NARAM this year was
held in hot and humid Houston, Texas. Surprisingly, it
wasn’t as hot and humid as when they last held NARAM at
this location. In fact, even the roaches and fire ants
were nonexistent! I had most of my models built before I
left, which was good because building models was the last
thing I wanted to do after being up until 4:00 AM, and
then getting up at 8:00 AM to chase rockets that
sometimes floated miles from the launch site. Keep in
mind that this schedule went on for four days straight. I
felt like it was exam week!

    I did pretty well,
taking a trophy in every event I entered. Really great
models were not needed to win. Consistency meant
everything with low cloud ceilings and prevailing winds
that took your birds directly into the NASA complex. In
fact, the range was shut down two times when NASA
objected to models landing in restricted
areas.

    The duration events
included “1/2A” Parachute Duration, “A” Helicopter Duration, “C” Rocket Glider Duration,
and “F” Streamer Duration. Times recorded on the flight
cards were pretty misleading though, since most models
due to the high winds could only be seen for the first
couple minutes of flight. Unfortunately with the return
rule, one flight had to be returned.

    So, having ultra
high performance models at this contest usually didn’t
pay off. My duration models were light but not fragile
and maybe not as light as I could have made them. My
motto has always been to go all out and hope to get one
flight back or tracked. No one can predict what the
weather will be like. If I had all the time in the world,
I’d probably build a couple of bricks to fly, in case of
high winds.

    The altitude events
included “D” Altitude and “E” Dual Eggloft Altitude. I
placed second in “D” Altitude and first in “E” Dual
Eggloft Altitude. Tracking the egglofter flights was not
a problem for the trackers. In C division there were only
three qualified flights and two of them were mine. Thus
to place, all you had to do was qualify.

    Flying “D” Altitude
was another story. Most modelers chose Apogee 18 mm
D3-7’s and most punched the low cloud base and didn’t get
tracked. My first flight did just that. I stayed with my
motto though and flew a backup model I built the night
before on a D3-7. I launched right into a small blue
patch of sky and got tracked.

    Coming into NARAM, I
was number 2 in the nation and 2,000 points behind the
leader. After NARAM, I was 4,000 points ahead of the
previous leader, and took the “C” Division National
Championship!

    Dave Nauer, Ed
Schneider, and Warren Layfield left early Saturday,
August 1st, and I began the trip a few hours behind (I
was still building that morning!) to attend NARAM 34 in
Las Vegas. Todd Schneider and his mom left a few days
earlier, as they intended to fit a vacation into the busy
schedule. The drive was about 750 miles, and through
about 13-15 hours of widely varied terrain, and several
long, isolated stretches between towns. It’s hard to
believe that you’re half way there and still in
Colorado!

    Most of us arrived
at the Gold Coast Hotel Sunday afternoon, and spent some
time moving our equipment into the rooms. The only way
into the hotel was through the gambling casino, and that
area was always crowded. We spent part of the evening
checking out the manufacturers’ room, and meeting some of
the other attendees. Mike Hellmund and Mary Roberts
arrived by plane, to represent ESTES Industries, and show
off some of their upcoming products.

    Dave had volunteered
to perform RSO duties during the contest, and I
volunteered to be a scale judge. Todd took on timing and
tracking duties, and Warren spent most of his time
helping the range officials where he could. Ed relaxed,
and watched, and helped Todd prepare for the events. I
felt that with all the effort he put in to the hobby, he
should be involved in the competition, as he’d do quite
well.

    I spent most of the
evening finishing up some models for the next day’s
events. In fact, I threw together a “B” Streamer model
around midnight. I almost decided to skip the event, as I
knew we had to get up at 5:00 AM each morning to get out
to the launch site by the 7:00 AM starting
time.

    Todd had his first
of many fine days in “B” Division, with three perfect “A”
P/D flights for a first place finish, and then a second
place in “B” Streamer. Dave started out poorly with DQ’s
on two of his “A” P/D flights, and more problems in the
streamer event. I had one good flight out of three in the
parachute event, and what I thought were two mediocre
streamer flights. I was shocked to find later that I had
taken first in “C” division in the “B” Streamer
event!

