Message from the President

Message from the NAR President
(November 2024)

Fellow NAR Member,

This month I want to start with a big shout out to our NAR staff (Todd Schweim, Mayra Marquez, Monica Rooker, Marie Stumpe, and Anne Heacock) who are working very hard to get all our systems ready for the conversion to our new website and member database. Everyone is pitching in to help make the new system work efficiently and easily for you, the users.

We anticipate that the NAR members will be pleasantly surprised with the new look of our website and all the improvements and new features that the membership data system will provide. We plan on rolling out the basic processes and functions first and then as we can get new features up and running, we will open them up to the membership. Next month I will provide some insight about the first round of features and user interfaces.

Safety Reminder: Let’s not ease up on our safety awareness as our rocketry year winds down. Be aware of launch angles to ensure safe landing zones away from people and sensitive property (like vehicles). Make sure you are practicing fire mitigation and have fire suppression equipment available. Check with local authorities to ensure it is safe to launch with respect to burn bans and red flag warnings. Is your first aid kit stocked and readily available? Does your Section have several members who can administer first aid if needed? Do you have a safety plan and a means to communicate to fire and rescue services if needed? Please continue to review your safety plans to help ensure that our hobby is safe.

NSL-East 2024: Reminder, we have an upcoming National Sport Launch, NSL-East 2024. that will be hosted by Southern Area Rocketry – SoAR (NAR Section 571) on November 23-25 at the Gaskins Farm outside of Nashville, GA. The field can support O motor flights and altitudes up to 15,000 feet. I am excited to meet our members at the launch and to fly some rockets. I will be attending and am looking forward to seeing my many rocketry friends.

NAR Member Profile: As we have been announcing, the NAR is going to change our website and member database system. Our plan is to shut down NAR member service operations for a week to allow us to convert from old to new and then have a few days to troubleshoot the new system.

Our new timeline for this conversion will be from December 2-9. Originally, we planned Dec 9-16, but we moved this up a week to allow us to better coordinate with the team assigned to us at Club Express. Please renew your membership late November if your annual renewal is due in December. You will not be able to process member applications for new and renewing memberships during the time our systems are offline. We will also have limited capacity to answer questions via email or by phone that week as our headquarters staff work to get the new system up and running. Please plan on being patient during this time and once we get the system up and open to the membership.

Also, don’t forget to log into your current account on our existing website to make sure your information is correct.

Important requirement – the new system will use member email addresses as the way to distinguish between individuals. This means that each membership account must have a unique email address! If you don’t change accounts that have the same email address, the new system will keep the first occurrence and then not recognize any others. Please make sure that any accounts that you are managing have separate email addresses. I know this is a change, but we have no choice. We will be running reports in our current system to try to identify accounts with the same email address and will reach out to the individuals to help identify those who need to make the changes.

Steps to update your profile in our current system:

• To do this, go to the My Membership tab in the blue banner at the top of the website.
• After entering your membership credentials, go to the Managing Your Account section on the page and click on the “manage your account” highlighted text.
• You may be prompted for the login credentials you use to access your personal information and for renewals to access our database.
• Once in that database, your welcome screen will be a recap of your membership history.
• In the top right corner, click on the down arrow in the “What would you like to do?” box and select “Update My Profile.”
• Check all the profile information for accuracy, especially your email address and phone number.

We ask that you do this before December 1 so that we can transfer your most up-to-date information to our new system.

After the System Conversion: After we get the new system up and running, we will ask that you log into the new system to check your information and to add payment information for renewals.

Reminder: For all our members who use a credit card to renew, or use auto renew, we will not integrate any credit card information (FYI that is not held by us, rather it is held by authorize.net, which is our current credit card processing company). The new system we will be using has a different credit card processing company, Stripe. So when the new system is open, you will need to go into your account to update credit card information.

Lastly, to help you plan for the conversion, please set aside some time during December (after we open up the new system) to watch a video that explains the features of Club Express. The video takes about 17 minutes to view and will answer most of the questions you might have. We will have more information soon to help you navigate the new processes.

I would like to conclude this month with a request that everyone be patient as we change. I know change is hard for people and we grow accustomed to doing things certain ways. But rest assured, this new platform has lots of great features that we hope is beneficial to your experience in our NAR community. Additionally, the new platform is integrated very well among the many functions that we do behind the scenes that will make administrative duties more efficient.

Please be safe, pay it forward, and have fun.

