NARAM-64

[Initiator001]

There does not seem to be any coverage of NARAM-64 so I will post my comments from the event so far.

Unlike past NARAMs this event is only four days. This isn't big deal for Sport Range flyers but Competition event flyers must fly the events on their assigned days as there is no make-up time for flying in case something happens.

The field is huge. And flat. The major road is Interstate 10 which one can see and it is two miles from the range head. It is an easy twenty minute drive from the hotel.

The Sport Range and Competition Range are just off a dirt road that has several cattle guards on it. They are separated by 100-200 yards.

The land is fenced off by barb wire which can make retrieving your model 'interesting'.

The town of Lordsburg itself is certainly the smallest town I have been to that hosted a NARAM. There are three places to eat.
A local family restaurant (Cranberry's: Good Food), a no-name Mexican place across the street from Cranberry's and a McDonalds. A Dollar General, a Dollar Store and a mom-and pop grocery store where they still advertise about Green Stamps (You may need to ask your parents about that) are your food resources.

Along the same street as the official NARAM hotel is the courthouse, fire station, Department of Public Safety and City Hall. All in walking distance in less than two minutes.

The city has been a major railway hub/terminal for over one-hundred years. Trains are always moving south of the city.

As to flying...

 

[Initiator001]

...Saturday was a pretty good day for flying.

The winds were low (6-10 MPH average) but the heat reached 112F.
There were maybe 25-30 people at the Sport Range and twice that number at the Competition Range. Many competition models drifted through the Sport Range.

The Sport Range could probably handle any HPR model you wanted to fly as long as it stayed below 12K. The biggest motor I saw flown was an 'H'.

Estes had a canopy at the Sport Range giving away some swag and selling some merchandise (SRP only).

I flew my Initiator on an F20-4W and my Mustang with an E20-7W. Both models landed in the same area on the other side of a barb wire fence. There was a low opening in the barb wire fence (About 18") so I crawled under the opening twice to retrieve my models.

There was much more flying on the Competition Range as three events were being flown. The only on-site food provider was there along with BMS selling rocket motors.

I had planned to make a third flight Saturday afternoon but the wind became stronger so I called it quits for the day.

 

[Initiator001]

Sunday dawned with the wind blowing strong.

I arrived at the Sport Range around 7:30 AM hoping to get in some flights before before the wind became too much to fly and (especially) retrieve rockets.

I should not have bothered.

Winds were averaging 8-14 MPH with gusts between 22-26 MPH.

A few brave souls flew rockets but often had long walks to retrieve their models. Even saucer models had a fair walk. One brave fellow flew a few HPR models but used a JLCR with deployment at 300 feet to cut down the walk.

Even the Competition had few flights. The 1/2A Flex-Wing event was postponed while folks tried to fly A payload altitude and Precision Fragile Payload (a 'TARC-like' event). The A payload models weather-cocked severely resulting in low altitude flights while the Precision flights were flown by folks who happened to have a big, heavy model that was not affected as much by the wind.

After four hours and not flying anything I left the field and went back to the hotel.

The wind is suppose to be better on Monday and better still on Tuesday.

 

[BEC]

I’m looking forward to those lower winds. I got my two A Payload Altitude flights in OK, but my first Precision Fragile Payload Flight was DQ for a stripped ‘chute (and a very scrambled egg). The Q-Jet E26-7W I used to boost it (to about the correct altitude) had an 8.5s delay (data from the accelerometer on the FlightSketch Mini aboard). I will try that one again tomorrow with a different ‘chute. The model is an almost stock Estes Olympus.

My second payload altitude flight was the first one of the fourth range shift. After that we also returned to air conditioning.

My wife Avis’ very first (and so far only) contest flight has her in third place for A Altitude which was flown yesterday. I’m in fourth. Each of us considered it a victory to recover those tiny models on that huge range. Mine was on the other side of the fence that Bob mentioned, but down at the Contest range there is a crossing ladder to get you over it.