    Monday night’s
events included the Manufacturers Forum and the
Manufacturers Trade Show, where many of the rocketry
vendor presented and displayed their current and future
items

    Wednesday was
“glider” day, as the events were 1/4A Rocket Glider, 1/2A
Boost Glider, and G Rocket Glider (“A” and “B” Divisions
flew “C” Rocket Glider instead). Dave had problems this
day, as he DQ’d both “1/4” A R/G attempts. I had two good
flights for a total of 53 seconds, and took second place,
just three seconds behind first place. Todd also took a
second place in this event. My first “1/2A” Boost Glider
flight shredded a wing on liftoff, but after some quick
repairs, I had a nice second flight However, it was not
enough to place in the event. Dave didn’t place either,
but Todd took a fourth place for his efforts. An early
storm was coming in, so the “G” Rocket Glider event was
postponed until Thursday.

    An auction was held
this evening, with many fine items available. Dave and I
donated two NARCON ’92 shirts and two patches to the
event, and Gordon McGregor, who came to watch and sell
some old kits, donated some of the vintage models to the
auction. The big item was a 1964 Estes catalog which went
for the amazing price of $90.00 to Bob Sanford, and then
autographed by Vern Estes who was in attendance.

    After the Auction, a
NAR Town Meeting was held, where the members had the
opportunity to pose questions to the board members. It
was a highly charged meeting, filled with many complaints
and criticism. I spent the evening judging the Super
Scale entries, and this turned out to be a tedious
effort.

    Thursday
was another poor day for me. This was “altitude day”,
with both “C” Eggloft and “F” Super-Roc events being
held. The “G” Rocket Gliders were flown, and my entry
decided to go horizontal at liftoff and crashed quite a
way downrange.

   
I felt I would do well in “C” Eggloft, but my first flight
resulted in a cracked egg. The second one was great but
one tracker didn’t get a track. I was allowed to retry the
flight, but my final attempt ejected the engine, and the
impact destroyed the model. Dave did very well,
taking first in the event, but Todd’s flights didn’t
result in a place this time. Warren also flew in this
event, but didn’t place.

    Todd did well in the
“E” Super-Roc event, taking a second place, but Dave
didn’t finish in the trophies. I didn’t have a chance to
try mine as another storm was brewing, and also the RSO
told me that my entry was “too dangerous”, and wouldn’t
be allowed to fly.

    Friday was the last
day for competition, and the Scale and PMC events were
scheduled. Dave had nice flights on both of his entries
(each was a Jupiter-C model), and took second in the
Super Scale event. I flew my retro-rocket as a demo
flight by request of the R&D judges, and it flew
perfectly. My PMC model (an “A-12”, the CIA version of
the SR71 Blackbird), lifted off smoothly on its twin
engines, then made several tight maneuvers before
deploying both parachutes. I was very pleased with the
flight, as many felt the configuration would not fly.
Dave called the flight “marginal”, but it earned me a
first place in the event. Todd had a nice flight of his
scale Saturn V, and took first in the event. He had
recovery problems with his F104 PMC entry, and was DQ’ed
on both attempts.

    Overall, our Colorado contingent did
quite well, as I won a total of four trophies, Todd had 9
event trophies and one overall trophy, and Dave had five
event trophies and a reserve national championship!
Congratulations, Dave!!

    We drove all the way back on
Saturday, taking about 15 hours. I had to stop for a
while in Utah to replace a fouled spark plug, and Dave
had some vapor lock problems (with his car), but we
survived the trip.

    I’m already looking forward to next
year’s contest NARAM 35, and this time I’ll start
building early! But then, I said the same thing last
year, too!

    This was the first
event of this type that I participated in, and after
attending LDRS 5 through 9, I was anticipating a change.
Mike and I had been planning for this for several months,
although it looked for a while that things may fall
apart. Kevin Kuczek had planned on going, but decided to
skip this year. Mike had to use most of his precious
vacation time for an untimely personal matter, and at
first it appeared he would also back out of the contest
Somehow, he managed to find enough free time to attend
the last three days of the event, otherwise I may have
canceled my plans to attend, also.

    Our plan was to
enter the contest as a team, and early on we decided on
the name “Peripheral Visionaries”. We talked Kevin into
assisting us In preparing for the event, and he became
our third team member, flying by proxy, sort of. Without
his expertise, our efforts would has been far less than
what we had accomplished.

    One event that
really held my interest since it’s announcement was the
radio controlled rocket glider event (RC/RG), although
afterwards I felt that I should have skipped the event,
and concentrated on some ofthe easier contests. I spent
most my free time the three previous months designing and
building my model, and very few on any others. Our
original plan was to enter all of the events, but as the
time grew shorter, we knew we would have to skip a couple
of the more time consuming contests.

