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!