John N. Hochheimer
NAR President
NAR 74537 L3

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Message from the NAR President
(October 2024)

Fellow NAR Member,

Fall is upon us, and I see that there are many club launches scheduled throughout the fall. I hope to join a few and to see others in our great rocketry community.

Safety Reminder: There is an important reason that we are fanatical about safety and continue to try to impress upon you, our flyers, to be diligent about measures like setting launch angles such that failed recovery systems result in trajectories away from spectators and flight lines. Sometimes a completely unexpected failure occurs, even when experienced flyers follow a documented process to prep and fly a rocket that has flown the same configuration many times before.

To illustrate let me use an example from the recent ARLISS launch where a recovery system failure occurred. I fly with an experienced team of L3 flyers who collectively have over a hundred flights with the same set of airframes that are identically designed. The airframes carry ARLISS student payload projects to apogee and then kick out the payload for it to complete its mission.

A nominal flight of the airframe consists of a flight to apogee, an ejection charge (with a backup) firing at apogee that separates the fincan from the rest of the airframe. Five seconds later a second ejection event (also with backup) occurs that separates the nosecone and student payload from the body tube. The airframe, which is about 9 feet in length and weighs over 50 pounds at takeoff, flies on an “M” motor and achieves about 9,000 feet at apogee.

We had a flight on a veteran airframe (the airframe had 8 years of successful flights before the failure) that fired all ejection charges but failed to separate the fin can from the airframe resulting in the pair coming in hot and burying about 6 feet of the airframe into the Black Rock playa. The student project was successfully ejected from the airframe, so all was not lost. Also of note, when you want to get a rocket out of the ground, if possible, pull it out like farmers pull out fence posts (look it up online, the googles is your friend here). We used a strap and the tire from my trailer to pull the airframe with an upward direction of the pull, not perpendicular. This allows for minimal digging.Our team did an after-action review and here were our conclusions:

• Both main ejection charges fired (the primary and backup charges), so this sequence of events performed as designed. Evidence of this was the spent ejection charge rubber tubing remaining in the airframe.
  • The payload charges both fired resulting in a nominal ejection of the student payload. Evidence of this was the spent ejection charge rubber tubing remaining in the airframe and successful ejection of the nose cone and payload.
• On impact with the ground, the fincan separated from the body tube so we were unable to determine if the shear pins were intact after ejection charges fired.
• The airframe and fincan came in ballistic and landed in a safe area several hundred yards away from the flight line and spectators. This was by design based on how we set the launch angles to place the rocket at apogee in an area not over vehicles or people. The rail was positioned about 2 degrees perpendicular to and away from the flight line and turned such that the flight would ascend to the north of the flight line which stretches approximately in a north-south orientation.
• We have no flight data from the electronics, which were destroyed on impact. Note, the lithium batteries were also severely damaged and required safe disposal after removal from the avionics bay.
• We halted all flights with our remaining airframes until we were able to perform a ground test of the ejection charges for adequacy. Our ground test was successful, and we had 6 additional flights with our remaining airframes.

The assembly of the airframe prior to launch went smoothly and no problems were noted after assembly.

While were unable to determine an exact cause of the separation failure, we were confident that our combined safety protocols (recheck of ejection charge sufficiency via ground testing and continued diligence of launch angle adjustments to account for flight trajectories) would allow us to continue to fly safely.

The important take away messages are – even experienced teams can have failures on launches of airframes and equipment that have been repeated many times with success. Following all of the NAR safety measures are prudent to ensure that unexpected and unexplainable failures do not result in risk to persons or property at a launch.

Please be safe out there and follow our safety codes and recommendations!

NSL-East 2024: Reminder, we have an upcoming National Sport Launch, NSL-East 2024 that will be hosted by Southern Area Rocketry – SoAR (NAR Section 571) on November 23-25 at the Gaskins Farm outside of Nashville, GA. The field can support O motor flights and altitudes up to 15,000 feet. I am excited to meet our members at the launch and to fly some rockets. I will be attending and am looking forward to seeing rocket friends.

NAR HQ Address: Another reminder, the NAR has a new address:
PO Box 1058
Marshall, VA 20116-1058
The phone number remains the same – (319)373-8910

NAR Member Profile: And yet another reminder, the NAR is going to change our website and member database system. The roll-out will be January 1, 2025. Our plan is to shut down NAR member service operations From December 9-16 to allow us to transfer data from our old system to the new one and then test functionality before opening the new system up to our members. You will not be able to process member applications for new and renewing members during the time our systems are offline. We will also have limited capacity to answer questions via email or by phone that week as our headquarters staff work to get the new system up and running. Please plan on being patient during this time.

