NARAM-51

[MarkII]

FYI- MarkII...

...[detailed model rocket autopsy and forensic analysis snipped. Much appreciated, though.]...

...So- there ya' go... just a weird set of circumstances.

Or a comedy of errors. Thanks for the post-mortem, Doc. When I saw it lift off so slowly, and then do the mid-air loop, I was convinced that I had made some serious error in the construction, although I didn't know how. (Isn't it funny how time seems to stand still, and a a whole flood of thoughts fill your mind, at moments like that?) I was hoping that it wouldn't prang, at least, but that hope was dashed. As soon as I got over to it, I saw the clothespin on the grass next to it, and that told me everything.

I worked feverishly in the high winds on Sunday to get my Saturn V built enough to fly in the Apollo commemorative launch (as you can see, I didn't get the F1 engine bells or the details and decals onto it) and I had high hopes for it. I had seen other Dr. Zooch Saturn V's getting launched, and I wanted mine to have as nice of a flight as the others had. I stayed up until after midnight on Thursday trying to make four decent turbine assemblies out of FGP, but I only got two done. (I was starting to get the technique down, though.) At that point it was time to get some sleep and then pack everything up for the drive down to PA. So I put everything in the box with the intention of finishing it Saturday evening at the hotel after I got back from the field. But I was too fried from driving 10 hours to get to Johnstown on Friday, and then I was too tired (and more than a bit dehydrated) from launching rockets on Saturday (in weather that was much hotter than what I experience at home), so I never got back to it until I was at the field on Sunday. Keeping the parts from blowing away added an interesting element to the build! :roll: I really, really like the kit, and I am looking forward to building it again, along with my Dr. Zooch Mercury-Redstone. More kits will surely follow.

MarkII

 

[Dr.Zooch]

Foose- le'me know if you need any parts to rebuild your orbiter- I'll fix you up.

 

[foose4string]

Foose- le'me know if you need any parts to rebuild your orbiter- I'll fix you up.

Thanks Wes. I should be ok. I still have a spare screw or two, plenty of balsa, saved the patterns, and will probably use an Atlantis wrap on the next one. It's all good.


I'd say you were well represented at the Saturn Showcase! If it weren't for the Zooch models being flown, I'd say the number of flying Saturns would have been VERY slim. B motors in the V and 1B were just about perfect for the field despite the stiff wind. Good show.

 

[standardrockets]

Wes it is too bad you had to leave after the weekend. On Tuesday I flew the lifting body shuttle again with an Estes C6-3 and the flight went perfect compared to the Quest C6-2 attempt. It made 4-5 nice wide circles on the way down.

 

[Dr.Zooch]

Wes it is too bad you had to leave after the weekend. On Tuesday I flew the lifting body shuttle again with an Estes C6-3 and the flight went perfect compared to the Quest C6-2 attempt. It made 4-5 nice wide circles on the way down.

Yes!:clap:

 

[Pat_B]

Got back last week from NARAM and had a good, but exhausting time. We camped at a nearby church camp and were the only ones there until a few days later when our own "Peartree" showed up.

John brought his kids along and we at least got to see each other in the evening when the activites were over, though we didn't have a chance to talk as much as I'd like due to having a rather tight schedule during the day with flying, and at night with some of the evening activities.

We've camped at two NARAMs now and have really enjoyed it. Anyone who owns a camper or tent should consider it. In this case, our campground was much closer to the flying field than the hotel was-- and probably much cheaper at $20 per night.

At the NARAM in Michigan (49?) we got to camp directly at the flying field and that allowed for more sleep each day

 

[Peartree]

I'll second the kudos to the camp ground. It was very nice, very quiet and the folks were very accommodating. They gave us free access to their ice machine and later in the week (after Pat left ) even gave us (our family and one other grou from MI - whose name I don't recall) the key to the pool and waterslide. The kids had a BLAST!.

 

[Peartree]

Btw, Did anyone happen to get pics of any of my son's Fliskits Decaffiniator flights? We were using our backup camera and got exactly zero flight pics.

 

[foose4string]

Its not annoying its gorgeous Chan. Yes, Friday should be fun. I built my teams future fiction scale model and managed to get it done on time. I am gonna be very nervous when somebody presses the launch button! I only got 1 picture at the begining of the build phase, so I hope more are out there in case things don't go well.

