 

When I started to develop this idea in Arizona during NARAM 57, I didn't let myself think about this idea getting as far as it already has, especially in such a short period of time.  I came up with the general idea that SQS has now transformed into a plausible and realistic set of rules that I believe, with a little more work, could reshape contest flying and drastically improve the hobby. 

I learned a lot about myself during this process and what I am capable of.  I was able to come up with an idea that was deemed interesting enough to warrant further investigation and a committee and may help to evolve my favorite hobby.  I learned that putting myself and my ideas out there can result in amazing connections and great opportunities.  More than anything, though, I proved to myself and others that I am more than capable of stepping up and creating solutions, even when no one expects a solution to be found.  Today, don't be afraid to step up in a new way or share an idea.  You never know what may happen.

As soon as I know more about how things went at NARCON, I'll create another update, so stay tuned to see how everything turns out!  Until next time, fly high, stay safe, and have fun!

Articles, Committees, and the Vice President

The airplanes that we flew on on the way home weren't up nearly as high as my spirits were as we made the long trip back to Pennsylvania.  As soon as we got back to the house and unloaded the car, I began to draft an email to John H. with my article attached.  It was late and my parents were in bed by the time I finished.  I sent the email first thing the next morning and anxiously waited a reply.  In the mean time, a final version of the article was sent to PSC for the newsletter.

John replied rather quickly to my email.  He liked the idea and wanted to do something about it and see what could be done to make my idea a reality!  Nothing was official, but he thought it could work, and that's all I needed to hear.  He began to talk about committees and how my article could take shape into something great.  He was working on setting up two different committees and wanted me to join the committee that he would be heading.  My role would be minor.  I would give advice on how to implement ideas in order to get more B division aged contestants involved in the hobby.  Dad was brought onto the committee that would be shaping my idea into a possible reality.

I was over the moon!  Things had been taking shape so quickly I could barely wrap my mind around it all.  In less than a week, I had taken an idea, written it out, tested a small group's reaction, shared it with the vice president, and my article was having a committee formed around it to develop it and create a possible implementation.  Talk about whiplash!

I was so excited, and everyone was excited for me.  I had the potential to change the entire hobby, hopefully for the better.

The next couple weeks flew by quickly.  I went to a picnic with PSC after the newsletter was released and a lot of people were talking about it.  Everyone was excited.  People knew that committees were being formed, but no one knew that my article was going to be the primary focus of Dad's committee.  Those details were being kept a "secret" for now, more of a don't ask don't tell situation.

I began packing for college and figured that the rapid pace that my article was moving at would slow down quite a bit, I just hoped that it wouldn't be thrown out.  I arrived at Penn State and began to adjust to college life.  I was only on campus for a couple weeks when I got a call that changed my perspective completely.

Until next time,  fly high, stay safe, and have fun!

Change of Plans

For the rest of the week, I was on cloud 9.  I had an article that everyone seemed to like that was already promised to be published in the Pittsburgh Space Command Newsletter as soon as we returned home, and I had an idea of what to do after that.  Granted, it wasn't an idea with a guaranteed positive outcome, but it was still a plan.

The rest of the week seemed to slip away.  As a family, we explored Tuscon a little bit at a time, enjoyed the local food, and took some great pictures along the way.  I didn't have many events that I was flying in at NARAM, so I found myself helping other competitors from my club and some of our friends from other clubs.  Zach and I kept talking about the article with our dads when no one else was really around and the Flying I-Beam Kids joined in occasionally as well.

Photo by Chris Taylor

Every year, the NAR helps a group of students from India to come to NARAM in order to build and fly rockets.  Since I really didn't plan on flying much, I decided to offer the vice president of the NAR, John H., my assistance on Thursday.  He almost immediately agreed since the group from India was flying a lot of models that day.  I had a lot of fun helping the crew from India and trying some of their snacks they brought along with them.  At the end of the day, they all got flown and John asked if I would be willing to help in the future.  I had a lot of fun, so I immediately agreed.

Friday night was the awards banquet.  NARAM was coming to an end.  I was excited to get home and start putting the wheels in motion to get my article out there for everyone to see.  The awards banquet seemed to go by quickly, and we began to socialize with our friends and say good bye until the next year.  John H. came over to thank me for my help and then he began talking to my dad.  I was sucked into another conversation, but when I looked back over awhile later, they were still talking.