Also, don’t forget to log into your current account on our website to make sure your information is correct.

• To do this, go to the My Membership tab in the blue banner at the top of the website.
• After entering your membership credentials, go to the Managing Your Account section on the page and click on the “manage your account” highlighted text.
• You may be prompted for the login credentials you use to access your personal information and for renewals to access our database.
• Once in that database, your welcome screen will be a recap of your membership history.
• In the top right corner, click on the down arrow in the “What would you like to do?” box and select “Update My Profile.”
• Check all the profile information for accuracy, especially your email address and phone number.

We ask that you do this before December 1 so that we can transfer your most up-to-date information to our new system.

System Conversion: After we get the new system up and running, we will ask that you log into the new system to check your information and to add payment information for renewals. For our members who use auto renew, we will not integrate any credit card information (FYI that is not held by us, rather it is held by authorize.net, which is our current credit card processing company). The new system we will be using has a different credit card processing company, Stripe.

Please be safe, pay it forward, and have fun.

John N. Hochheimer
NAR President
NAR 74537 L3

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Message from the NAR President
(September 2024)

Fellow NAR Member,

I hope you had a great summer and that your rocketry activities will continue into the fall. I have a few updates for you, so let’s jump right in.

Election of Officers: Our annual board elections were held, and the three incumbents were re-elected. Mark Wise, Steve Kristal, and Jim Wilkerson were elected to another 3-year term on the board. Thanks to Mark, Steve, and Jim for agreeing to serve another term.

NAR HQ Address: The NAR has a new address:
PO Box 1058
Marshall, VA 20116-1058

The phone number remains the same – (319)373-8910

Town Hall Meeting: At our summer Town Hall and Business meeting, I provided an update on the status of our organization. The minutes from the meeting will be posted on our website in the member’s section.

NSL-East 2024: We have an upcoming National Sport Launch, NSL-East 2024. that will be hosted by Southern Area Rocketry – SoAR (NAR Section 571) on November 23-25 at the Gaskins Farm outside of Nashville, GA. The field can support O motor flights and altitudes up to 15,000 feet. I am excited to meet our members at the launch and to fly some rockets.

NAR Member Profile: As I brought up at the Town Hall, the NAR is going to change our website and member database system. The roll-out will be January 1, 2025. We are anticipating that this new integrated system will be more flexible for our members and staff. And, as a bonus, should be less expensive than the many systems we now use to bring you a website, member database, member forum, and many other features that we enjoy as an organization.

Please log into your current account on our website to make sure your information is correct.

• To do this, go to the My Membership tab in the blue banner at the top of the website.
• After entering your membership credentials, go to the Managing Your Account section on the page and click on the “manage your account” highlighted text.
• You may be prompted for the login credentials you use to access your personal information and for renewals to access our database.
• Once in that database, your welcome screen will be a recap of your membership history.
• In the top right corner, click on the down arrow in the “What would you like to do?” box and select “Update My Profile.”
• Check all the profile information for accuracy, especially your email address and phone number.

We ask that you do this before December 1 so that we can transfer your most up-to-date information to our new system.

System Conversion: After January 1, we will ask that you log into the new system to check your information and to add payment information for renewals. We will not integrate any credit card information (that is not held by us, rather it is held by authorize.net, which is our credit card processing company). The new system we will be using has a different credit card processing company.

Membership Reminders: We are trying to save money and be paperless whenever possible. To that end, we stopped sending out paper reminders for membership renewals. Since almost all our members communicate and transact with us online, we can save a significant amount of money by not sending out reminders in the mail, many of which are not needed. If you need a paper form for renewing your membership, contact Mayra Marquez (our HQ manager) at nar-hq@nar.org.

Let’s not forget to be safe out there – aim rockets such that they land away from cars and people, don’t start fires, and may all of your rockets safely deploy a recovery device.

Please be safe, pay it forward, and have fun.

John N. Hochheimer
NAR President
NAR 74537 L3

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Message from the NAR President (August 2024)

Fellow NAR Member,

As I finish up this month’s newsletter, I am being reminded via text messages today that there are two wildfires close to my Colorado home; one is about 20 miles northeast. The authorities are issuing mandatory evacuations for areas close to the fires and neither is under control. There are countless fires all over the western parts of the US, so my geography is not uniquely being singled out.

