How Should We Spend $32K?
We just collected $32,000 (net) from the US Department of Justice in reimbursement for some of the legal fees that we had spent to win our lawsuit against BATFE. The NAR Board wants to hear from you, the members, on how this money should be used; after all, it was your donations and dues that paid the fees in the first place! Please go online and take a survey to give us your input before July 24. |
Alway R&D Prizes at NARAM
Each year at NARAM the NAR gives cash prizes to the young members who win the top four places in the "B" age division of the "Research and Development" event held there. These prizes, which range from $1000 for first place to $200 for fourth, are funded by a grant made by long-time NAR member Robert Alway in honor of his late parents, Clayton and Ida Alway.
If you know a young person between the ages of 14 and 18 who has done a research or science project involving model rockets,
please encourage them to join the NAR, come to NARAM-52 and compete in this event. |
Aerotech Motor Safety Bulletin
Aerotech has just released a bulletin to customers warning them about a reliability issue with their J1999 "Warp-9" 54mm high power rocket motor reload kit. Please read this bulletin before you fly a motor of this type again. |
Are you a rocketeer who plans to fly rockets for a lifetime and who likes being in the NAR? Are you tired of having to remember to renew your NAR membership every year? Then you should consider becoming a lifetime member of the NAR. NAR lifetime membership costs $1000. If you expect to live at least 16 more years (and the actuarial tables say that if you are 66 or younger, your life expectancy is at least this much), then this is a good economic decision. If you'd like to join the 22 other NAR members who are in this elite category, then mail in your next renewal with a bigger check and a note that you're in it for a lifetime! |
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Message from the NAR President
Greetings!
It's time for all of us to do our part to bring the NAR's first-ever membership growth drive to the finish line with a win! The drive began on January 1 and will end on the first day of NARAM-52, July 30, 2010. Our goal is to reach 5200 members by NARAM-52, "52 by 52". We started at about 4500 members, and we are now at about 4800 -- great progress, but still short of our goal. It will take all of us pitching in the get the remaining 400 members of growth in the next five weeks. If every NAR member who was up for renewal this year but did yet renew not could be persuaded to renew, we'd be there. If every section recruited three new members we'd be there. Let's go do both!
The NAR has a great value proposition to offer our members; please go review what we offer then go out and help us recruit. Send people to the " Join the NAR" page on our website to join or renew online, print out our membership application and have them mail it in, or have them join by phone by calling Marie at NAR headquarters (800)262-4872. Help your NAR recruit and retain members so we can have the resources to expand our programs and services.
Last week we sent checks of up to $250 as grants to 20 NAR sections for the purchase of equipment to enhance the safety of their flying ranges through our Section Safety Grant program. A total of $4400 was paid out to support NAR sections, on top of $4000 paid out to 20 other sections for the same purpose last year. Sections and range safety are very important to the NAR's success and we want to support both.
We awarded the first annual NAR High Power Technology Award, with a NAR plaque and a check for $500, to John Derimiggio of New York for development of a new easy-to-build design for an onboard altimeter and flight computer system for HPR rockets. Congratulations to John for his contribution to the advancement of high-power rocket technology.
We have finally collected the legal fee reimbursement for our succesful lawsuit against the BATFE. Please take the online survey to tell the NAR Board how you think we should use this $32,000.
The 2010 NAR National Sport Launch in Alamogordo, NM over Memorial Day was a great event. Event director Jim Basler and the host sections (FLARE and SMRA) provided a huge flying site and organized the event well. And special events coordinator Dave Kovar lined up an amazing program of tours to White Sands Missile Range, Holloman Air Force Base, the New Mexico Museum of Space History, and the National Solar Observatory. The New Mexico NAR team provided their fellow NAR members with a quality weekend of rocketry -- well done, guys!
I will be attending an international rocket competition next weekend -- here in the USA.. The NAR is hosting an FAI-sanctioned World Cup (2 or more nation) competition called the Great Lakes Cup in Oswego, IL with Tony Reynolds and Pat Butler as event directors. We expect about 10 East European and Russian FAI-style competition fliers to come over to attend and a number of Canadian fliers will be driving down as well. This event is also a practice for the US Spacemodeling Team of NAR members that will be travelling to Serbia on August 20 to compete for the US in the World Spacemodeling Championships. You can read more about the NAR's international competition program on the FAI Spacemodeling page of the NAR website. Go Team USA!
Be safe, have fun, and pay forward.
Trip Barber
NAR 4322
NAR President |
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NARAM-52 in Colorado
The 52nd annual NAR Annual Meet (NARAM - 52) is only 6 weeks away! Contest Director Mike Konshak and the Peak City Section have organized a huge program of events and a great flying site in Pueblo, Colorado. There are lots of scenic attractions in the area to make the event a family vacation in addition to a rocket launch. Several hundred NAR members and most of the manufacturers are already signed up to attend so there will be plenty of people and products to see. If you are not already registered, online registration will be open until July 5 NARAM-52's activities include:
- 9 model rocket competition events
- 4 high power competition events
- Free and discounted motor supplies for high power certification flights, and an 8000 foot above ground level waiver
- Manufacturer presentations and demonstrations
- Evening social events, a benefit auction of rare rocket items, R&D presentations, and the NAR annual Association meeting
- A closing national awards banquet
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Safety: Mass Launches
If you are planning a "mass launch" of multiple rockets simultaneously at some future launch, whether as a drag race or simply as a demonstration, do not treat this as a normal launch of a single rocket of that size. Mass launches need to be carefully planned and have special safety precautions in place. This is because the critical "see and avoid" option that lets people on a flying field avoid being hit by a rocket that is landing where it was not supposed to is greatly weakened by the sheer number of objects that are in the sky at the same time. People cannot see them all at the same time, and the one that they do not see may be the one that they needed to avoid.
Mass launches are not explicitly covered in the Safety Code or in our extensive other published safety information; this is a case where RSO judgment must be applied. At a minimum when doing one of these launches, make sure that all launchers have some angle on them in a direction away from any spectators, and ensure that all spectators are out of tents, out of seats, and paying attention. The distance between spectators and the pads should be increased as well; as a suggestion, use the "complex rocket" distance from the High Power Safety Code (even for model rocket mass launches) corresponding to the combined total impulse of all motors being ignited rather than the distance for the largest single motor. |
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National Association of Rocketry