When Dad and I finally made it back to the hotel room, he shut the door and handed me a business card.  I took it, thoroughly confused.  He looked at me and gave me a huge smile.  I looked down at the card in my hand, it was John's card.  I became even more confused.  Dad explained that he had been talking to John about "The B Division Problem".  John was getting worried that the problem was getting too big and no one seemed to know how to fix it.  No one on the board seemed to know what to do.  Dad had told him about my article and told him "What would you say if I told you that the kids are already coming up with ideas on how to fix it?"  Dad proceeded to tell him about my article.  John was interested.  The vice president of the NAR wanted to read my article!

Until next time, fly high, stay safe, and have fun!

Gaining Traction

Wednesday night, I headed down to the ballroom area with my parents for the A and B division Research and Development (R&D) presentations.  I usually look forward to listening to and presenting on this night of the competition, but I had decided not to submit my own report.  Instead, I was there strictly as an audience member, which was fun, but it couldn't distract me from wondering if Zach had read my article.

I sat there through presentation after presentation waiting and wondering.  I even perked up a little during Zach's presentation, but it still wasn't enough to distract me for long.  When the presentations finally ended, I began talking to some of the A and B division contestants and answered questions about why I hadn't presented tonight.  Out of the corner of my eye, I saw someone walking toward me.  It was Zach.  

We fielded questions and made small talk with people as we slowly made our way toward the door and out into the hallway.  Once we were outside, we found a table out of the way and sat down.  Quietly we began taking about the article, careful so that no one overheard us.  He really truly liked the ideas and the concepts!  He thought it could work and, just as I suspected, he wanted to help!  He had shown the article to his dad and they were all in, they just needed to know what to do.  Only problem was, I wasn't completely sure what was next either.

Dad and I had talked about a couple of options already.  The best idea we had at the time was to publish the article in the club's newsletter first, then after getting some feedback there, I would submit the article to Sport Rocketry, the national magazine, and see what happened.  It wasn't a great plan, but it was the best I could do.  In the meantime, everyone promised to keep things quiet until after NARAM... or at least that was the plan, but plans change.

Until next time, fly high, stay safe, and have fun!

The Next Step

The Town Hall Meeting takes place on the first night of NARAM.  This gave me the entire week of NARAM to start talking to people about my idea, or an entire week of torture to keep this idea quiet.  In the end, the week ended up being a healthy mix of both.  For the most part, I kept my article under wraps, but I needed someone else in B division to read it and give me feedback and suggestions.  Dad agreed and I went to the person who I knew felt the presence of this problem and wanted a solution just as badly as I did.  I went to one of the people that I knew I could trust to keep my article quiet, but would still give me honest feedback.  I went to Zach.

Zach and I share a lot of the same views on competition flying and he had been expressing similar frustrations when it came to not being able to fly as much during the contest year due to school.  He was an upcoming senior in high school and was already so concerned about keeping up with school work and competition flying that he already had plans to fly as a team with his dad for this season.  I knew that if my article and idea was anywhere close to being plausible, he would be excited and willing to help.

Photo by Chris Taylor

Two days later on the field, I finally found a chance to snag Zach away from the prying ears of the competition range and told him that I had an article that I thought he would like.  I gave him a quick summary and he gave me his email address.  As soon as I got back to the hotel, my computer was out, turned on, and the email was sent.  Now four people outside of my family had my article.  Zach was the first one outside of PSC to lay eyes on it.  This was a risk, and I was nervous about it, but I was also excited.

If my idea was leaked before the rest of the community was ready to see it or before it was worded and formed just right, my idea could be buried before it even had a chance to make roots.  It felt like I was holding my breath for the rest of the afternoon.  There was absolute silence from Zach.  No texts.  No emails.  Nothing.  I began to tell myself that he just hadn't checked his email or that he was preparing for his presentation later that night.  None of my self-reassurances could stop the sinking feeling in my stomach as the time came closer to his presentation and there was still no word from him.

Until next time, fly high, stay safe, and have fun!

My Article

I wrote, revised, and finished my article on July 27, 2015, just before the annual Town Meeting that takes place every year at NARAM.  Sometimes, ideas hit you at the most uncanny times.  This was one of those times.  Dad had recommended that I send my article to one of the guys in our club, Steve, to take a look at the article.  I sent it to him about an hour before the meeting thinking that he wouldn't take a look at it until later that night at the earliest.  By the time we walked down to the meeting room, he had not only read it, but he had really liked my ideas and had shared it with Rod and John (his teammates) as well!

