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  #21  
Old 06-05-2019, 11:12 AM
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timorley timorley is offline
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I'm going to attend NARAM-61, first time ever attending a NARAM. Anyone have advice, perspectives, tips, what to watch for, etc. for a NARAM newbie? I signed up for sport flying and the banquet. I also am doing the A Boost Glider Duration for the free contest event, not really into doing contests, but thought what the heck, I don't usually do boost gliders, so why not challenge myself with something different.

Anyone here going? Should we have a Ye Olde Rocket Forum meetup?
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  #22  
Old 06-05-2019, 01:31 PM
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teflonrocketry1 teflonrocketry1 is offline
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Tim,

NARAM is a nice place to fly rockets and meet other people into the hobby. Bring some extra cash with you as there will be vendors there (like Pem Tech), no shipping charges! There is always a lot to do even if you are just a there to fly sport like me. I enjoy going to the R&D presentations for the competitions; there is always something new to learn from these talks. I especially enjoy going to the Cannon Auction and bidding on rocketry related items, you never know what you might find (scheduled for Friday August 2 from 7:00 pm – 9:00 pm at the Horizon Convention Center Shafer Hall at the Marriott Courtyard in Muncie, IN.). If the weather is bad for flying you can always attend the local attractions nearby.

I typically attend NARAM during the week after the weekend crowd has subsided. I have been at the Muncie International Aeromodeling Center site. There is ample parking, nicely maintained site with bleachers for observers and porta potty's. For the low power sport range be prepared to launch from a blacktop surface near an outdoor pavilion, hard landings, roof landings and road rash are common occurrences. For high power, the pads are on an adjacent grassy area and due to the smaller size of the field the FAA clearance is to 6,000′ AGL, with K motor limit.
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Last edited by teflonrocketry1 : 06-05-2019 at 06:57 PM.
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  #23  
Old 06-06-2019, 10:10 AM
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Thanks for the information. Blacktop and roofs huh, that will influence what rockets I bring for sure. I'm about 2 hours from Muncie, so I'm fortunate for my first NARAM I can adjust fairly reasonably to the conditions and rocket choices. Already scheduled the week off from work.
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"You know, it, uh, won't fly unless somebody pushes the button." From the movie October Sky.

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  #24  
Old 06-06-2019, 01:44 PM
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Ez2cDave Ez2cDave is offline
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Here is an aerial tour of the site . . .

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y6SfDuzYm-E

Dave F.
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  #25  
Old 06-06-2019, 03:09 PM
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BEC BEC is offline
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And here is a map of the IAC: https://www.modelaircraft.org/syste...0Site%20Map.pdf

According to the NARAM-61 web site the sport range will be set up on Site 1 with the mid-power pads on the control line circles (blacktop). The low-power pads will be off the south edge of the paved area and the high power pads north of it. https://www.nar.org/site/naram-61-r...ld/sport-field/ Presuming winds take the models away from the spectator area they ought to land in grass, mostly.

The contest range will be set up in Site 3, and the two large R/C runways will provide a paved landing opportunity for contest models which land north and west of the pads if they don’t go far. https://www.nar.org/site/naram-61-r.../contest-range/
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  #26  
Old 08-03-2019, 09:29 PM
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All but one of the rockets I flew at the NARAM-61 sport range were damaged when they landed on the asphalt. The site is basically a pavilion surrounded by a U-shaped region of black top and gravel surfaces. The launch area was in front of the metal roofed pavilion facing north in the middle and bottom of the "U" the legs of the "U" point south. The wind blew most of the flights back toward the pavilion, the black top surfaces, vendor row and parking areas. I don't think make-and-takes are much fun if your (first) rocket smashes into the pavement; I saw this happen more than once a NARAM-61. There are plenty of other grass covered areas that could have been used for a sport launch site at the AMA field.

When I got to the field on Tuesday late in the morning there was no registration tent available at either the contest or sport range. Luckily, I knew the contest director; his mother actually set up the registration area and registered me! The distance between the sport and contest range was almost too far to walk, I had to drive my wife over to the contest range were the food truck was located. I felt sorry for the vendors (like BMS and Impulse Buys) on the sport range as I am sure they would have done more business if they were located closer to the contest range. Yesterday, I was surprised by an email from the AMA saying that I paid $19.95 for a 3 month membership trial. When I registered for NARAM-61 I was told the registration included this trial, but I am wondering if the NAR or NARAM-61 organizers had to pay for this out of the $50.00 registration fee they collected.

Not much was in the registration packet;
an EstesRockets.com cooling towel,
a 2019 Estes catalog,
an Estes model rocket cradle (#2293),
a 4" oval Estes sticker,
an estesrockets.com Broad Spectrum SPF 15 Sunscreen Beeswax Lip Balm,
an AMA Koozie and Model Aviation Magazine,
an invite to the Pem Tech party,
and a VisitMuncie.org carabiner and tour guide.
Apogee provided the name badge holders and there was at least one vendor and food truck located at the contest range. Lacking in the registration packet was a hard copy map of the launch sites, FAA waiver limits, and/or a final schedule of events, or even a pen to fill out the flight cards. By Wednesday pens were scarce at the sport range for filling out the flight cards!