I did drop my one night flight last night into that same field and wound up going through the fence with the help of another flyer.

 

[terryg]

Had a few good flights on Saturday till it got too windy in afternoon to fly. The night launch was limited to class 1 due to waiver issues. The winds calmed enough to fly as it got dark. I loaded up the only class 1 rocket I had to fly my
" Painted with Light" flying on a G64W. The up was good but the down not so good as the delay charge was way late with unfortunate results.

 

[terryg]

Prepping

 

[terryg]

On the pad.

 

[terryg]

Lift off.

 

[terryg]

Boost.

 

[terryg]

This is not looking good.

 

[terryg]

Recovery was easy as half the lights were still on.

That should just buff out.
This rocket has had many night flights over the years. I will scratch build a replacement at some point.

 

[BEC]

That was a spectacular, if not optimum, flight.

Dawn this morning with the ground outside the motel wet and the sound of thunder. Since then things are drying out but it is pleasantly cool — something it has not been, even early in the morning — so far.

 

[Initiator001]

Monday.

Today was the weather we had been waiting for.

Woke up in the morning and there was no wind.

However...

Thunder,,,
Lightning...
Rain

The power in my hotel even went out for a brief moment.
This ended after 30 minutes.

Still, everything weather-wise was looking good so a mad dash to get the car packed and off to the launch site.

At the launch site cool with little/no wind.

I flew four prototype models to get some flight/recovery data.
I finished that early so I drove back to the hotel 15 minutes away to get MORE rockets to fly.

I flew my AeroTech Arreaux model on a F52-8C motor. Wow, does that motor kick! Short walk to recover the model.

Next was my Estes Mammoth rocket with an AeroTech F27-8R Redline motor. Good flight but had to walk all the way out to the far launch pad to recover the model.

That ended my flying for the day. Chatted with some friends, watched other rockets fly (Several HPR models were flown) then back to the hotel to get out of the heat.

Tuesday will be the final day of NARAM-64. The Competition Range will feature the Classic Model event with more fun flying on the Sport Range. Awards Banquet that night.

 

[BEC]

Flex-wing glider has also been postponed again and will be flown Tuesday, so there will be some duration flying as well as Classics at the contest range tomorrow.

 

[terryg]

Having low winds on monday was great. Flew my winged V2 rocket and my Boyse Aerospace Saturn 1 SA-5. I got to fly my Dragon Axe on an I366R Redline to 2200 ft with very short recovery walk. And my last flight of the day was the first flight of my 4 inch guardian upscale. It flew on I268R Redline to 1900 ft and was an easy recovery just over the fence. As the range was slowing down, we left for our drive back to Tucson.

 

[Initiator001]

Tuesday dawned at the NARAM-64 flying site with good weather and no/light wind.

The Sport Range saw fewer flights as most of the action was on the Competition Range where Classic Model and the Flex-wing events were being flown.

There is a real skill/art to getting a flex-wing glider to work correctly. When a flex-wing glider works correctly it will glide just like a solid wing balsa glider. When a flex-wing glider doesn't work well it just flops around in the sky like a plastic bag caught in the wind.

I missed most of the Classic Model flights but I saw several of these models flown and they worked well.

I made one flight on the Sport Range Tuesday. It was a tribute flight to my friend Roy Green who passed away last December. Roy was a contributor here on TRF and YORF and a big fan of the classic Centuri Orion model.
I had built a Neubauer Orion II model which was an upscale of the original to 2.6" diameter over ten years ago to honor another friend who had passed.

There was an accidental launch of my Orion II due to an error in the switch settings by the LCO resulting in no pictures of the flight. Powered by an AeroTech E20-4W the model had beautiful flight and gentle recovery.

That one is for you, Roy.

Tonight is the Awards Banquet with trophies/medals and door prizes. The location and dates for NARAM-65 will also be announced.

All in all it was a good NARAM for me.

 

[BEC]

As Bob noted, those flex-wing gliders were entertaining, both those that worked well and those that, well, didn’t. I’ve never tried them, so I don‘t have any direct experience with making one work, but judging by who was having trouble with ’em today, I’d say there is definitely an “art” to it.