The three of them arrived a couple minutes before the meeting started and stopped by quickly to tell me that they liked my ideas and looked forward to talking more bout them.  I was shocked and thrilled!  I had three people that genuinely liked my article, at the very least, I would have the article published in the club's newspaper.  Maybe from there it could expand its audience?

Photo by Chris Taylor

I tried to quiet my racing thoughts as the meeting started.  The NAR president,Ted, started his presentation on how the NAR was doing and what areas of the hobby needed more attention.  The further that he got into his presentation, the more excited I became.  One of the issues that was continuously being stressed was "The B Division Problem".  I kept leaning slightly forward to look around my mom to my dad to see if he was picking up on that too.  He was.  It took all of my self-control to restrain myself from jumping out of my seat in excitement.  Ted was asking people to do what they could to help encourage B division contestants to stick with the hobby and offer any ideas they had to work toward a solution.  I had an idea.

The Flying I Beam Kids, Steve, Rod, and John, came up to us after the meeting.  The five of us grouped together in a corner and began discussing my article.  They agreed, I had an idea, an idea that could work.  It was time to take the next step, already.  This idea was only a couple of hours old and it kept moving forward rather quickly.  The question was no longer whether or not my article would leave my computer.  Now the question was who should I go to next and how far would my idea make it?

Until next time, fly high, be safe, and have fun!

My Reaction

Arizona was a milestone for me.  It was during that trip to NARAM 57 in Tuscon, Arizona that I realized that I channel myself through writing.  I sat down in the hotel room after a long day on the rocketry field and poured out all of my frustrations about "The B Division Problem" through the keys of my laptop.  I sat in the chair in the hotel room rapidly typing out what the generalized problem was and how it is unfair to expect high school juniors and seniors and college students to be as active in the hobby as they were when they were in A division.

Think about your last couple years in high school and your time in college.  How much free time did you really have?  Was there enough to take an entire weekend or week out of your schedule to go fly rockets?  Probably not if you had a part time job or had big projects or events coming up.  What about the time spent building the rockets, where would that come in?

I wrote an entire article about the expectations and requirements of this age group to show why B division contestants were "disappearing" for a couple years.  When I finished I showed it to my dad.  he read it and looked at me and said it was good.  It was what people needed to know, but he said, "So how do we fix it?"  I sat there for a minute and thought about it before spitting out a couple ideas before I realized, we can't fix the problem, not permanently.  We can't fix "The B Division Problem" with how competition flying is currently set up.  It's not possible or feasible in the long run.  Competitive model rocketry must evolve if it wants to last for another 58 years.

I settled into the firm, red chair beside my bed in the corner of the hotel room, took a deep breath... and dove back in where I left off.  The rest of my family napped as I tapped key after key brainstorming, planning, developing, creating, evolving.  The air conditioning blew over me as I reshaped my thinking, reworded my thoughts, developed new theories. I began to let my mind wander where it couldn't before.  I dared to break the status quot.  When I got stuck, I brainstormed out loud and Dad chimed in with new ideas, a different perspective, and new problems that could arise.

I revised what I had written just moments before.  Dad looked it over and made more recommendations.  I adjusted again and gave it back.  We repeated this over and over until finally, we had it.  It wasn't perfect.  It wasn't any where near ready to present to the national board, but it was ready for fresh eyes.  I was ecstatic.  I had created idea that could solve "The B Division Problem" once and for all, but would it ever make it out of my laptop?  Would it ever be anything more than just an idea?  I wasn't sure and I was excited and terrified to find out if anyone else thought my article was worth while.

Until next time, fly high, stay safe, and have fun!

The B Division Problem

I have only missed two NARAMs since NARAM 50.  My family has been flying under PSC since then and has helped the club to earn several different awards through competition flying.  I have flown my way through A and B division and am beginning the next phase of my competition flying journey in Team division starting this year.

NARAMs have been a lot of fun for my family and me.  These competitions have given us the opportunity to meet new people and enjoy the hobby with our friends from across the country.  We also like to use NARAMs as an excuse to travel to and explore different states that we haven't visited before, such as Arizona and Michigan, and this summer we will travel to Missouri for NARAM 58.