Please share your thoughts on NARAM-61.
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  #27  
Old 08-03-2019, 10:28 PM
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Ez2cDave Ez2cDave is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by teflonrocketry1
All but one of the rockets I flew at the NARAM-61 sport range were damaged when they landed on the asphalt. The site is basically a pavilion surrounded by a U-shaped region of black top and gravel surfaces. The launch area was in front of the metal roofed pavilion facing north in the middle and bottom of the "U" the legs of the "U" point south. The wind blew most of the flights back toward the pavilion, the black top surfaces, vendor row and parking areas. I don't think make-and-takes are much fun if your (first) rocket smashes into the pavement; I saw this happen more than once a NARAM-61. There are plenty of other grass covered areas that could have been used for a sport launch site at the AMA field.

When I got to the field on Tuesday late in the morning there was no registration tent available at either the contest or sport range. Luckily, I knew the contest director; his mother actually set up the registration area and registered me! The distance between the sport and contest range was almost too far to walk, I had to drive my wife over to the contest range were the food truck was located. I felt sorry for the vendors (like BMS and Impulse Buys) on the sport range as I am sure they would have done more business if they were located closer to the contest range. Yesterday, I was surprised by an email from the AMA saying that I paid $19.95 for a 3 month membership trial. When I registered for NARAM-61 I was told the registration included this trial, but I am wondering if the NAR or NARAM-61 organizers had to pay for this out of the $50.00 registration fee they collected.

Not much was in the registration packet;
an EstesRockets.com cooling towel,
a 2019 Estes catalog,
an Estes model rocket cradle (#2293),
a 4" oval Estes sticker,
an estesrockets.com Broad Spectrum SPF 15 Sunscreen Beeswax Lip Balm,
an AMA Koozie and Model Aviation Magazine,
an invite to the Pem Tech party,
and a VisitMuncie.org carabiner and tour guide.
Apogee provided the name badge holders and there was at least one vendor and food truck located at the contest range. Lacking in the registration packet was a hard copy map of the launch sites, FAA waiver limits, and/or a final schedule of events, or even a pen to fill out the flight cards. By Wednesday pens were scarce at the sport range for filling out the flight cards!

Please share your thoughts on NARAM-61.


After reading your post . . .

(1) Did AMA designate the flying areas or were they selected by the Contest Director ?

(2) From what you described, there seems to have been a lot of confusion, lack of planning, and disorganization . . . Who was the Contest Director ?

(3) That AMA "trial" fee may have been some requirement by AMA, in order for people to use the facility . . . Might have been nice to know that, in advance !

(4) About how many Competitors were flying Competition ?

(5) It appears that the "logistics" were all screwed up ( Inadequate Registration Packet, Vendor locations, distances between ranges, lack of Registration setup, etc, etc, etc ).

Overall, it sounds like NARAM-62 was a pretty rough experience . . . Is that accurate ?

Dave F.
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  #28  
Old 08-03-2019, 11:01 PM
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BEC BEC is offline
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I have only attended three NARAMs. The other two were at the Hudson Ranch southwest of Pueblo, Colorado. The distance between the sport and contest ranges here at Muncie was not as far as at Pueblo and over much more walking-friendly surfaces/terrain.

The general location of the ranges was driven in part by AMA site schedules....and that the sport range was as far east as it was also driven by a previous bad experience with respect to the high tension power lines which run through the west side of the IAC. I agree that the sport range setup was not ideal, given that the MPR and HPR pads were set up on asphalt at the east end of the Site 1 runway and that corn and bean fields were rather close. As a result I didn’t get much sport flying in except on Tuesday when the winds were much more favorable. I put up one of the last flights on the sport range (last flight of the next-to-last rack) and it landed on pavement behind the pavilion. But it was a light model, chosen in part for just that eventuality (Estes Checkmate) and it was fine.

As at NARAM-56 and -60, the vendors were at the sport range. I agree that having the one food vendor serving NARAM being at the contest range was problematical for those who didn’t know he was there (which included me on Tuesday).

The contest range was much much better and in general the weather was also much better for the contest days, and quite a contrast to the windy Monday which ended with an inch of rain.

With only NARAM-56 and -60 to compare to I certainly wouldn’t call NARAM-61 a “rough experience”.

NARAM-62 is next year, in Geneseo, NY. Dates are, as far as I know, still TBD.

Registration was disorganized the first night (eight days ago) at the hotel but was set up at the sport range for the days I was there. Once the contest started on Wednesday I was down at the contest range so I don’t know about anyone who came almost a week in and wanted to register and how/if they were provided for.

The AMA trial membership was in fact part of the NARAM fee as one has to be an AMA member to use this site. I suppose I should grumble about paying for this when I didn’t need it as I have been an AMA member since 1972 (except for four years in college). But I won’t.

Just looking at the results I’d estimate that ~65 people were flying competition across the four divisions, given that most of the team entries were three or four people each.

At the banquet tonight they reported over 900 sport flights over the eight days, which is pretty remarkable considering the siting of the sport range and the winds, especially the first three days.
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  #29  
Old 08-04-2019, 12:56 AM
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Sounds like the sport flying range could not be designed deliberately to be a larger recovery FIASCO.
Whomever chose the launch/recovery area should be given a LONG RIDE ON A LARGE BOOT.
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  #30  
Old 08-04-2019, 04:28 AM
Scott_650 Scott_650 is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by BEC

NARAM-62 is next year, in Geneseo, NY. Dates are, as far as I know, still TBD.



Bernard -

Did they announce the locations for NARCON and NSL too?
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