I bring this up to remind you that we must be prudent about not launching when there is danger of fires, and it is mandatory that you do not launch when local authorities issue burn bans or fire restrictions. Our insurance will not cover your risk if you launch during any bans or restrictions of fires (even if the restriction does not specifically state anything about rockets). It should not even be a question about flying during NOAA issued Red-Flag Warnings when conditions are dry, humidity is low, and winds elevated to make the spread of fires rapid and dangerous. Please use common sense and be respectful of the high risk we have in many parts of the US of wildfires.

I also wish to remind our members that our policy relating to cars and rockets at launches is that owners of cars parked at launches assume risk in parking at the launch (like the risk of parking at other events like golf courses and little league parks). If a car is damaged in the parking area of a launch, the owner of the rocket and the owner of the car should contact their respective insurance agents (homeowners for the rocket owner and auto for the car owner) to seek help from their respective insurance agents to cover the cost of the damage. We expect the rocket and car owners to coordinate with each other to facilitate an equitable resolution, for example the rocket owner might take responsibility for deductible costs of the car owner’s auto policy. I also want to remind members that our insurance deductible is $5,000 per incident and the member is responsible for the first $1,000 of the deductible. If the claim costs exceed the coverage of the car owner’s insurance and the rocket owners home liability policy, then reach out to the NAR to discuss. In all cases where there is an incident that causes property damage or personal injury, we still want you to report the incident via our website.

Let’s remember that safety is important to all in our hobby and that you can help by flying safely and ensuring that your models land in safe areas away from people and cars. It is the responsibility of all flyers to ensure that their rocket will launch and land in a safe area. Please remember to adjust launch angles so that any unsafe recovery will land in a safe area away from people, cars, and other property that can be damaged.

I had the pleasure of running the 2024 International Rocketry Challenge at the Farnborough Airshow this past week. The winners of the American Rocketry Challenge, Tharptown High School, did well and placed second to a team from the United Kingdom. This year’s international challenge was very close with a 10 point difference between 1st and 2nd place. Congratulations to all of the team members of Tharptown High School, you represented the United States well!

NARAM 65 is the next big NAR National Event and this year it will be held in Pueblo, Colorado. This year’s NARAM will include a week of many events, that start on Saturday August 3 with sport launches, FAI team selection flyoffs, a Family Day hosted by Estes, and a chance to get together with many of your rocketry friends. Sunday August 4 will feature more sport launches and FAI team selection. Additionally, on Sunday Evening there will be a special memorial gathering in honor of Gleda Estes at the Estes facility in Penrose, Colorado. All are invited to attend. Check the NARAM website for future updates.

NAR Board of Trustee elections are open to the membership. You can vote online, by mail with the ballot in the recent Sport Rocketry Magazine, or in-person at NARAM 65. Young Adult and Senior members who have been a member for more than 1 year are eligible to vote. In-person voting will be at NARAM at the time of the Cannon Auction.

Any NAR contest flyers who wish to vote on updates to competition rules can do so at the rules revision site.

The NAR will be having a sale on many NARTs items that we are phasing out as we convert NARTs to on-demand ordering for things like clothing and hats. I will be bringing many shirts, hats, and other NAR merchandise to NARAM to sell at deep discounts. I hope to see you there.

Please be safe, pay it forward, and have fun.

John N. Hochheimer
NAR President
NAR 74537 L3

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Message from the NAR President (July 2024)

Fellow NAR Member,

Independence Day is rapidly approaching, and I hope you are enjoying a fun and productive summer of rocketry activities. NARAM 65 is the next big NAR National Event and this year it will be held in Pueblo, Colorado. This year’s NARAM will include a week of many events, that start on Saturday August 3 with sport launches, FAI team selection flyoffs, a Family Day hosted by Estes, and a chance to get together with many of your rocketry friends. Sunday August 4 will feature more sport launches and FAI team selection. Additionally, on Sunday Evening there will be a special memorial gathering in honor of Gleda Estes at the Estes facility in Penrose, Colorado. All are invited to attend. Check the NARAM website for future updates.

NAR Board of Trustee elections are open to the membership. You can vote online, by mail with the ballot in the recent Sport Rocketry Magazine, or in-person at NARAM 65. Young Adult and Senior members who have been a member for more than 1 year are eligible to vote.

