From: msjohnso@donald.WichitaKS.NCR.COM (Mark Johnson)
Newsgroups: rec.models.rockets
Subject: Re: NARAM SUMMARY????
Date: 30 Sep 92 17:14:09 GMT
Reply-To: msjohnso@donald.WichitaKS.NCR.COM (Mark Johnson)
Organization: NCR Corporation Wichita, KS

In article <6807@transfer.stratus.com> cdt@sw.stratus.com (C. D. Tavares) writes:
>In article <26SEP199209540130@vx.cis.umn.edu>, soc1070 writes:
>
>Imagine for a moment that you are doing check-in duty.  Some fellow
>comes up to you flying E Altitude with an E-to-G casing installed in
>his model.  "It's loaded with an E24, trust me."  Pop quiz: can you 
>foresee any problems that you don't have today with disposables?
>
None that can't be solved by the judicious use of a triple-beam balance.
The weight differences between the various total impulses in this specific
case are O(20 grams). I for one don't really care what propellant formula
the modeler is using, so long as I know the motor is no heavier than the
heaviest E motor. [there are issues wrt certification of specific propellant
formulas on the reload slugs; these could be solved by having the vendor
stamp the cardboard tube with the motor type]. If there's any doubt, **make
the owner tear down the motor and show you his reload slugs**.  If there
are accusations of post-checkin cheating, impound the motor until he's AT
THE PAD. As with any system, it's not perfect, but no more cheat-prone than
today's system, which doesn't require one to go straight to the launch pad
after checkin.

[This issue was fairly thoroughly thrashed out on CI$ several months ago]

>There is no "standard battery" at a NARAM.  World Championships are
>stuck flying the same five or six events in the same engine class over 
>and over, apparently, but NARAMS have the opposite behavior.  There are 

Well, almost. '34 being an exception, how many years in a row had we flown
1/2A PD. Granted, it gets flown all the time for practical reasons, since
anything bigger is too big for most fields. In fact, 1/2A PD is too big for
some NARAM fields I've seen (like Pratt's Wayne Woods with the wind from the 
east :(  )

>NARAMS.  Yes, there is always "a" scale flown, and "an" altitude, and
>a couple of gliders, and "an" eggloft, but there is a big difference
>between, say, B Eggloft Duration and F Eggloft Altitude, etc.  This
>year there were two Super Scale competitors.  The last time Super Scale
>was held, there were dozens.  The sample space of one NARAM is hardly
>evidence that you should throw an event out when the next time you
>would fly it anyway might be six years later.  (Anyone remember the
>last time Drag Race was flown at a NARAM?  It was before my time, and
>I go back to NARAM-16 in 1974.)

I can't remember that Drag Race has been flown in my time in the NAR; I go
back to NARAM-15 (first meet) and started reading about NARAMs when I 
joined in 1969 ('11).  I would like to see a return to emphasis on 
altitude.  Remember that whenever somebody asks about rockets, it's always
"How high do they go?" not "How long do they fly?". Somebody, I don't 
remember who it was, phrased it something like this in a rules change
proposal this year: "The frequency of duration events is greatly in
excess of their relevance, due to the relative ease in holding them". These
aren't the exact words, but you get the idea.  Old timers may remember 
that SD was invented as a substitute altitude event. The first proposal I
saw even included a standard streamer size and material. That got nixed, 
and the race was on to develop ever-draggier streamers as the event took on
a life of its own. Anyway, what happened to the proposal to further develop
Dan Wolf's NARAM-33 project with automated tracking data reduction, to get
it to a point where it could be set up and used even at a regional meet?
-- 
Mark Johnson                          USnail: NCR Peripheral Products Division
E-mail:  Mark.Johnson@WichitaKS.NCR.COM       3718 N. Rock Rd.
Voice: (316) 636-8189 [V+ 654-8189]           Wichita, KS  67226
[Non-business email: 76670.1775@compuserve.com]