These competitions have taught me a lot about myself and my abilities.  I have strengthened my presentation techniques and improved my building skills.  I have learned to detect thermals and sand an airfoil successfully.  I've learned the value of being able to think quickly to fix a problem and the value of being early to an event.  Rocketry has allowed me to think critically and adjust to on the spot questions.  I have learned a lot about science, math, and engineering and their real world applications, but I also learned how to address other people's concerns.  The biggest most recurring concern is "The B Division Problem".

At every NARAM, the same question is brought up continuously, "where are all of the B division contestants?"  From the moment I turned 14, I had people hounding me about not disappearing like the other B division contestants.  There are tons of A division contestants, but once they hit B division they seem to disappear and nobody knew why.  This became commonly known as "The B Division Problem".

The NAR tried a lot of different ideas to keep this from happening year-to-year.  There were socials for the B division contestants during NARAM and extra awards for the people who placed in different events at NARAM, but nothing seemed to work.  Survey after survey took place to find out why B division contestants weren't staying involved, but no one could come up with a solution.

I stayed as active as I could during my time in B division.  I love model rocketry and I love competing.  I won two national championships back-to-back.  I got a second national record and I developed a new launch pad that allowed easier access for children and handicapped people to put their own rocket on the launch pad by themselves (see the article here).  During my junior and senior year of high school, I started to fade away from the rocketry scene.  Little by little, I pulled back from competition flying and focused more on tennis, work, school, and applying to colleges.

When people noticed this change, they began to question me and ask why I wasn't competing as much.  They weren't always satisfied with my answer that I was really busy with school and work.  Proms began to impose on field time and then senior year it felt like I had absolutely no time at all to fly between graduation preparation and work.  I had to miss my best friend's graduation/going away party for the National Guard in order to go to NARAM 57 last summer.  Still, people pushed me for answers and I couldn't make them understand completely what was going on.  I was frustrated with explaining myself and trying to make people understand.  Finally, I realized what I had to do.

In my next post, I'll explain what I did and why.  Until next time, fly high, stay safe, and have fun!

What is NARAM?

NARAM stands for the National Association of Rocketry Annual Meet.  This is the annual national competition.  Model rocketeers come from all across the country to compete against each other and get to know each other while having fun with the one thing we all have in common, love for the hobby.  For more background information about NARAM, check out this link.  This year's NARAM, NARAM 58, will be held in Walnut Grove, Missouri from July 23-July 29.  Definitely come check it out if you're in the area.

When my dad asked us to go to NARAM 50, in The Plains, Virginia, we of course agreed.  Dad was so excited to be going to the 50th anniversary and he began to look up information on competition flying and the different events being flown.  Each competition has its own slate of events, and different points associated with each event.  I went into this a little bit in my previous post.

Dad began preparing for some of the events for the first half of the week of competition, which was the only time period we would be there for, and he helped me prepare too.  Before we knew it, it was time to pack up the car with our rockets and bags and head to Virginia.  Dad and I would be competing, and Mom and my little sister, Sarah, would be spectators, for now.

The first day of competition would be a defining moment for both Dad and myself.  After a couple of the regular competitors helped us to find our feet on this new adventure, we jumped in.  That day, the events being flown were Set Duration and D Boost Glider.  Set Duration is an event where you try to get your rocket to stay in the air for a set amount of time, that year it was 50 seconds.  Boost Glider is an event that is challenging to describe.  Basically, you make a glider and a boost pod.  The boost pod contains the motor, in this case a D engine motor (the class of motor), and usually a streamer to help bring it down safely.  When the rocket reaches apogee, the highest point during the flight, the ejection charge goes off and the glider detaches from the rocket and glides, hopefully safely, back down to the ground.  Meanwhile the boost pod comes down separately.

Dad and I both made ourselves known in the competition rocketry community that day.  Dad found three different ways to disqualify his models, which is rather impressive.  Meanwhile, I won first place in my first ever competition event, Set Duration, and had an impressive first flight for my glider and almost hit the president of the NAR during launch with my second flight.  The best part, the design for the boost glider was his, and I got him to sign it later that day.

Throughout the day, Dad and I were able to get to know several people in the rocketry community and were given lots of advice as well.  Most of this advice came from a couple of guys from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.  These guys were Rod and Steve or, as many people know them, The Flying I-Beam Kids.  Rod and Steve fly in the Team Division of contest rocketry and know so much about the hobby.  They were, and still are, the first source Dad and I go to when we need help improving.  Rod and Steve welcomed us into their world of rocketry, and later into their club, Pittsburgh Space Command, PSC.  Dad and I were hooked, and later Mom and Sarah would join us in flying competitively and having more crazy adventures, but that's not where my story ends.  It's just the beginning.  Until next time, fly high, stay safe, and have fun!