    Kevin and I spent a
lot of time trying to develop techniques for lightweight
fiberglass tubes, and in fact had only created two
useable tubes the night before I left. Kevin and Mike
were still building models the next few days for Mike to
take with him on the plane.

    I had decided early
on to drive to the contest, and had left around noon on a
miserable Saturday morning, as a steady downpour made me
feel almost grateful to be getting away for a while. My
trip out was mostly uneventful, although my 11 year old
Toyota with 120,000 miles on it decided to come down with
a case of vapor lock after the first 300 miles. I had
just resumed my journey after stopping for lunch and a
fill up when the problem began. I made it to the next
exit off of Interstate 80, and pulled into the nearest
gas station. I met a very helpful resident who said he
used to work at the station, and was apparently just
visiting his friends there, and I explained my problem to
him. He was sure my problem was due to vapor lock caused
by the 10% Ethanol gas that I had just bought and the hot
weather. By the time I understood what he was trying to
tell me, my car and the weather had cooled off enough to
allow me continue without incident. Thereafter, I made
sure I used only regular unleaded gas in my
car!

    Around 11:00 PM I
decided to find a motel for the night, and after my
second fill up, I began looking for a place to stay. This
turned out to be a bigger problem than I expected. There
was a number of Best Western motels along the highway,
but these and any others were already full. I decided to
keep heading east until I found one with a vacancy, as I
didn’t see any other options. Finally, I found a “Travel
Lodge” In West Des Moines, Iowa at about 1:00
AM.

    I had traveled
nearly 700 miles on Saturday, so the remaining 300 miles
was easy. I arrived Sunday afternoon at my brother’s
place, and had a few hours to visit before heading up to
the Elgin Holiday Inn to register for the event and
attend the flyers meeting. I finally caught up with Ed
and Todd Schneider, who also drove out, and had stopped
at the Flight Systems, Incorporated, facilities on the
way. They had an interesting visit with the owner of the
company, andpicked up a few FSI products during their
stay. The flyers meeting wasn’t particularly interesting,
as only about half of the contestants attended, and the
biggest issue was a lack of parking space at the launch
site.

    Seeing that the
weather would onlybe turning worse, I readied our first
streamer model for flight. This time, Ed was on top of
the tracks to attempt to recover the rocket, as I knew
this would be a long duration flight. Kevin had put
together a couple of very nice streamer models, and
losing them was a distinct possibility. The first flight
was perfect as the model drifted out of sight and never
did appear to come down. Unfortunately, the low cloud
cover and hazy skies made tracking difficult Our time was
only about 2 minutes. This was typical of a majority of
the flights, and luck was a big factor not only in
recovery, but in getting good times, also. Since one
model must be returned, I decided to reduce the steamer
size for the next flight. I did recover the model, but
had a time of only about a minute. The combined times
weren’t good enough to place in the event, but at least I
was beginning to feel comfortable as part of the
competition. Todd had a good second flight and took first
in his division in this event.

    I had some problem
in the parachute duration event as my first flight
ejected the engine, a disqualification, and the second
had a parachute deployment problem. Todd has a couple of
good flights, and ended up in second place. I gained a
new appreciation for test flying before a contest. I felt
somewhat disappointed, wondering what Mike had talked me
into, and wishing he was there already, sharing in the
frustration.

    The annual business
meeting was held Monday evening. The highlights were the
NAR board member elections and the announcement by Pat
Miller of next year’s NARCON in Colorado Springs In May
1992.

    Well, Mike finally
arrived Tuesday night, and wasn’t real pleased with our
results so far. I knew however, that his viewpoint would
be improved as soon as hs saw the launch site. The
manufacturers forum was held that evening.
Representatives from many of the rocketry companies,
including Estes, AeroTech, North Coast, and a new company
called MicroBrick were on hand to answer questions and
promote their products. Most had some new items to
announce, but in spite of Mike’s heckling (almost to the
point of embarrassment), Mary Roberts covered inquiries
on Estes’ plans by neither confirming or denying
anything. One item of interest was North Coast’s radio
controlled glider patterned after a space shuttle, was
made from styrofoam and should sell for around
$40.

    Wednesday was not a
good day, as the rain came early. Mike and I had just
about finished prepping our “B” Eggloft Altitude model
when the range was shut down due to rain. We decided that
this was a good time for lunch, but when we returned,
everyone had left. We felt that canceling the events for
the day was a premature decision, as the rain had
subsided by that time.