Got some great in-flight shots of the Josie rocket at Friday's competition!

 

[foose4string]

...continued...

Can't say enough about Scott's skills as a modeler. He's always a nervous nellie on the field, but when your rockets look like his, I can understand why!

 

[foose4string]

Chan's Thunderbird model was a showpiece as well.

He got the up part right, but unfortunately, Chan's day didn't end so well when the laundry failed to deploy. The outboard cluster looked VERY cool. I think I would have taken a ding on accuracy points and put a central motor with a standard ejection. But I guess in the competition world, it's no guts or no glory.

 

[rokitflite]

See Craig... Thats why I always wait til you're around to fly my pretty rockets... Outstanding pictures!!! I love how the boost looks all clean and majestic, then the ejection chage looks like an awful mess, then the chutes look all majestic again... Thanks for the great shots since I don't remember the flight!

Your shots look better than the "original"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=28e...8E0C718F&playnext=1&playnext_from=PL&index=59

 

[Carl]

Special thanks to the 3 winners of our auction items, including the Shadow Lord Production #1 kit

I know he was glad to get it!

 

[MarkII]

...
At the NARAM in Michigan (49?) we got to camp directly at the flying field and that allowed for more sleep each day

Yeah, but what a wake-up call you must have gotten!

MarkII

 

[MarkH]

Originally Posted by Initiator001
NARAM-52 will be in Colorado next year.
Yep - it'll be nice. It'll be the first national event (either tripoli or NAR) in CO since I started in rocketry. I'll be there

Pueblo is practically in Estes backyard. You might be able to land an HPR flight on H street from there. Ok not really. Would be cool if they were to represent.

 

[jflis]

I know he was glad to get it!

ya think??? LOL

 

[MarkII]

ya think??? LOL

:roll: &

at the same time! Nice! :w:

MarkII

 

[MarkII]

Somehow, probably by accident, the NARAMLive guys actually got me into a shot, and then they got a shot of one of my rockets. Both are from Saturday Aug. 8:

Me (in the blue cap) connecting the igniter clips to my Viking IV:
https://www.naramlive.com/naramlive-2009/naramlive/02saturday/canon/IMG_4155.JPG

My Viking IV lifting off:
https://www.naramlive.com/naramlive-2009/naramlive/02saturday/casio/CIMG6767.JPG

The photographers were at the sport range for only a little while after I got there on Saturday, and I never saw them at all on Sunday.

MarkII

 

[billspad]

The photographers were at the sport range for only a little while after I got there on Saturday, and I never saw them at all on Sunday.

Tony and I took some pictures on the sport range. Tony's are here and mine are here.


I don't know if he's posted them anywhere but one of the PSC guys (Sean) took quite a few pictures on the sport range.

 

[georgegassaway]

Somehow, probably by accident, the NARAMLive guys actually got me into a shot, and then they got a shot of one of my rockets. Both are from Saturday Aug. 8:

Me (in the blue cap) connecting the igniter clips to my Viking IV:
https://www.naramlive.com/naramlive-2009/naramlive/02saturday/canon/IMG_4155.JPG

My Viking IV lifting off:
https://www.naramlive.com/naramlive-2009/naramlive/02saturday/casio/CIMG6767.JPG

The photographers were at the sport range for only a little while after I got there on Saturday, and I never saw them at all on Sunday.

FYI - The vast crew of "NARAM Live Photographers" is Chris Taylor. There is no crew of NARAMlive guys taking pics, just Chris. He goes back and forth between the contest and sport ranges, though on Friday's Scale day he was mostly at the Contest Range to get Scale model pics.

When he is not taking pics, he is building and or flying sport models.

As I look at Sunday's pics, on page 1, all the shots by Chris were at the Sport Range. But he did not have a lot of photos there, some were videos, and then yes he also did spend time flying models. He even spent 45 minutes to a hour looking for one that a kid tried to steal, it had a video camera onboard showing the kid ride up on a bike and hide the rocket in the bushes about 45 seconds after landing. Someone on the Sport Range finally saw the kids and told them that there would be rewards for found models,, and within minutes "by coincidence" a lot of "lost models" were "found" by kids who brought them back.

But I digress.....