For those of you who attended the NAR Sport Launch in Alamosa over Memorial Day weekend, you might recall the high winds that destroyed the tent at the launch site. The San Luis Valley Rocketeers section had a fund-raising site to help pay for a replacement tent. The generosity of participants and the local community reached the goal of paying for the replacement – see the club website for more information and to send a card to the city thanking them for the generous support.

The NAR will be having a sale on many NARTs items that we are phasing out as we convert NARTs to on-demand ordering for things like clothing and hats. I will be bringing many shirts, hats, and other NAR merchandise to NARAM to sell at deep discounts. I hope to see you there.

A note from NAR Standards and Testing. Aerotech has concluded that there was a production run of 24/40 hardware released to the market about 18 months ago (roughly around January 2023) was manufactured from aluminum tubing that was outside of the specified dimensional tolerance. This impacted the thread engagement of the forward and aft closure, which increases the likelihood of a closure release incident at motor ignition.

The 24/40 hardware until recently did not include lot coding to identify the production lot of concern. Aerotech has provided the dimensional specifications for the hardware, so that fliers can evaluate hardware in their passion that may have a higher incidence of failure:

Closure thread outside diameter:

0.8945″ Minimum
0.8991″ Maximum

Motor casing inside diameter (unthreaded area): 

0.933″ Minimum
0.942″ Maximum

Motor hardware that has measurements outside of specified tolerance windows should be set aside from use and the owners should contact Aerotech to discuss follow-on actions: warranty@aerotech-rocketry.com

Let’s remember that safety is important to all in our hobby and that you can help by flying safely and ensuring that your models land in safe areas away from people and cars. It is also important that you prevent rocketry-related fires. Don’t fly when conditions are dangerous for wildfires and keep all firefighting equipment up to date and ready at launches.

Please be safe, pay it forward, and have fun.

John N. Hochheimer
NAR President
NAR 74537 L3

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Message from the NAR President (May 2024)

Fellow NAR Member,

Last month was busy with the finals of the American Rocketry Challenge and the National Sport Launch – West.  For the first time ever, the ARC finals were delayed a day for weather, which is not bad considering we have been doing this for more than 20 years now. Everyone adjusted to the change and the event was successful.

2024 American Rocketry Contest

Our 2024 ARC winners are from Tharptown High School from Russellville Alabama. Congratulations to Kylee, Angie, Shyla, Angel, Adrionna, Jessie, Isabella, and Frank! Tharptown will compete at the Farnborough Airshow in late July against teams from France, Japan, and the United Kingdom. Join me in wishing Tharptown good luck as they prepare for their trip abroad.

Thanks to the dedicated team of NAR volunteers who came to the 2024 ARC finals as range crew. As always, Trip Barber put together a great team of NAR volunteers to run all aspects of the contest range in support of the ARC contestants. And thanks again to all the NAR members who support ARC throughout the year as mentors and flight observers for local teams. Without you, this excellent STEM program would not be possible.

2024 National Sport Launch

The 2024 National Sport Launch – West, had a breezy start on Saturday May 25 resulting in cancellation of launches for the day, but Sunday and Monday weather made up for the delay with beautiful flying weather. I had the honor as launch control officer or LCO for many of the flights on Sunday and remain impressed with the organization of all range operations. Matt Abbey and his volunteers from the San Luis Valley Rocketeers section of the NAR provided an awesome venue and experience for all flyers who attended.

I want to point out that Matt and the local volunteers were very proactive with their plans to make the event safe and fun for all. Many might remember that we had an incident last year, resulting in an insurance claim. Our lesson learned was that landing rockets among the cattle could prove to be problematic if, for example, blowing parachutes spook the cattle.

Matt and crew spent time reflecting on past range procedures to come up with ways to mitigate the risk of having another incident with the cattle.

One of the practices that I have used in my professional career is called “adaptive management.” Adaptive management can be summarized as a continual process of learning from your management practices and adopting new procedures to minimize future risk. The San Luis Valley Rocketeers used adaptive management to analyze the risks posed with launching rockets near a cattle operation and came up with common sense solutions to minimize this risk.

• They bought fencing materials and helped the farmer to reinforce the fencing holding his cattle.
• They examined the range operations procedures and reinforced pad angle adjustments to minimize rockets landing in the field with cattle.
• They added several safety procedures to up their safety game overall.

During the launch this year, safety procedures were reinforced, and participants reminded of the safe practices expected at NSL.