    So, while I spent
the rest of the day finishing my radio controlled rocket
glider, Mike scouted out the manufacturers’ offerings and
generally menaced anyone he could find to converse with.
Since we lost most of a day of flying, the decision was
made to allow only one flight each for the “A” payload
and “B” Eggloft flights the next day, and move the 120
second precision duration event to Friday. The R&D
presentations were held Wednesday evening, although only
Ed and Todd felt compelled to attend. I was locking for a
good night’s sleep, as I had been averaging about 5 hours
a night since 1 arrived.

    Thursday started out
with a rain shower. but it subsided shortly after we
arrived, turning out to be a fairly nice day. Today, Mike
would gain some firsthand experience searching through
the Illinois Jungle. We began with our “B” egglofter, and
the flight was a very good one, with an altitude of 106
meters. For a while, it looked like the model was lost in
the high weeds, but I just happened to walk by it,
finding it hanging from the side ot a bush. The egg
survived intact, and we thought our score would be enough
for a trophy, but as the event progressed, our altitude
was exceeded several times. Ed flew his egglofter, but
his 40 meter altitude was not enough to place well in the
stiff “C” division competition. This was the only event
he competed in, but hopefully he’ll enter more next year.
Todd had more problems as he DQ’d on his Eggloft attempt.
We flew our “A” payloader next, and because we had only
one flight to qualify, we decided to fly it without the
piston launch accessory Kevin included in the design. We
felt we had an optimum model, and wanted to eliminate any
possible problem during the flight. The model performed
flawlessly, as ws obtained a 116 altitude, and were tied
for first place for a short time. Two other models beat
our score, as we ended up tied for second as a team and
tied for third overall. For some reason, the “C” Division
competitors were combined with the Team Division.
Obviously, someone was too cheap to award separate
trophies for the two groups, and members of both
expressed some negative feelings about this scheme. This
was done last year also, and was not supposed to have
been repeated. Hopefully, this policy will not reoccur
next year. Todd had another DQ in this event, but ended
his streak of troubles in the next event.

    Todd had a couple of
nice flights in “B” Boost Glider to earn him a second
place. Mike and I eventually trimmed and launched our “B”
Boost Glider. The first flight begun perfectly, as the
model floated in gentle circles above the launch site.
Suddenly, the glider began stalling wildly, and was
nearly lost In the waist high field next to the launch
site. Apparently, the clay weight we used to trim the
model fell off during the flight, and caused the problem.
Our second flight wasn’t very good, as our trimming
wasn’t as desirable as the first flight, and our score in
the event was somewhat of a letdown.

    Finally, the
radio controlled rocket glider event was underway, and I
had some doubts concerning our entry. We never had a
chance for a good test flight, and I had never flown an
R/C glider before. I tried to build the model to
practically fly itself, and all I hoped for was a
qualifying flight. The weather was turning bad as we
prepped the flight, and at liftoff the wind suddenly
picked up. The model took off very nicely, and deployed
its folding wings as expected. The high winds then
proceeded to push the model directly in the opposite
direction of the landing spot. Any attempt to turn the
model only resulted in a loss of altitude, and it finally
collided with a tree and hung suspended about 30 feet
up.

    My brother climbed
up to retrieve the model, and I was surprised to see that
no significant damage was done. The wind wasn’t letting
up, so we decided not to attempt another flight Still, I
was pleased with the results. The flight wasn’t as good
as we hoped, but better than we expected. We ended up
fifth out of six as a team in the event, as another
competitor’s model got up to about 25 feet high and then
buried itself into the ground next to the
pad.  

    Friday had only half
the day scheduled for launches since the flights in these
event were not expected to travel very far, I felt my
excursions through the perilous vegetation were about
over, however Mike had other ideas. Our attempts at the
day’s events were less than spectacular, although Todd
took second In Precision Duration and third in spot
landing.

    Mike flew his Estes
Black Brant with an E30 motor for Precision Duration. It
was a great flight, but only stayed up for 70 seconds or
so, far from the required two minutes. We thought it was
lost in the high weeds, and Mike was ready to leave the
model behind, as he wore shorts that day and didn’t want
to brave the wilderness. I volunteered for the dangerous
duty, and once again I got lucky and walked right up to
it.

    I built an Estes
Scout III the night before for spot landing, and Mike and
I argued about the best engine to use. He wanted to use
an A8-3, while I felt a C6-7 would do the job. We
compromised on a B4-4, but this tuned out to be a poor
choice, as the model landed farther from the spot than we
started. Once again I was plodding through the weeds to
recover it, and it turned out that it didn’t even land
there; it was right next to the road into the launch
area. We still had opposing opinions on what engine we
should have used!