Congratulations to these teams who will be representing our state at the TARC finals May 18 at Great Meadow, The Plains, VA.

Team Number, Team Name, City

19-5573, Cullman Area Technology Academy, Cullman

19-4984, Rogers High School, Florence

19-5089, Lincoln High School, Lincoln

19-4727, Tharptown High School, Russellville

19-4998, Russellville High School (Team 1), Russellville

19-5000, Russellville High School (Team 2), Russellville

HARA would like to salute the eight Huntsville area teams for their efforts. It’s been a tough year – not only were the design goals for this TARC challenging with three eggs to fly, but there was also the fight against some very persistent wet weather. Despite the rain, the local teams managed to complete many practice flights and all got qualified scores.

19-5055 , HOPE Christian Academy , Huntsville

19-5135 , St. John Paul II C.H.S. , Huntsville

19-5136 , St. John Paul II C.H.S. , Huntsville

19-5137 , St. John Paul II C.H.S. , Huntsville

19-5530 , Bob Jones High School , Madison

19-5439 , James Clemens High School , Madison

19-5704 , James Clemens High School , Madison

19-4885 , Liberty Middle School ,  Madison

Thanks to the rest of these state schools for registering and participating in TARC. We hope you all had a prodigious “rocket boys” experience.

19-5781 , Hewitt-Trussville High School , Trussville

19-5782 , Hewitt-Trussville High School , Trussville

19-5329 , Wetumpka High School , Wetumpka

19-5297 , Winfield City High School , Winfield

19-5523 , Coppinville Junior High School , Enterprise

19-5576 , St. Michael Catholic High School , Fairhope

19-4825 , Central High School , Florence

19-5274 , Goshen High School , Goshen

19-5027 , Alabama School of Mathematics and Science , Mobile

19-5236 , Muscle Shoals Career Academy , Muscle Shoals

19-4722 , Phil Campbell High School , Phil Campbell

19-4999 , Russellville High Schools , Russellville

19-4726 , Tharptown High School , Russellville

19-4728 , Tharptown High School , Russellville

19-4996 , Rogers High School , Florence

19-4997 , Rogers High School , Florence

On this beautiful 23rd day of March, 13 teams made 50 flights at the UNA regional challenge. Vince and Allen provided HARA launch and scoring services for the contest held at the Russellville field. Cullman HS did the best with a ‘15’ and might be up for the finals with that qualification score. Rogers, MASE and Central HS also qualified with the rest of the schools flying just for regional points. They opted to keep tweaking before they use another attempt turn, so the March madness of TARC continues.

The Russellville High School team #3, the “Lions”, captured third place nationally in the TARC finals May 12, 2018. Six Alabama teams qualified for the finals from the 25 original teams registered in the state ranging from Ardmore to Winfield. In the Virginia field where the championship is determined all the Alabama teams made the cut into the top 38 out of a hundred with very impressive first round scores. Huntsville’s St. John Paul II was only 6 feet off the 800 mark with others at 816, 811, 810 and 799. But the second round moved the target altitude to 825 feet, which really spread the field and revealed the best flyers. The top ten TARC winners found a way to go higher and the rest were stuck under 800 feet. Russellville got to 835 and their total score of 26 was just barely behind second place Festus, Missouri at 25.76 (who were first in 2017) and the overall winner Creekview, Georgia at 21.2 (who won in 2014). Scores escalated into the thirties and forties after fourth place. The Russellville Lions team members are Malachi Fleming, MaKayla Gann, Mia Gann, Zakery Colburn, and Emma Reed and are shown above receiving their trophy from NAR and AIA at the award ceremony and in the photo below during their qualification flights. Congratulations to these young people and all the teams for a fine display of rocket science and for making the state proud.

Final 2018 Standings Of Alabama TARC Teams

3    Russellville City Schools (Team 3)

22  Russellville City Schools (Team 1)

25  Russellville City Schools (Team 2)

33  Tharptown High School

34  St. John Paul II Catholic High School

35  Lincoln High School

Russellville, Alabama will again be at the TARC finals, this time represented by a team from Russellville First United Methodist Church, shown here receiving an award from Lee Brownell at the UNA Regional Launch. The FUMC team was the only one in north Alabama to make the cut of the top hundred and be invited to the championship in Manassas, VA. The Russellville City School Lions team was ranked 106^th in the alternates with the RCS Bears team listed at 120^th. Sheffield HS’s team one was 108^th with Liberty Middle School of Madison ranked 115^th and Buckhorn Middle school of New Market was 117^th. Two teams from Lincoln, Alabama will also represent the state in the TARC national event. Alabama had more teams in the 100-120 range than any other state.  Read more

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.

The HARA March Madness TARC launch was a fantastic success with over a hundred people attending at Bragg farm on a mild calm day. Ten teams from six schools made a total of 43 flights, almost twice the number of launches from last year. The skill of the students in their flights was very impressive. Read more

Today was a good day to fly…

At least 9 TARC teams converged on Bragg Farms just north of Huntsville for our annual TARC regional launch.

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