Using Matt’s and the San Luis Valley Rocketeers’ efforts as an example, I encourage all our sections to use adaptive management as a tool to evaluate their range operations and make adjustments. Adaptive management is not a one size fits all approach, rather in our application to rocketry ranges, it is based on the knowledge of the operators of a launch. You know your launch site and can come up with potential risks and ways to mitigate the risks at your site. Take some time at future meetings to review your procedures, identify some potential risks, and to come up with ways to minimize the risks. This is an ongoing process, and you can adjust the mitigation measures as you implement them. Some will work and some not, which is the beauty of the ongoing process.

Range Crew Mentoring

One other innovation Matt and the San Luis Valley Rocketeers used that was quite impressive was the pairing of younger members from their club with more experience NAR members. This on the job mentoring for the range crew helps facilitate the transfer of knowledge to this next generation of NAR section leadership and range crews. I had the good fortune to work with Stefan Brier on one of my shifts as LCO. Stefan was awesome to work with and I hope to see him around in the future performing the duties of LCO on his own.

NAR Insurance

One note on our insurance. A common misunderstanding about NAR insurance relates to coverage of a NAR member if she/he gets injured at a launch.

• Generally, our insurance is not structured as personal or property insurance for something that happens to an individual NAR member.
• Rather it is a policy that provides our members with liability protection if their rocketry activities cause personal or property damage to someone else.

So, if a NAR member goes to a NAR launch, where all the NAR safety codes are being applied, if that member launches a rocket that hits someone else or damages someone’s property, then the policy provides coverage. If a NAR member goes to a NAR launch and all the NAR safety codes are being applied and is injured by another NAR member’s rocket or action, the injured NAR member would be afforded the provisions of the other NAR member’s coverage under the NAR insurance policy.

But, if a NAR member goes to a launch that is being operated outside of the NAR safety code, the NAR insurance generally does not provide medical coverage to the member.

For example, if a NAR member attends a launch where someone or a group is test firing non-commercial motors, and the NAR member is injured from a motor malfunction, our insurance would not apply in this type of situation.

The injured NAR member would have to rely on their own medical insurance coverage and any insurance or resources from the individual(s) who might be held responsible for the action or malfunction, resulting in an injury, to pay for medical care.

In all cases, you are responsible for your own safety when you attend any activities that have associated risk of injury to yourself or property. I urge everyone to be diligent with respect to their own safety when attending any rocketry related activities. And, most importantly, our insurance is not a policy that provides explicit protection for you as an individual from injury.

Our insurance covers NAR members and sections for liability to others when an unfortunate accident happens (as long as the NAR safety codes are applied).

Please review the frequently asked questions about NAR insurance for more information.

Wrap up

I hope that all NAR members can attend launches this summer to enjoy our great hobby. Remember, let’s all be aware of risks from fires and do everything possible to prevent them. Please review our safety codes and follow them.

Please be safe, pay it forward, and have fun.

John N. Hochheimer
NAR President
NAR 74537 L3

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Message from the NAR President (March 2023)

Fellow NAR Member,

As president, I have had the privilege of representing the National Association of Rocketry at many national and international events. For example, this past summer I welcomed competitors and supporters from across the world for the 2023 World Spacemodeling Championships and have attended several world championships as a competitor and team manager. I have the good fortune to run the International Rocketry Challenge, which allows the winners from France, the United Kingdom, Japan and the United States individual rocketry challenge competitions (in the U.S., the American Rocketry Challenge) to compete for world dominance in the annual rocketry challenge. The NAR runs the safety check and range operations for the NASA Student Launch Challenge and I have the honor of presenting awards to the high school and college teams who demonstrate excellence in outreach. I have flown numerous student projects for the ARLISS launch that is held each September. I have attended and competed in NARAMs for many years and attend NAR National Sport Launches whenever possible. This past weekend, I served as the Range Safety Officer for the 2024 Arizona Cup held in Tucson.

All these experiences are important, not just to me, but to all the hobby rocketry community and the NAR as all the participants, organizers, supporters, and volunteers help to show others the learning, fun, and thrills that can be had when flying hobby rockets. As I reflect over the past for me as a rocketry enthusiast and leader of the NAR, some key themes keep coming to the forefront.

First is the passion that our participants and volunteers have for our hobby. We have a great group of dedicated members who help make all these events possible. Next is the range of competitions that are available to our members. While each competition has unique requirements for who can enter, one thing is clear to me – competition is certainly not dead among the rocketry community. Organizationally, we continue to look for ways to engage our members, young and old, to come together to fly rockets. Competition is one venue to do so. And there are many other ways to have fun with others who share your interests.