We had mixed results in Classic. My Beta worked beautifully. I’m kicking myself for not putting an FS Comp in it. It really got up there.

My wife’s Star Blazer, which is trying to pack more recovery system in much less BT-20 than the Beta, spat the motor on both attempts. The second one came in ballistic, yet the model is essentially undamaged. It will fly, and WORK, at Sod Blaster over Labor Day weekend.

Still, Avis will be bringing home a 3rd place medal for C division A Altitude….and I’ll be bringing home a first for B Eggloft Duration, a second for 1/4A Parachute Duration and a second for A Payload Altitude (flown on that really really windy Sunday). Not bad. We’re already talking about NARAM-65.

I have to thank Terrill Willard and his NARCON 2022 (I think) presentation on parachute duration for converting me from someone who didn’t really care about PD to someone who had some success with it.

 

[JoePfeiffer]

My first NARAM! I'm not a competitor, so I spent my time on the Sport range.

Most of the people who would be helping set up came over on Thursday, and contest/event director Vern Richardson has us over at his house for a very nice welcoming meal.

Friday was setup day. It was warm, as expected (a little over 100F or so), but nothing really to note.

Saturday was hot. My wife and I were scurrying around helping with rocket safety checks, and decided to delay launching until later.

Sunday was breezy (variable from around 10 up to nearly 20 most of the day), and I got to witness something personally that I'd heard about but never seen before: wind-induced instability. My wife has an LPR rocket with a body tube about an inch and a half diameter which has flown successfully several times in the past, which went skywriting. We convinced ourselves we saw some irregularity in the nozzle and tried again, with the same result. Spoiler for Monday: flew fine in less wind on Monday.

Also on Sunday I flew my Totally Tubular (the tube fin rocket I used to validate some of the tube fin code in OR), and discovered I couldn't fly my Starr Corsaire: Pirate Scourge of the Spaceways because no one (including me) had thought to bring a micro rail and it had buttons. Our own @terryg gave me some buttons to use with a 20mm rail so I'd be able to fly it Monday.

Monday morning was much calmer and reasonably cool. Starr Corsaire flew very nicely on a B6-4 (though it didn't fully eject the nylon parachute from its BT-50 body tube, so it popped its ring fin off when it landed. Easily repairable). I also flew my Hichory Dichory Mach 2" fiberglass rocket on a J570; as expected it flew out of sight. No one caught sight of it again before landing. I really like Big Red Bee APRS transmitters! Led me right to it. Once comment I'd make is that, as much as I like APRSDroid the APRS icons on the map are really hard to see in bright sunshine. We really need a simpler app that just displays a large arrow pointing to a GPS location, and large text giving the distance to that location, in selectable white on black or black on white.

Unfortunately when I recovered it there had been a separation. The drogue chute and fin section were missing. It had landed about a mile away, almost due north, and it had gotten warm enough I had no interest in walking the desert hunting for it, so I went back to the range head. I looked at my GPS and altimeter data that night, and concluded from descent rate that the separation had occurred when the drogue deployed at apogee, and the fin section was likely to be on the same line as the rest of the rocket but somewhat farther out. I also saw that the peak altitude had been 8444' feet; sims had said it would it 8000 so I was very happy to see the error of only 5%.

There was another dirt road just north of the location where I recovered the rocket. I went out first thing Tuesday morning to locate the fin section, and found it lying by the side of the road while I was still on my way to start looking. Lucky! Completely undamaged. I'll need to go to thicker kevlar for my shock cord, however. Spent late morning and early afternoon tearing down the range, then went to the banquet in the evening. Drove back home this morning.

All in all, a fun few days. It was nice to meet several of the people who I see here on TRF, as well.

 

[Gus]

Anybody have the results of A-Payload?

 

[GuyNoir]

Anybody have the results of A-Payload?

https://www.nar.org/site/naram-64-a-payload/