Our TARC rocketry teams 8186, 8189, and 8296 participated in the National Fly-Off on May 15, at the Great Meadow equestrian center in Virginia.  Team 8188 was an alternate for the event. Families, friends, and Post 1010 members came to watch, cheer, and have fun. The weather was great - wind about 10mph, partly sunny, and about 70 F.  Here is a video around the event. Unfortunately all three first round rocket flights failed to meet the flight requirements. Team 8186's rocket had a tangled chute and streamer which disqualified it due to the use of a parachute to recover the cargo.  Team 8296's rocket wobbled during ascent and failed to reach a reasonable altitude.  The streamers also tangled such that the flight time was under 35 seconds.  Team 8189's rocket motor under performed and was way too low, also failing to meet a 35 second flight time.  Here are the event results and flight data. See our slide show! Great Meadow Center 5089 Old Tavern Rd, The Plains, VA 20198, (540) 253-5001 Event Description Document Event Schedule and Launch Window Assignments Friday Night Briefing We submitted TARC team profile forms. This gave the announcer something to say about our teams over the PA system before their launch.          Team 8186, Team 8189, Team 8296 Each team prepared a presentation on their activities. Team 8186 and 8296 were invited to give their presentation during the afternoon.     Team 8186         Draft Presentation (PDF version)         Final Presentation (PDF version)         Presentation Video (58MB)     Team 8188         Draft Presentation (PDF version)     Team 8189         Draft Presentation (PDF version)     Team 8296         Draft Presentation (PDF version)         Final Presentation (PDF version)             Presentation Video (271MB)

Launches

Altimeter Data (Excel format)

Schedule

• Wednesday, May 12
  • Rocket Preparation - We will prepare our rockets, 6:30-9:00pm at Lockheed Martin.  We need to assemble motors and iron the streamers.
• Friday, May 14
  • Contestant Briefing - We need to be at Battlefield High School in Haymarket, by 7:00pm.  The briefing begins precisely at 7:30pm.  We will be leaving Lockheed Martin at 5:30pm - traffic may be very bad.
• Saturday, May 15
  • First Round Launches - The first launch window is 8:30-9:30am, followed by four more windows, ending at 1:30pm.  Teams have been assigned launch windows.  Teams can set up the launch rail and load their rocket one hour before the window. They can start to check-in two hours before the window,  They need to arrive before check-in to get their egg and assemble most of their rocket. All three teams will launch from the same launch pad (#3) in the Goddard Launch area. You need to launch early in the launch window so you have time to swap in new igniters or make other changes. If you don't launch in the window, you will not get to launch at all.
    • Team 8186 - arrive/check-in 6:30am, load rocket 7:30-8:30am, launch window 8:30-9:30am
    • Team 8189 - arrive 10:00am, check-in 11:00am, load rocket 11:30am-12:30pm, launch window 12:30-1:30pm
    • Team 8296 - arrive 8:30am, check-in 9:00am, load rocket 9:30-10:30am, launch window 10:30-11:30am
  • Second Round Launches - The top 20 teams from the first round must then launch again, 3:00-4:00pm.
  • Team Presentations - Teams are invited to make presentations on their TARC activity for 2010.  From drafts submitted by April 30, 12 teams will be invited to actually make a presentation from 1:30 - 3:30pm.
  • Awards - 5:00pm after which we may stay for dinner at the launch site or just go home.