While I don’t totally understand the secret ingredient that makes some of these events take off, I do know that it takes volunteers who are willing to adapt and think of new ways to encourage participation. The international FAI type of competition is a great example of this. The U.S. team had more junior competitors this past summer at the 2023 WSMC than any other time. This reflects the dedication of NAR mentors who work with the junior members to build and perfect flying of the FAI types of models. We also have dedicated volunteers who organize the group of young members and keep them interested; Robin Houston and Steve Kristal continue to lead efforts to recruit and keep engaged our younger competitors. It is lots of hard work on the parts of members like Robin and Steve, as well as the many hours put in by team managers, event organizers, and mentors. We have over 50 young members who are actively building and intending to participate in the team selection process this summer at NARAM 65. I remember the days when our junior teams were only a few dedicated individuals who flew many of the events. Now we have more potential participants trying out for positions on our team than the total number of positions available. What a great turnaround.

I have several other points to bring up related to what I observe regarding our hobby. To me, one of the most rewarding experiences that I get to witness time and again is the anticipation then the joy of a successful flight. While many of our older members are more stoic about the anticipation and subsequent joy, I still see many furrowed foreheads prior to a launch and then the smiles after. Of course, there are some of these older members who can show the experience as they would have when much younger, but the best treat for me are those young people who fly their first rocket and get to see it successfully complete its mission. This past weekend at the Arizona Cup, I had the pleasure of watching young Chloe (who I believe is 6) prepare her rockets, load them onto the launch pad and then push the launch button to see her rockets soar into the air. She was so serious prior to launching and then skipped out to recover her rockets when they landed, as only a 6-year-old can do.

Lastly, I’ll mention that I have a personal goal to talk about rocketry whenever I can to those around me. My co-workers roll their eyes when I start talking about rockets now, but as I meet new clients and others as I go about my workday, most will remember me as the guy who was talking about rockets. I also try to mention rocketry when I interact with others throughout my day. Yesterday, for example, when the shuttle driver was taking me to my car at the airport parking facility, she asked “how was my weekend?” For the entire trip, she and I talked about rockets, and we even engaged some others on the shuttle. Do you have your elevator speech ready for those moments when you can tell others about your hobby?

Ok, enough for this month. You know the drill. Be safe out there. Don’t hurt anyone or thing, no fires, and make sure you follow the safety codes.

Until next month, fly safe, have fun, and pay it forward.

John N. Hochheimer
NAR President
NAR 74537 L3

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Message from the NAR President (February 2023)

Fellow NAR Member,

NARCON 2024 was held last weekend in a virtual format and was a great success. There were sessions that should appeal to all rocketry enthusiasts including an overview of ARLISS (A Rocket Launch for International Students Satellites), several sessions on 3D printing, use of rocketry design and analysis software, publishing a newsletter, interacting with FAA, mentoring and safety for college competitions, safely staging HPR rockets, risk in HPR rocketry, and much more. We had virtual tours of the new Aerotech/Quest facility, several great keynote addresses and a closing tour from the Cosmosphere SciEd Center in Kansas. Nick Atanasio, from the Cosmosphere returned to NARCON for a second year and presented a tour of Soviet and American Mission Planning in a Post-Apollo World. Nick did not disappoint and his tour is worth the price of admission.

Four members presented Research and Development projects on Saturday as we shift NAR R&D to NARCON as a home. All the presentations were excellent and I learned interesting facts about reefing parachutes, 9-volt batteries, placement of vent holes for altimeters, and rotational dynamic stability. Joyce Guzik, Ryan Woebkenberg, and Sean Guzek judged the presentations. Thanks to our judges and the presenters; let’s build this event with more projects next year.

If you attended and missed sessions, you can log in to the Accelevents platform to view any of the sessions and you can purchase a ticket to view the sessions if you missed the live event last weekend. The sessions will be posted online for free viewing in 3 months if you prefer to wait.

As usual, safety is on our minds and this month I want to encourage all launch organizers to refresh their site layout considerations to ensure that you are meeting the minimum site dimensions and standoff distance requirements per our safety codes. You can find the site dimensions for model rockets in our model rocket safety code and the HPR standoff distances in our HPR safety code. Remember, our insurance requires that you abide by our safety codes to have the policy in effect.