Competition Flying

Competition flying is a ton of fun and it gives people across the country, and even across the world, the chance to get to know each other.  Through competition flying, I have met people from California, Virginia, Maryland, Colorado, Texas, Arizona, and almost every other state.  Occasionally, I will also meet people from other countries like India or a European country.  Model rocketry competitions take place all over the world, so besides the national competition, NARAM, there is also Internats, the international competition.

In this post, I'm going to quickly go over some basics of competition rocketry.  For complete rules, event listing, and other more detailed information about competition flying, check out the NAR website's Contest Flying page.

Photo by Chris Taylor

Competition rocketry aids in a lot of research about aerodynamics and improving performance.  This is because in competition we generally focus on one of three or four main categories: altitude, duration, distance, or visual appearance.  

Essentially, there are local meets and then NARAM.  NARAM I will cover in a separate post titled "What is NARAM?" because it is more detailed and has a greater importance to the main story I want to share through this blog at this time.  Local meets are usually regional events.  These events are hosted by a club, for example Pittsburgh Space Command (PSC).  Competitors wishing to fly at this event will show up the day of the launch ready to fly the predetermined events for that meet.  Each launch must be announced ahead of time and are usually posted on the NAR website's Find a Contest page. On this page a time, date, location, event director, and event slate will be found.

Most of the time, an event will be focused on the flight's duration, how long the rocket was in the air, or on the rocket's altitude.  There are different events that can be flown within these categories, such as rocket glider, parachute duration, streamer duration, or helicopter for duration events and super roc or predicted altitude for altitude events.  Open spot landing would be an event that would be based on how far the rocket landed from a certain point, and scale modeling judges rockets on how close they look to the original rocket or how pretty the rocket is in general.  For more information on events or for the complete event listing, please reference the NAR website's Contest Events page or the Pink Book.

There are different divisions for competitors to ensure that seven-year-old children don't have to compete against a fifty-year-old professional competitor.  There are four total divisions.  The first division is A division.  A division is for 7-13 years-old, this grouping is typically the younger kids that are just getting started and haven't quite developed all of their skills yet.  The next division is B division which is 14-18 years-old.  This grouping is more advanced skill wise than A division.  Next is C division which is comprised of everyone 19 or older.  Finally is T or Team division.  Team division is a group of two or three people that are 7 or older.  Teams compete together through out the competition year and at NARAM.  

Throughout the year, people fly at meets to gather contest points.  Each event has a different contest weight to help accumulate points, but each meet is restricted to a certain number of contest factor points, see the NAR website's Pink Book for details.  NARAM has more events than any of the meets and has a greater contest factor as well.  The points from the preseason meets and NARAM get totaled together during/after NARAM to determine the national champion from that year for each division.  It is possible to win the national championship without attending NARAM, or without competing in meets but attending NARAM, in some cases, but it is highly unlikely.  The amount of points for each club are also totaled and the club with the most points after NARAM is recognized as well.  The list of current national champions is usually published and distributed at each NARAM.  A list of current national record holders can be found on the NAR website's Records page and the current point standings can be found on the Current Point Standings page.

Next time, I'll get back into my story and describe NARAM.  Until next time, fly high, stay safe, and have fun!

How I Got Started

I actually got my start in model rocketry when I was about five years old.  My dad had been flying rockets since he was a teenager, but when he went to college it was hard for him to continue flying rockets.  Rockets went on the back burner in his life until my mom became the fifth grade teacher at a Catholic school in Lock Haven, Pennsylvania called Lock Haven Catholic School.  She was looking for an end of the year science unit and with my dad's help, she decided that rocketry was the way to go.

It's rocket building week! Going bigger this year! pic.twitter.com/n3L2LLY3Zf

— Lock Haven Catholic (@LHCS311) May 11, 2015

My dad got his clearances and began helping with the building process and launch day.  Every year he goes into the school to help the kids build the rockets, fly them safely, and understand the physics and math behind what happened in the air.  An amazing thing happens when you give fifth grade students model rockets, they want to learn what's going on with their rockets and why Bill's rocket flew higher than Suzy's rocket, or why Timmy's rocket was closer to the launch pad, or why Jane's rocket was in the air the longest.  They want to learn trig and physics, and they actually understand it.

