Sources and Sites for NARAM/FAI Competition Rockets

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WFWalby

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I'm trying to find everything I can on current designs/materials for the events planned for NARAM60. I know there used to be a google groups forum dedicated to FAI competition but I can't seem to find it. Any other resources that any of you can point me to will be greatly appreciated. I'm primarily interested in the duration events (Streamer, Parachute, Glider)
Thanks,
William
 
I'm trying to find everything I can on current designs/materials for the events planned for NARAM60. I know there used to be a google groups forum dedicated to FAI competition but I can't seem to find it. Any other resources that any of you can point me to will be greatly appreciated. I'm primarily interested in the duration events (Streamer, Parachute, Glider)
Thanks,
William

There is a lot of information on the NAR website at NAR.org
Look under Contest Flying

Also check out contestrockets.org
 
Most of the folks interested in FAI join this yahoo group: https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/NAR_FAI_Spacemodeling/info
As posted above, there is a lot of info at the NAR page: https://www.nar.org/contest-flying/fai-spacemodeling/

I've been working on an article on how to approach FAI style flying on a budget using BT-60 tubes as mandrels for making cardstock models. You can make lightweight, rules compliant models that perform well without a large outlay in costs for fiberglass, mandrels and epoxy.

Any specific questions? I've flown the 3 events asked about above as well as S8Ep (RC rocket glider) at the WSMC.

kj
 
Thanks for the info kj. What I'm mostly looking for is what are the current competitors using for the following NARAM events:
1/2A Boost Glider Duration
A Payload Altitude (Altimeter)
A Streamer Duration
1/2A Parachute Duration

Most of the plans/techniques available on the NAR site are a decade or more old. There just doesn't seem to be much current design/material info out there that I could find. I gather that for some of these events the top competitors are just using FAI style rockets but that's a lot of money and work to get something that at least flies well. The West Coast isn't really a hot bed of NAR contest flying so I haven't been able to find a "mentor" to help with learning current practices. Anyway thats why the questions.
Regards,
William
 
For streamer and parachute events there are two philosophies that competitors seem to follow: fly a minimum diameter model as high as possible an hope to get a recovery device deployed, or build a fatter model and give up some altitude while being able to deploy a larger recovery device more repeatably and get a thermal to carry the model away. There are pros and cons of each, from build complexity to dead-air advantages of more altitude.
The old NAR plans favor the minimum diameter route pretty heavily. What I've seen folks who are flying the NRC do this year is to build lightweight FAI style bodies at 30mm for both streamer and parachute.

1/2 A BG hasn't changed much over the years- you can change the technology a bit, but the general plans that have worked well continue to do well.

Payload models are now different than the old plans, because the payload diameter was reduced to fit inside of an 18mm tube. Focus on smooth low drag designs with excellent surface finish, and use a piston.

kj
 
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