From: elder@enuxhb.eas.asu.edu (Greg Elder)
Subject: NARWIN IV Comments
Organization: Arizona State University
Date: Tue, 17 Nov 1992 17:59:41 GMT


    Here are some comments about NARWIN IV for those of you that
may be interested.  NARWIN IV was a NAR regional contest sponsored by
the SSS in Phoenix, AZ.  It was held this past weekend (Nov 14-15).
The flying weather was great for both days.  The majority of the
contestants were from the local area, but we did have some flyers from
out of state (California, Colorado, and Alabama are the only ones I
remember).  Sport flying was also held on both days, with a number of
high powered rockets being flown as well.  The largest engines used
were in the J range.

    This was the first rocketry contest I have ever attended.  It was
a lot of fun and I recommend that you attend one if you've never been.
I gave a try at 3 events (A Superoc, 1/2A PD, and A SD) just for the
experience.  Things did not go very well for me but I learned quite a bit.
On my Superoc flight, I lost sight of the rocket and did not see where it
came down.  I spent 2 hours looking for it without success.  My first SD
flight resulted in the shock cord getting tangled around the streamer, and
so the streamer did not unfurl.  (I got a big 13 seconds on that flight.)
My 2nd flight was even worse--separation, the shock cord broke and, of 
course, this flight was DQed.  My luck, or lack thereof, held up with the PD
event.  On my first flight the parachute did not fully open.  Important
lesson that I learned--you need to powder BOTH sides of a mylar 'chute
to keep it from sticking together.  (And it sure is difficult packing a
15" chute into a 13mm body tube.)  I did powder both sides of the chute for
my 2nd flight and it went better.  I had a duration of 1 min. 35 sec. on
that flight.

    A couple of people had PD flights in the 10 minute range.  One person's
rocket stayed aloft for over 14 minutes.  His parachute found its way
into a great thermal and you could see the rocket actually rising higher
or just floating.  (And I though 1:35 was a good time.)  In the E Eggloft
event, I believe only one person was able to recover (find) his rocket.
George Gassaway (sp?) had some test flights of a D boost glider with a
delta wing configuration.  Ed LaCroix launched his "Flying Cone".  (That's
what I call it, it looks like a big pointed nose cone.  I think it is
actually a model of an old design for an ABM, though the actual name
escapes me.)

   There were some
great models entered in the Ultra Scale (Giant Sport Scale?) event.  A lot
of craftsmanship involved here.  In this event, you scale up a small rocket
to a high powered version.  There were giant versions of the Estes
Interceptor, Solar Sailer, Star Raider, and Der V-3.  All flew well with
the exception of the Solar Sailer.  It's parachute did not deploy.
We took some group photos of the Ultra Scale models.  Hopefully, one of
the photos will find its way into an issue of AmSpam.

    Hope I didn't bore everyone with this info.  Some one in our club
will be writing an article about NARWIN for AmSpam.  I'm now looking
forward to the NSL in February.
  
--
Greg Elder                                        elder@enuxhb.eas.asu.edu
Department of Computer Science            or      elder@seine.eas.asu.edu
Arizona State University

Newsgroups: rec.models.rockets