Who's TARC'ing this year?

Well, less than a month to the registration deadline, and so far only a couple of threads have even mentioned TARC this year - what a change from last year!

We'll be entering three teams again this year, same as last. One coed team with the two remaining girls that went to the finals last year, a couple of guys from last year's team and a couple of new guys (and a new girl) in the mix... another team of newbies - all guys ... and a third team of guys led by a pretty experienced (NAR Jr Level 1) rocketeer... about 20 kids in all.

I've got Jack and Suzy Sprague from DARS helping out again as our NAR mentors - we've been meeting each Monday afternoon since the end of August, learning RockSim, planning, learning, planning, designing, planning... you get the drill. :lol:

We're beginning to finalize the designs (well, that's the hope, anyway) and want to start ordering parts soon so we can get flying right after the Christmas break.

Our resolution for this year is to fly more - a lot more - than we did last year. We're planning on at least 15-20 flights for each team's rocket at a minimum. The goal is consistency - something we are still working on.

So, who else is gonna TARC this year?

Wayne
team sponsor

Penn Manor School district will sponsor 4 High school and 3 Middle School teams this year. Penn Manor has made the finals every year, last year we sent 5 team out of the 8 that were sponsored and I am confident we will be represented at Great Meadows again in 2009. What really pleases me is that 4 former TARC competitors have returned to help the younger kids. TARC is a great program for kids and I just love helping out.

My team's competing again (Raleigh Charter High School)
Haven't yet sent in the application (just got all the parent permission forms accounted for), but as of two weeks ago, we've made ~6-7 flights with our design.

Anybody know what the requirements are on the contest this year?

Evil Ed said:

Anybody know what the requirements are on the contest this year?

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The major difference is that instead of two eggs, there has to be just one. Except that the egg has to be laying on its side. Horizontal axis of the egg and rocket should be perpendicular.

I signed up as a TARC mentor and have been lobbying two local schools to start a team but so far, no luck...

We are!
First time with this competition but with other comps we've done pretty well in the last 15 years.
Only experienced one in the group, and the one with rocksim.
Not giving much but we're going for high accuracy/repeatability.
I'm getting ready for some weekends and late nights:lol:

Evil Ed said:

Anybody know what the requirements are on the contest this year?

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As jj said, the major changes are that the payload is just one egg (saves you about 60-70 grams of total flight weight, IIRC) and the egg has to be perpendicular to the axis of the rocket, i.e. laying across the width of the rocket. The target height remains 750 feet AGL with a target total flight time of 45 seconds.

Complete rules for the 2009 TARC contest can be found here.

There's a lot of good information on the contest site: www.rocketcontest.org

Peartree said:

I signed up as a TARC mentor and have been lobbying two local schools to start a team but so far, no luck...

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John,

If you're trying the math and/or science teachers with no interest, look for a career and technology teacher who's teaching Tech Systems, or Principles of Technology, or any of the aerospace stuff. The Denton High School folks, just north of us, are sponsored by the Air Force Junior ROTC unit, and at the finals this May, I met one group that had a football coach who was also sponsoring the TARC team! :surprised: Might also check with the principal to see whether he/she would know of anyone interested in the contest!

Bigander said:

Not giving much but we're going for high accuracy/repeatability.

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Uh, isn't everyone?

kj

I've been to the finals the last two years with my team, and the school I founded the rocketry club at the school I was at freshman year and the school I'm at now (I'm a junior).
Last year, we came in 13th place, so we qualified for SLI. Last week, we were notified that our SLI proposal was accepted. TARC will be the second priority while we focus on SLI. We may not even sign up for TARC... we'll see.
But SLI is pretty darn exciting! Good luck to all the teams!

ghost said:

Last year, we came in 13th place, so we qualified for SLI. Last week, we were notified that our SLI proposal was accepted. TARC will be the second priority while we focus on SLI. We may not even sign up for TARC... we'll see. But SLI is pretty darn exciting!

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Congratultions! I'm hoping we make the top 20 this year so we can qualify for an SLI slot next year.