I think they had three teams of students there this year.
This announcement came through today:


The TARC 2012 Finals are complete. Today we had a day of superb Virginia
spring weather with warm temperatures, clear sky and virtually no wind --
perfect for flying our 10th TARC Finals. The student teams were
enthusiastic and competent, the NAR range crew of 105 volunteers did a great
job running the event, and we have a winner for TARC 2012 Congratulations
to Madison West High School of Madison, Wisconsin -- who also fielded the
winning team for TARC 2009. In addition to the cash prizes they won, this
team will be traveling to the Farnborough Air Show (near London) in July to
fly against the winners of the UK and French rocket challenge events,
courtey of Raytheon.

Congratulations to Pavel and company!

__________________
www.wooshrocketry.org NAR Sec. 558
Look us up on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/user/guytogo75?feature=mhee
unstable by design

Congrats to the winners of course but my takeaway was the over 600 teams that participated in TARC. The 105 volunteers who helped run it. The over a dozen industrial sponsors. The top x people are enrolled in NASA Space Launch Initiative (5200 foot altitude rocket not 700 foot).

I would like to see two regional playoffs added and allow winners at each site to get full benefits. In my day we used the local city recreation programs as recruiting and program management partners, and this program uses schools for the same. It appears we have other resources NAR could evolve toward to expand the scope of the program, perhaps with other themes entirely than a contest with performance targets.

TARC is a wonderful thing and Trip Barber and his extensive team is doing a great job leading it.

I would hope by expanding it regionally and in theme, it might hit a chord in a way that translates to more actual NAR members and perhaps more local rocketry participation similar to what we saw in the 70's and 80's. It really was better for model rocketry participation then. Notably space program awareness and excitement is really back too.

For goodness sake, use misfire alley range set-up!

Jerry

SIX HUNDRED teams? That's amazing.

Jerry makes some good points.

Remember the CBS story about a TARC team from dirt-poor Presidio, TX?

There was an updated version this morning, with a few shots from TARC. The Presidio team came in 11th, which is pretty cool.

__________________
NAR #27085 - Oregon Rocketry - SAM

My elderly uncle and aunt mentioned it at Mother's Day brunch today so the message is getting out to a VERY wide audience with good retention and good vibes too. It's working.

BTW here's a proposed TARC 2 field. In Ontario, Calif. It is near a major airport, hotels, restaurants, shopping, major highways. Access is excellent just like VA. It is large enough for a TARC size event and I have proposed it in the past for NARAM. It has pretty good clearance possibilities since it is well to the side of the runways and such. Wind comes from the WSW. In-N-Out Burger across the street.

http://maps.google.com/maps?q=ontar...California&z=15

Jerry

They also won Rockets for Schools- Class 2 on Friday/Saturday as well. Quite the weekend for the teams!!!! Congrats on both accounts!

-Eric-

That's what I heard.
Good thing they have Brent Lillesand on board to paint their rockets.
I bet a good paint job helped.