Thirteen members traveled to the NOVAAR launch site at Great Meadow, VA on Saturday, March 20.  This was our second attempt to qualify for TARC 2010.  It was sunny, temperature around 70 F.  Wind was variable from calm to about 10mph out of the south west.  We used both launch rails and had several NAR members observe and time the launches. We conducted 12 launches in four hours. We had some good results but not great.  The biggest issue was the loss of team 8296's blue rocket booster due to a bad single use F32-6T motor.  They tried a qualification shot with a backup booster and came within 1.5 seconds of having a good score. The best result was the qualification score of 32 for team 8188 and their orange rocket.  If we can acquire more motors in time, we will be back out there on Saturday, March 27. Objectives Each team was launching one test flight and then one or two qualification flights. All the streamers had been ironed with starch. Teams 8186 and 8188 assembled their F24-4W motors on Wednesday, March 17.

Lessons

• For team 8296, the F32-6T was a disappointment with the failed ejection.  It may still work but needs a test.
• For team 8189, the F30-7T was a disappointment with low power.  The had to switch back to an F24-4W.
• We did not get much improvement due to thermals.
• We need to think about 3 feet per gram, not 2 feet.
• You need to use the same scale for every weighing, and do it several times to be sure.
• If you trip the altimeter, you should stop the launch and download the data from the previous launches or you might lose it.

Suggested Tasks

• Team 8186:  You may take one more qualifying launch, but it might be best to sit with your current score of 17.
   
• Team 8188:  You are done with a best score of 32.  Let's hope this is good enough this year.
   
• Team 8189:  You have two more shots at qualifying.  It looks like you need an F24-4W with about 460g.  Try more pleats in your streamers.
   
• Team 8296:  You need to rebuild cargo and booster units.  You may need a third streamer.  You also need to protect your streamers better. You have one more shot.

Launches

Altimeter Data (Excel format)

Pictures

Team 8186                               Team 8188                               Team 8189                               Team 8296(bacckup)
Checking in	Completing form
My rocket	Team 8186 loading up
Team 8296   loading up	Team 8296 ready to launch (or something)