HARA gambled with the forecast on the Saturday morning TARC launch, March 12, and won, but had few takers. Two teams made one practice flight each at Bragg’s farm in calm air beating the rain that came later that afternoon. The HOPE Rising team from HOPE Christian Academy and the Falcon Rocketeers from St.John Paul ll Catholic High School were each represented by a single student who burned a motor to fly eggs. Duane Mayer burned several motors although the chuffing performance of a bad F threw his bird lamely into the air off the rail and then on to the ground where it fizzled until it popped. He had better luck on another flight with his Jolly Logic Chute Release which worked well.

HARA’s launching looked better Monday March 7 at the Columbia Elementary demonstration. Elliot and Vince fired about a dozen small rockets before a crowd of about 700 students, which was the entire school population short of the kindergarten. The flights generally went well except for the one that drifted onto the school roof. The children were sufficiently hyped by the rocket countdowns to be useless in class for the rest of the day, but spring break is pending anyway.

After winning the national level in TARC the Alabama team has gone on to win the rocket contest for the USA by beating France and Britain. Members of the team are Christian Ruiz, Niles Butts, Andrew Heath, Katie Burns, Evan Swinney, Cady Studdard and Chelsea Suddith.

The international rules were the same as the TARC rules that 695 other teams this year across the country and here locally had to follow. Russellville had two excellent flights qualified by HARA that took them to the finals in Manassas. Congratulations to the team, teachers and parents and all who supported this TARC victory.

The Alabama team from Russellville has won first place in the TARC finals. They receive a cash prize of $20k and will be traveling to Paris in June as the guests of the Raytheon Company representing the United States to fly against the winners of the TARC-equivalent event in the UK and France at the Paris Air Show, which is the biggest aerospace show and exhibition in the world in 2015. 695 teams (representing over 5000 students) entered TARC 2015 from 48 states, 459 teams made at least one qualification flight attempt (66%, a record high percentage), and the 101 teams that came to the Finals represented 28 states plus the US Virgin Islands. Congratulations to the Russellville team on their decisive win with flights scores of 12 and 4 to total 16. Second place was 33 and third was 37. This is the first Alabama team to win the TARC championship. The next best was Bob Jones that came in third nationally in 2010, John Paul II was fourth in 2013 and Liberty Middle fifth in 2012.