Electronic Rocketeer—What's Happening in Rocketry

Message from the NAR President

Fellow NAR Member,

Well January certainly flew by fast. As I am writing this, I am guessing that many of you are hunkered down avoiding the cold and snowy weather – especially those who live in the Midwest and East Coast areas. Stay warm!

While you have some indoor time, my safety tip for the month is to remind you to take a few moments to do a safety check on your existing fleet of rockets. Break them down, check for worn or frayed recovery system components, look for holes and burns in parachutes that will compromise future recoveries, and check for the integrity of all components and adhesive connections. Make any necessary repairs now while you have some time, rather than putting it off until the night before your next launch.

I also ask that our NAR Sections take some time at an upcoming meeting to hold a safety stand down and review your safety practices. Look back on last year’s launches to critique your safety practices and launch procedures. Train members to perform safety check-ins and range operation procedures. Pull out your range safety equipment, make needed repairs and inventory your equipment to ensure your Section is ready for the 2026 flying season. If your section needs new or replacement safety gear, apply for a NAR Section Grant to help with funding.

This is also prime time to support our annual student rocketry challenge – the American Rocketry Challenge or ARC. With over 1,100 teams registered for the 2025-2026 contest year, this is another record for participation throughout the US.  You can help by being a mentor to a local team and supporting qualifying flights for teams at your local launches. More information about the NAR and ARC can be found on the NAR website pages supporting ARC.

Stay safe, have fun and pay it forward.

 

John N. Hochheimer

NAR President

NAR 74537 L3

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Were you participating in the previous version of NARTREK?

Call for Nominees

The National Association of Rocketry (NAR) is pleased to call for nominations for the Board of Trustees. We are seeking candidates for three positions, to serve for terms of three years.

NAR Senior members with three or more years of tenure who wish to run for election to the Board of Trustees are invited to submit self-nomination statements of 300 words (including a brief description of any specific service goal you want to focus on if you're elected to the Board) to elections@nar.org by noon (Eastern Time) on March 2, 2026. Please include a photo with your nomination statement.

Resumes and ballots will be sent to every NAR member in the April/May/June edition of Sport Rocketry.

This year, you may vote:

(1) online (beginning April 20) OR

(2) by using the ballot contained in the April/May/June issue of Sport Rocketry OR

(3) in person at NARAM 67.

You may only vote once. According to the NAR By-Laws, only Senior and Young Adult members who joined the NAR prior to July 8, 2025 (NAR number 123391 and below) will be eligible to vote in this election.

Election results will be announced and new Trustees will take office at the conclusion of the summer online Town Hall meeting.

NAR Section News 

New Sections – The NAR would like to welcome the DC Model Rocketry Club (DC MRC) Section #1010 out of Washington DC and the Union College Rocket Club (UCRC) Section #1011 out of Schenectady, NY. For more about these Sections or to find the one closest to you, visit the NAR Club Finder page.  Want to charter a new NAR Section? Please fill out the Submit a Local Club form.

Charter A Section – Do you enjoy launching rockets with other like-minded people? Would you like to be able to offer FREE liability protection to your launch site landowner? Could you use some help dealing with a local bureaucracy to be able to launch your rockets? Charter as an official public NAR Section now and take advantage of the numerous benefits and resources! There are no fees involved and only two (2) active NAR members are required (at least one of those must be a senior NAR member) for the initial chartering and five (5) NAR members by the second renewal.

Organizational and Private Sections have similar requirements. You can find more information on the Starting a New Section web page or simply send an inquiry to the SAC Chairman.

Section Grants – Applications for 2026 Section Grants are being accepted! Simply fill out and submit the online Section Grant Form to apply for up to a $250 grant. If you need ideas on what types of items the grant can be used for, please contact the SAC Chairman.

Free Memberships – A Free NAR Membership is available for each Section to award to a NEW rocketeer! Please take advantage of this important benefit and get someone involved with the NAR soon! It is FREE! Send an email to the Section Activities Chairman for more details or to receive your Sections Coupon Code. Make sure to include your Sections name and number in the email.

Launch Calendar – ARC, NASA’s Student Launch, and other rocketry competitions are underway, and Teams are looking for launches to conduct their practice and qualification flights. All Sections should submit your launch events to for addition to the NAR's Event calendar. In addition to helping these teams, this is another way for potential members to find you and see what the NAR is all about. You can submit your events online HERE. Make sure you read and follow the instructions on that page before adding an actual event.