Now, Chris also uses pics I shoot, which are nowhere near as many as Chris takes sine I am contest flying and most of my time is spent prepping and flying (or doing Range Duty, talking to the Trackers, which occasionally lends itself to taking some pics during lulls between altitude flights). Some are unique since I am flying the contest part, and am sometimes in places for contest recovery that Chris doesn't go or I see some things Chris does not (or sometimes it just so happens I run across something Chris also might have seen, but did not happen to see or to shoot).

In any case, anyone is welcome to share their pics with Chris for the NARAMlive site, at the end of each day at NARAM. Indeed in past years a few others did, such as Tom Pastrick. In any case, clip and save this info for next year. Chris tends to "lock the vault door" on the NARAMlive site once NARAM is over, so I do not think there would be much success in submitting N-51 pics now.

- George Gassaway

 

[kjohnson]

...

Can't say enough about Scott's skills as a modeler. He's always a nervous nellie on the field, but when your rockets look like his, I can understand why!

I won't go so far as to say I was nervous, but I sure didn't breathe until the main parachute opened up, since packing the laundry has become one of my team duties. I tease Scott sometimes about being a perfectionist, but he really did an outstanding job on the finish of this model and the 1st place static points were well deserved.

kj

 

[MarkII]

Yes George, I saw the 'vast NARAMLive crew" taking some pictures at the sport range when I was there on Saturday. But my point was that I was surprised to be caught on film at all, because I am usually the phantom, Mr. Anonymous. I am delighted to finally see a lift-off shot of one of my rockets. I have tried many times over the years to get such pictures myself, but I have never gotten anything but smoke. I still have a perfect record for that, despite many attempts at NARAM. I am very grateful that Chris got that picture and posted it. I wasn't even aware that he had taken it. I did like watching your last glider launch on Saturday, the last of the daylight launches that were made that day. I was also completely blown away by that two-glider launch earlier in the day. Seeing those two big birds climbing majestically together into the sky, and then transitioning almost simultaneously into long, swooping glides was awesome! I can't get over how long they stayed up, too.

When I said that I didn't see Chris on Sunday, I was referring to the fact that I wasn't at the sport range at the same time that he was there, in order to explain (in case anyone was wondering) why there weren't pics of any of the other rockets that I launched over the two days. I would certainly contribute some of my own photos to his NARAMLive site, if I had taken any that were worth spit. I tend to forget to pull out my camera during times when it would be most opportune to do so, and I only seem to try for shots when my chances for success are pretty slim. (I had my camera with me when I went to NARCON in March, but never took it out of my bag. ) I know that Chris was at the sport range on Sunday, because I saw all of the shots that he took during the Manufacturer's Demo. I was actually present at the field during the Demo, but I was sitting in the vendors' tent at the time, finishing my Dr. Zooch Saturn V.

I loved the Frick 'N Frack mass launch. I was back at my car prepping a rocket when that took place. I watched it from there, and L'd MAO.

MarkII

 

[cornyl]

Many thanks to Chris and his great pictures.
His Naram51 site is tops!!!
Not only did he take pictures but if you been on the site
he has video, audio of the night activities at naram51.
Contest results and Nar Championship results.

I had to leave Naram early on Tuesday night for family reasons but Chris's site
was awesome and it felt like I was still there!!!!
Great Job Chris.
Great Job Chris.
Great Job Chris.

Cornyl

 

[terryg]

Any significant announcements from the vendors? Info on availability of the larger Quest black powder motors? New kits under development, new reloads, etc?

 

[MarkII]

Well, you may have heard that Semroc released SEVEN new kits! See their website for details.

MarkII

 

[jflis]

Any significant announcements from the vendors? Info on availability of the larger Quest black powder motors? New kits under development, new reloads, etc?

FlisKits released 3 new kits - click here for details

 

[sandman]

Roachwerks/Excelsior released 2 new kits, The 1/22nd scale Nike Ajax (peanut scale) and the BT-70 sized Scud B.

Plus, I have available the 4 x 18mm and 4 x 13mm Nike Hercules as well as the 1/12th scale Nike Ajax

 

[kandsrockets]

Finally got a chance to post our pictures from naram. I did not get many since the wife is the one that takes the pictures and she was only there 3 days since she had to go to Florida during the week. Here is a link to our pictures https://www.kandsrockets.com/naram51.htm