Queeg500
Well-Known Member
- Joined
- Jan 19, 2009
- Messages
- 204
- Reaction score
- 1
This is my report and I'm stickin to it. I only went Saturday the 15th and brought the my elementary school's rocket club. We had been planning on this event since November 07. Two kids told me they lost sleep the night before anticipating the event and at the return home today they said they were very glad they went! Thanks everyone!
The area we hit right away was the vendor arena which was quite a refreshing variety compared to the stale shelves at Hobby Lobby and WalMart. Sorry I didn't chat much with any sellers because I had to split my time between the tasty merchandise and controllng my baboons. I did buy Aerotech engines from BMS and some stuff from Jim Fils.
We made the make and take rocket seminar supervised by Andy. Looks like even LCMS Lutherans are occasionally involved with the latest trends. LOL!
In between seminars the Narcon staff answered my kids questions about the rockets on display - "What"s Bert standing there for?" And the HPR fleet was interesting as well. Seemed to me the seminar that would grab my kids attention the most would be the MicroMaxx seminar by Chan Stevens.
Chan delivered a flood of information and passed around all his MMX fleet for all to view - at least a dozen micro rockets and EVERY ONE was serious quality.
Sorry we had to leave early to make it to Oak Island so we missed the last half hour of the seminar. Conditions at Oak Island were reported Thursday as wet and muddy. Ok, well we arrived at 3pm and saw one flight from the highway. That proved to be the last because as we drove down the road to the launch area everyone was headed towards the exit. when the porta-potty drives past you know the launch has officially been shut down. Hmmm.... At the time that was a big disappointment because we did want to fly this club-built LOC Onyx on a G80:
I know the paperwork said the sport launch would last until 4pm but probabbly another hour in the 30 degree temps and the mucky conditions must have been the reason for the early close. no problem.
And actually the early close saved us tired legs and launch fees which is okay. headed west, my crew came up with the idea of flying our rockets at the local junior high school which has three paralell football fields.
This saved the day because we got in six launches. For free rockets, those little Starhawks are superb flyers! I even sent my Launchpad AIM-4 Falcon up on a D12-3. The kids were happy.
Sooo, I was pleased with NARCON 08 and hope NARCON comes back to Minnesota in 2009. I would suggest one or two more LPR seminars and those seminars early in the morning so that LPR vendors can get some sales. Vendors, people are interested in interesting items and that's why I bought from Jim Flis. I had a question about the sport launch I should have asked 2 weeks ago on TRF but I asked it Friday night at 7:30 and it was answered before I left today at 6:30am. VERY nice. Whatever the turnout numbers - I think they correlate directly to the number of people who already know more than a little of model rocketry. If we want the hobby and sport to grow, then more outreach needs to be done during the year. We need to grab attention and put model rocketry in front of kids.
That's what I pledge to do. My guys started planning fundraisers so that we would be able to stay at the hotel next year! Thanks again everyone!
The area we hit right away was the vendor arena which was quite a refreshing variety compared to the stale shelves at Hobby Lobby and WalMart. Sorry I didn't chat much with any sellers because I had to split my time between the tasty merchandise and controllng my baboons. I did buy Aerotech engines from BMS and some stuff from Jim Fils.
We made the make and take rocket seminar supervised by Andy. Looks like even LCMS Lutherans are occasionally involved with the latest trends. LOL!
In between seminars the Narcon staff answered my kids questions about the rockets on display - "What"s Bert standing there for?" And the HPR fleet was interesting as well. Seemed to me the seminar that would grab my kids attention the most would be the MicroMaxx seminar by Chan Stevens.
Chan delivered a flood of information and passed around all his MMX fleet for all to view - at least a dozen micro rockets and EVERY ONE was serious quality.
Sorry we had to leave early to make it to Oak Island so we missed the last half hour of the seminar. Conditions at Oak Island were reported Thursday as wet and muddy. Ok, well we arrived at 3pm and saw one flight from the highway. That proved to be the last because as we drove down the road to the launch area everyone was headed towards the exit. when the porta-potty drives past you know the launch has officially been shut down. Hmmm.... At the time that was a big disappointment because we did want to fly this club-built LOC Onyx on a G80:
I know the paperwork said the sport launch would last until 4pm but probabbly another hour in the 30 degree temps and the mucky conditions must have been the reason for the early close. no problem.
And actually the early close saved us tired legs and launch fees which is okay. headed west, my crew came up with the idea of flying our rockets at the local junior high school which has three paralell football fields.
This saved the day because we got in six launches. For free rockets, those little Starhawks are superb flyers! I even sent my Launchpad AIM-4 Falcon up on a D12-3. The kids were happy.
Sooo, I was pleased with NARCON 08 and hope NARCON comes back to Minnesota in 2009. I would suggest one or two more LPR seminars and those seminars early in the morning so that LPR vendors can get some sales. Vendors, people are interested in interesting items and that's why I bought from Jim Flis. I had a question about the sport launch I should have asked 2 weeks ago on TRF but I asked it Friday night at 7:30 and it was answered before I left today at 6:30am. VERY nice. Whatever the turnout numbers - I think they correlate directly to the number of people who already know more than a little of model rocketry. If we want the hobby and sport to grow, then more outreach needs to be done during the year. We need to grab attention and put model rocketry in front of kids.
That's what I pledge to do. My guys started planning fundraisers so that we would be able to stay at the hotel next year! Thanks again everyone!