Section Member Affiliation – Are you a member of a Section? Please log into your NAR account, go to your Member Profile page, and scroll down to the “More Member Options” box. Click on the “Clubs/Additional Members” link to add the Section(s) with which you are affiliated. We will soon be conducting an audit of Section memberships to ensure each Section is meeting the minimum NAR member requirements for their Section type so
make sure your name is counted!

Please Note: Adding a Section to your NAR Member Profile does not automatically make you a member of that Section. You are responsible for reaching out to the Section that you are interested in for details on how to become an actual member.

Do you have any Section related questions? – Check out the Section FAQ's for answers to most commonly asked questions.  If you don’t find your question listed there, simply contact the Section Activities Chairman.

Respectfully,

Chuck Neff

SAC Chairman

High-Power Rocket Altitude Predictions 

Check in and range safety officers want to know that your high-power rocket will not exceed the FAA waiver altitude.  An important parameter in determining your rocket's expected altitude is the coefficient of drag or C_D. The C_D is a measure of how easily air flows over your rocket.  istorically, typical unfinished model rockets assumed a C_D of 0.75.  Model rockets with streamlined shapes and excellent finishes may have C_Dvalues in the 0.6 range.

 

Users should use lower C_D values in simulations for a high-power rocket than for a model rocket of the same shape.  This is because of a characteristic known as the Reynolds number. The Reynolds number is a ratio of forces within the fluid (our atmosphere in this case) passing over the rocket. Depending on the Reynolds number, the flow over the rocket will transition from laminar (steady) to turbulent (unsteady) flow at different velocities. The flow conditions will determine the actual drag.

 

A range safety or check in officer may ask what C_D was used for your altitude calculation. If a default model rocket C_D value, say 0.75, was used for your simulation then the calculated altitude may be unrealistically low; especially if the rocket is well finished.  he NAR Safety Committee suggests using a C_D value of 0.50 to 0.55 for an unflown high power rocket to provide a more conservative altitude prediction. Some rocket simulation programs do not allow the user to state a fixed C_D value. This is because the C_D can vary as a function of velocity.  As the user you can cause the program to use a lower C_D by specifying an optimal surface finish on exposed surfaces. For example, in OpenRocket the user can specify a mirror or polished finish on exposed surfaces. Be prepared to explain this approach to the range safety or check in officer if they ask.  Once the rocket has been flown and flight data is available, the simulation C_D (or surface finish parameters) can be adjusted to provide better correlation between the flight data and simulation predictions.

 

Fly safe, fly high, but don't bust the waiver!

 

Stephen Lubliner

Membership 8,609
Family: 560

Junior: 440
Life: 145
Young Adult: 2,530
Senior: 4,241
Senior Plus: 630
Teacher + Students: 63

HPR Certified
Jr Level 1: 224

Level 1: 2,254

Level 2: 1,669
Level 3: 685

Contest Rocketry News

Competition Zoom Meeting

I will be hosting a monthly zoom for members who would like to talk about competition. This is an open meeting for any NAR member who wants to see what is going on in competition. The next meeting will be held on Saturday March 14th at 9:00 p.m. (ET). If there is a topic you would like to include, please send me an email. Join in and meet with competitors from across the country.

Please register for the meeting using the following link.

Read more about it at the NAR latest competition news.

Mentoring and Outreach

In conjunction with the increased selection of FAI events for NRC and NARAM, the contest board is actively trying to recruit, provide resources to and help train contestants to build and fly FAI and NRC models.

I am putting together a mentoring list so that anyone who needs some competition help can get in contact with someone who is willing to help.  Please add your name and contact info to the following spreadsheet if you would like to be contacted by those in need of competition help.

If you would like to get help with competition, then send me an email and I will see what we can do to help.

NAR Competition Mentor List

NARAM 67 Update

CD: Matt Steele

Date: Sunday June 28 to Thursday July 2

Location: IAC Muncie, Indiana

Events: 2025-26 NRC events and…

 Concept Sport Scale

 Scale  (Please note that the Scale Altitude event has been removed)

2025-26 NRC Events

For the 2025-26 Contest year, the following NRC events have been chosen...

1/2 A PD FAI

1/2 A SD FAI

1/2 A HD FAI

A RG FAI

C Egg Loft Altitude

A Altitude

This slate of events was chosen to support the increased participation of FAI contestants, especially juniors, in NRC and NARAM.