Model Forum / General / Rockets / May 2004

First, hats off and three cheers to Trip Barber and his merry band of
70 NAR members who wonderfully executed the 2004 TARC Finals.  These
committed NAR volunteers came from all over the country to spend their
weekend on a rocket range but did no flying. I again this year heard
the VIP's speak glowingly of the quality and smoothness of the range
operation.  Having run two NARAM's myself, I know what it takes to
pull a team together to do this stuff, and I stand in awe of the
organizational display Trip and his team put on at Great Meadow.

Barb and I flew out on Thursday afternoon, and then had dinner in Old
Town Manassas.  NAR members attending NARAM and looking for places
above chain or fast food should check this part of town out.

Friday, Barb and Jo Ann Rachor toured three different Smithsonian
museums while NAR Secretary George Rachor and I had two separate
business meetings.  When we were done with our work, we met Barb and
Jo Ann at the National Building Museum. The structure is itself is a
marvel -- 15 stories high, made from 15 million + bricks, and open all
the way to the roof. There are giant Greek columns holding up the
roof, and smaller ones along each other gallery. The exhibits were a
bit dull and Spartan, so we cut back to the Metro and back out to the
Vienna Metro stop (10-12 miles from our Manassas hotel.) and got a
quick rest before the contestant's briefing at Osborne Park High
School.

Trip briefed the range crew first, going over critical elements of the
operation, and making sure everyone had their standard issue NAR
"uniforms"; NAR shirt and hat with khaki pants or shorts.

102 teams with about 600-700 kids and supporters showed up, and could
hardly contain themselves.  When Trip asked "Anybody here ready to fly
some rockets?" they about took the roof off the place.  John Douglas,
the AIA Executive Director, then proceeded to ratchet up the crowd
more by asking "Who's going to win tomorrow?"  It took him the better
part of a couple of minutes to get the crowd quiet enough to finish
his remarks.  Vern Estes also addressed the contestants, and I suspect
was warmed by both the reception and the bright future seated before
him. The Rachors, Bundicks and Estes' then went off for a nice dinner.

Saturday dawned bright, with high ceilings and dead flat calm winds.
Barb and I got to the field before 8 AM. While she ran off to get
pictures, I hung around the VIP area, chatted with JP Stevens of the
AIA and the rest of the AIA staff.  I watched JP coordinate the F-18
flyover with a forward air controller radio.  Demonstrating why this
man's such a class act, he invited the pilot's sister who had shown up
to see him perform the flyover, to join us in the VIP area, and also
let her chat with her brother via radio.

After an appropriate introduction, a volunteer choir of TARC
contestants joined the color guard, sang the National Anthem, and then
the F18's flew over.  As they got immediately over the launch site,
they went off in 15 deg. separate paths, with both of them in full
afterburner.  The thunder over the launch site was stunningly loud,
sweet music.  After they blew out of town, a salvo of 8 HPR models
lifted off in rapid succession.  Barb got a great photo of the
residual smoke trails, which persisted nicely in the non-existent
winds.  PA announcer Alan Williams roared "Ladies and gentlemen, start
your rocket engines!", and the contest was on!

The first bird off the pad worked fine, as did roughly 70% of the
entries in total, a much better track record than last year.  Lowering
the altitude helped, as did a year's experience on which to draw.  85
teams who made the finals last year tried to qualify again this year,
but only 38 of them succeeded.  Average 2003 qualifying score was 99
vs. 2004's 38.  The flyers on the field were the cream of the crop,
for sure.

I'm hoping Ted Cochran does his wonderful analysis of the flight
permutations again (hint, hint). But it looked to me as if most kids
gave up on composites and complexity. They went simpler and
(hopefully) more reliable.  I did notice a lot more deliberately spun
models this TARC than last. Nearly every one of those went up darned
straight.  There also appeared to me to be more consistency from rail
launched birds, even though the winds never picked up.

NASA Marshall (which deals with a lot of NASA's educational outreach
stuff) sent up a huge trailer with an exhibit. They also had a giant 3
story inflated space shuttle. Other groups on displays included
Louisiana University (which gave out Mardi Gras beads), NASA's Wallops
Flight Center, several other educational groups, and a simulator for
flying the 1911 Wright Model B Flyer. Even the Central Intelligence
Agency was there, handing out pins and pencils to the crowd.

