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.
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.
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.
Tomorrow’s launch is Go!
We will be using the Jackson 5 field – directions at http://hararocketry.org/hara/monthly-club-launches/
HARA will be hosting the last launch of its 2021-2022 flying season this Saturday, April 9 starting at 10 AM. Details and directions are here.
Some additional notes:
See you at the field on Saturday!
Say tuned to this website, the HARA mailing list and the HARA Facebook page for updates.
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.
The forecasts are in agreement that it will be quite cold (high around 37) with sustained winds between 10-20 mph. This gives a feels like temperature of 28 degrees plus a good probability of rockets drifting out of the field. In light of these conditions, the officers have decided to postpose Saturday’s launch, with an eye to flying on the next Saturday (March 19).
Tomorrow’s launch is go! The field will be Jackson 5.
Tomorrow’s launch is a GO! However, the range WILL CLOSE at 2 PM in order to get out of there before the rain/weather arrives.Temps will be on the cool side – expect low cloud ceilings (well below waiver limit) and wind gusts up to 17-18 miles per hour.
See you on the field!