My dad pulled me into this wonderful world of rocketry with my very own rocket kit.  It was the Quest Lightning.  It was the perfect rocket for a five year old little girl, it was all purple.  I remember laying on the living room floor putting it together with Dad and then going out to fly it that weekend.  After that day, I was hooked.  I kept flying and building rockets with Dad, and it was a lot of fun.  We got more friends interested in the hobby and have annual launches and lunch with our friends.  It wasn't until I was in fifth grade that we really got into the hobby, though.

Dad never really asks for much, especially when it comes to family vacations.  It wasn't until 2013 that he requested the destination for our family vacation.  He wanted to go to the National Association of Rocketry Annual Meet for the 50th anniversary (NARAM 50).  I'll go over more of what this is next time.  Until then, fly high, stay safe, and have fun!

What is Model Rocketry?

One thing that I get asked a lot when I tell people that I fly model rockets is, "What is model rocketry?"  Model rocketry is a fun hobby that was started during the Cold War and the Race for Space.  I'm not going to go into that kind of information here, if you want to know more I recommend watching October Sky.  Essentially, when the Russians and the U.S. entered the Cold War, everyone started looking toward the skies and NASA started making rockets.  When NASA started making rockets, civilians began to try to make their own mini versions of the rockets and tried to fly their models., which is where model rocketry got its start.

Now, as you can imagine, this was incredibly unsafe.  People were using gunpowder and matches to launch their rockets, which is extremely dangerous.  Three men stepped forward in different aspects of the hobby in order to make it more safe and practical.  These men were G. Harry Stein, Orville Carlisle, and Vern Estes.  Vern and Gleda Estes (pictured above) are probably the most well-known because they are still actively involved in the hobby and show up to the national competitive event frequently.  Vern and Gleda are responsible for the safe motors, Estes Motors, and some model kits as well.  For more information on the founders of rocketry, check out this article: Where Did Model Rocketry Really Start?

Model rocketry later began to develop and create laws to regulate safety.  The organization in charge of these safety protocols is the National Association of Rocketry, or NAR.  The NAR ensures the safety of its members and spectators by providing a pink book with safety guidelines and regulations.  Check out their website for more information on the organization and membership information.

The hobby has developed from its Cold War beginnings and is now a family friendly hobby.  People all over the country and all over the world are flying model rockets every day.  These rockets are typically made out of cardboard tubes and balsa fins and nose cones.  There are kits that can be purchased from several companies, or some people like to build their own rockets and create their own SAFE designs.  Safety and fun are key in model rocketry.

Model rocketry is also very educational.  There is a lot of science and math behind the hobby.  My mom is a principal at a Catholic school and she used to be a fifth grade teacher at the same school.  She needed a science unit for the end of the school year and she decided to do a unit on model rocketry and enlist my dad's help because he had been flying rockets since he was about thirteen years old.  He was able to get fifth grade students to understand trigonometry because of model rocketry.  Below, I have a video with some different models of rockets and a flight to help you get a better idea of what this hobby is.  I made this video a couple years ago for a presentation to a fifth grade class.

This hobby is for people of all ages.  I see people from five years to around eighty years old out on the rocketry field every year.  We do our best to make this a fun and safe hobby that everyone can enjoy and learn something from, too!

Next time, I'm going to give you a little bit more information about how I got started in model rocketry and my experiences.  Until then, fly high, stay safe, and have fun!

Welcome!

This blog is all about model rocketry and competitive flying through the National Association of Rocketry, or NAR.  Many people don't know about the hobby or what we do, well here's the place to ask your questions and get some insight!  For those of you that are already familiar with model rocketry, I am going to be going over competition model rocketry from a B division standpoint and I will also be talking about the article that I wrote this past summer that is changing how we look at contest flying.  Make sure you check back for posts on these topics!

Photo by Chris Taylor

I am a two-time national champion with the NAR and currently hold two national records in rocket glider events.  My main focus on the blog at first is going to be on the national competition, NARAM or the National Association of Rocketry Annual Meet, and an article that I wrote this summer that gained more attention than I ever thought possible.  I will be giving background on how I came up with the idea of writing this article, the process I went through this summer, and an update on what's going on with the article now.  Check back later for more information!  Until then, fly high, stay safe, and have fun!