CNN again provided live coverage.  VIP's included Sen. Mike Enzi
(whose 8 month old grandson was a hit, along with J. P. Steven's 11
month old son), Homer Hickam, Jim Pruitt (NASA Marshall's education
director), Dr. Adena Lotson, NASA's Associate Administrator for
Education, Craig Stetle, head of the Moon-Mars project, a huge
contingent of aerospace executives, and astronauts Jay Apt and Charlie
Walker.  

It was also fun to bump into VIP's unexpectedly.  One I was personally
happy to see was Ken Hyde, the head of the Wright Experience.  I
chatted with him about my Kitty Hawk visit on December 17, 2003, and
his plans for the third Wright Flyer his team is building.  I also
finally got to meet the Wallops Public Affairs Officer, Keith Kohler.

The HPR demo was a great success.  Sen. Enzi spent time chatting with
the flyers and clearly enjoyed his time out there.  He was invited to
launch several of the birds, including Bill Schorwer's TV rocket.  A
bit of disappointment was the failure to ignite the K550 Nike-Smoke
scale bird.  After failing on the third attempt due to schedule
constraints, Sen. Enzi remarked "Well, I guess that's the last time
they'll let me try to launch it."  

Another Kodak moment occurred for Doug Pratt, who flew a hybrid bird.
After Doug's successful flight, Sen. Enzi wandered over to George
Rachor and I and said, "I've never seen one of those before.  That was
kind of neat!"  I don't think Doug's stopped beaming ever since I
related that story to him at the range crew reception that night.

You should visit the rocketcontest.org site for complete results.  On
top of the regular contest, a number of special awards were given this
year to keep things interesting.  

The Northrop Grumman Corporation Award went to the "Team With the Best
Team Uniform".  Lots of teams has special shirts, and we had one that
would have made Harry proud as they wore flight suits. Some went even
farther. One team with a mythology theme for their group wore togas.
But Hickory High School took the top slot with their red and white
"Cat in the Hat" stovepipe hats and red bowties.

The Parker Aerospace Award for "Best Rocket Recovery Effort" brought
back competition flight memories.  The team from Shelburne Community
School won for recovering theirs from a 60 foot tree.  They arrived at
the awards stage complete with rocket entangled in a branch.  Nice
showmanship, guys.

The Aerojet Award for the "Lightest Rocket That Worked" contrasted
Heuvelton Central School at 293 grams against the Alliant Techsystems
Award for "Heaviest Rocket That Worked" going to East Central High
School at 1,400 grams.  You do the math.

Finally, I think all NAR rocketeers would have appreciated winning
either the BAE SYSTEMS North America Inc. Award for "Most Complex
Rocket That Worked", or Honeywell's Award for the "Team With the Most
Sophisticated Control Strategy".  Way to go, Shelby Junior High, and
Claymore High School; we're all jealous.

NAR members looking to get in on TARC 2005 should check out the
rocketcontest.org website, and ping Trip Barber to see if you can
claim a slot on the range crew.  You'll get a uniform shirt not
available for sale, and the rocketry experience of a lifetime.  

As hard as it might be to believe, TARC 2004 was better than TARC
2003.  I had more fun, met a lot more people, and saw great rockets,
big and small, all day long.  The hobby's future is brighter with us
supporting these kids, and so is aerospace's.  If one day, I can look
at some astronaut getting ready to go to the moon or Mars and hearing
them say "Team America started me down this path", I'll certainly be a
proud and happy NAR president.

Personal aside: I had way too much fun at this event.  I go there, I
do nothing but schmoze, and everyone who meets me is interested in the
hobby, the kids, our mission and our organization.  By far and away,
it's turned into the absolutely the best perk of being NAR president
(grin).

= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
Mark B. Bundick           mbundick - at - earthlink - dot - net
NAR President             www - dot - nar - dot - org

"A dark night in a city that knows how to keep its secrets, but high
above the quiet streets on the twelfth floor of the Acme Building,
one man is still trying to find the answers to life's persistent
questions. Guy Noir, Private Eye."