HARA’s launch season began well with a two day launch on October 15 and 16,2022. Weather was a little breezy on Saturday and lower winds on Sunday and clear skies both days. There were 62 recorded launches with a CTI K360 being the largest size flown. Sunday attendance was very light with only about two dozen flights. Models of all types tested the air landing in the freshly cut field.
Archive for Vince Huegele
Nice October Sky
Category: Launches |
TARC Workshop
HARA kicked off the TARC season with a workshop conducted by Duane and Bill Saturday Sept 17. After an overview of sim programs and data interpretation by Bill, Duane led the students in building a eggloft model. This was the first workshop since covid and it was fun to get back with the kids.
Category: Outreach |
NAR Website Excellence
The winners of the 2022 NAR Section Website Excellence Awards were announced during the NARAM banquet in July and HARA’s website came in 4th Place. The judging was conducted by volunteer NAR members and of the scores received, this website ranked in 4th Place out of over 120 websites that were judged. There are 220 NAR sections. See details at https://www.nar.org/find-a-local-club/section-guidebook/communications/website-excellence-award/
HARA’s website won first place in 2014.
Congratulations to webmaster Bill Cooke!
Category: News |
Summer Breeze
Here’s a few notes and photos. Alabama was respectably represented at TARC with Tharptown coming in tenth and Muscle Shoals at twentieth. The Tharptown team is shown in the pink shirts, MS in red.
HARA’s school outreach continues in the summer with a presentation and launch at Dutton Elementary.
Big rockets flew for three days at the NAR National Sport Launch in South Carolina.
Category: News |
Six Alabama TARC Teams Make Finals
For several years the state has consistently delivering a half dozen teams to the TARC finals. These teams from Alabama scored in the top hundred ranking nationally and will compete for the 2022 championship against teams from 26 states on May 14 at The Plains, Virginia as they vie for $100,000 in prizes and an all-expense paid trip to London for the International Finals.
The schools and cities are:
Tharptown High School*, Russellville
Lincoln High School*, Lincoln
Russellville High Schools*, Russellville
West Morgan Middle School, Trinity
Colbert County 4-H, Tuscumbia
Muscle Shoals High School, Muscle Shoals
*Were also at the finals last year. Russellville finished in fifth place.
Other Alabama teams selected as alternates are Phil Campbell High School, Phil Campbell, and Hackleburg High School, Hackleburg.
HARA would like to salute the seven Huntsville area teams for their efforts in building and flying this year:
Girl Scouts of North-Central Alabama (2 rookie teams)
Civil Air Patrol – Redstone Squadron
St. John Paul II C.H.S. (2 teams)
Bob Jones High School
James Clemens High School.
Thanks to the rest of these Alabama schools for registering and participating in TARC.
Cullman Area Technology Academy, Cullman
Thompson High School, Alabaster
Alabama School of Mathematics and Science, Mobile
Hewitt Trussville High School (4 teams), Trussville
Winfield City High School, Winfield.
Category: TARC |
Student Launch Returns
It was only a month before the annual April launch of 2020 when covid came and NASA froze the Student Launch program and any flying. The next year the program was all virtual and this year it was still mostly remote, but half the registered teams decided to come and fly in Huntsville. The weather was great at Bragg’s farm on April 23 as high school and college teams revived the 22 year old tradition of launching level two motors on a NAR range. There was no rocket fair or NASA tours or awards banquet this time but the 27 flights encouraged everyone that the program was coming back.
Category: Launches |
HARA Goes Back To Schools
Two years to the month that the world shut down for COVID 19 HARA was back at a school doing a demo launch. Doug, Duane and Vince enjoyed a nice March day at Columbia Elementary with the return of the HARA flying circus. They launched about a dozen various models on small motors to stay within the school yard, which was easy this day with only a light wind. Duane had an Astrocam, Doug flew an egglofter and Vince had a Pyramid. The kids were already enthusiastic to be out of class early on a Friday and went into hysterics as each rocket blasted off. The teachers liked them too. Although the school launch day weather was perfect the decision to cancel the monthly HARA launch the next day due to a bad forecast turned out to be a good call as the actual weather was worse: 25°F, winds 20 mph, 2” snow. March air thou art fickle.
Category: Outreach |
HARA on a Roll
As the weather came up favorable HARA pulled off two back to back monthly launches in both October and November skies to start the fall flying season. Both launches tested the new wireless control system, which apart from new operator familiarization, worked great. The first launch had 51 total flights of all sorts of motors as is typical of the HARA family and friends. The Geezer TARC contest brought out 4 competitors. Duane won with a new record score of ‘5’, followed by Bill with 166, Doug with 724, and Vince getting the flying pig trophy with 803, a new record bad for Geezer.
The November launch was a true high power day that had 46 flights with only 4 non HPR models lofted. It was a chilly day in Woodville and the cloudless sky favored the big motors. Many flyers came from surrounding states to certify at new levels or practice with their student team rockets, or both. They flew right up to sunset when the waiver expired and the range crew hustled to get the trailer packed before dark. Will the weather in December hold out for a third in a row scheduled launch and the Trash Panda Contest? Watch this page.
Category: Launches |
Operational
The HARA trailer has been cleaned out and all the range equipment inspected and restored for the first launch of the season on October 9. Officers and members spent a day checking clips, derusting blast plates and sorting cabling. The big test will be of the new club built wireless firing system for the distant high power pads.
Category: News |
Pictures of Rockets
The best picture of a rocket is the moment of liftoff. The second best is a nice static pose after the decals are on and before it’s worn by flight. That’s what’s here of various finished kits. Can you match the name with the model? Arcon Hi, Astro-1, Avenger, Honest John, Outlander, Photon Disrupter, Protostar, Red Shift and Skonk Wulf.
Category: Reviews |