For all our members who are mentoring ARC (American Rocketry Contest) teams, thank you for supporting this enduring contest that is teaching STEM to our youth. I am mentoring a team in Alexandria Virginia, who are middle school students from all over the world. These students had no rocketry background before ARC. They bring excitement and enthusiasm to each of our sessions and are mastering design and building techniques needed for the ARC challenge this year.  We have a build session this weekend and I can’t wait to see the results of their efforts. I mention my experience to share what paying forward can do for students interested in rocketry in education and how rewarding the experience is as a mentor.

Until next month, fly safe, have fun, and pay it forward.

John N. Hochheimer
NAR President
NAR 74537 L3

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Message from the NAR President (January 2023)

Fellow NAR Member,

Happy New Year to all our NAR family.

As we ring in the new year, we have some exciting events coming up and a few changes that we started in 2023 to wrap up this coming year.

I first want to introduce our young adult board members – Emmeline (Emi) Sears and Andrew Bean. Emi and Andrew were highly recommended to our Nominating Committee. The NAR Board unanimously accepted the recommendation of the Nominating Committee to have them join the Board for 2024. We look forward to having Emi and Andrew participate on the Board and committees and for them to bring the young adult perspective to our discussions and decisions.

We will also be rolling out the changes in membership that resulted from our Bylaw changes made this past year. The revised membership categories are as follows:

• Junior – under 16 years
• Young Adult – 16-25 years
• Senior – over 25 years

As we explained during the Bylaw revision process, modifying the old Leader member category to become Young Adult, expanding the age limits to 25 years and changing the Senior category to above 25 years allows us to better align the membership categories with our dues structure and to reflect a member category (Young Adult) that is better understood by existing and potential members. As memberships are renewed and as new members join, the new member categories will show up on member cards. Our membership materials and website will also change over the next few weeks to reflect these changes. Please be patient as we implement the changes.

Virtual NARCON 2024 is shaping up to be a great event with many new talks being scheduled. The registration website is open and tickets range from free for members younger than 15, $25 for individuals, and $45 for families.

Our National Sport Launch West 2024 will be again held in Alamosa Colorado and NARAM 65 is scheduled to be held in Pueblo Colorado. Both are shaping up to be fun and exciting events for participants and spectators. More information will be forthcoming on both. With the success of NSL East in 2023, we hope to host another National Sport Launch in the eastern part of the US this fall. Please let us know if your Section is interested in hosting.

As you begin to prepare for your 2024 rocketry activities, please remember to keep safety in mind as your top priority. With the downtime in the colder months, take some time to check your existing rocket fleet for needed repairs. I know I have a few of rockets that need new shock cords and there are some parachutes that should be replaced. Be sure to check fins that may need reattachment and are your rail buttons/launch lugs in good shape?  Let’s make 2024 a safe and fun year for all your rocketry adventures.

Until next month, fly safe, have fun, and pay it forward.

John N. Hochheimer
NAR President
NAR 74537 L3

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Message from the NAR President (December 2023)

 

Fellow NAR Member,

This year has gone by quickly and there have been many accomplishments for our organization. November was busy with the National Sport Launch – East, held in Pence Indiana. I attended and wanted to congratulate the leadership and members of the Indiana Rocket Society (Section 711) for putting on a great event. The launch site was enormous and well organized. There was impressive vendor support, and the banquet was first class. Gary Rosenfield of AeroTech and Quest Aerospace presented a pictorial history of the build for AeroTech’s new facility. Special guest, astronaut Woody Hoburg talked about his journey from hobby rockets to NASA and to the International Space Station.

Our membership remains strong. We have hovered around 9,500 members for the past few months, and I hope that we can reach the 10,000-member milestone soon. High power flying remains a big interest in the organization, with over 4,600 members certified as Levels 1-3. We have an additional 168 Jr high power flyers.

The 2023 National Events were designed to offer flying opportunities to many of our members. Virtual NARCON continues to be a hit among the members. Planning for our next virtual NARCON is underway with NARCON scheduled for January 26-28, 2024. We offered two National Sport Launches this year, one in the west (Alamosa, CO) and one in the east (Pence, IN). NARAM was held in Lordsburg, NM. I spent time on the sport and competition ranges and observed some fierce competition among those present. We are planning for NARAM 65 in Pueblo Colorado next summer; stay tuned for announcements. In July, we hosted the 2023 World Spacemodeling Championships. Our outreach and educational efforts continue to grow as we support the American Rocketry Challenge, the International Rocketry Challenge, NASA Student Launch, and ARLISS.

As I noted in previous columns, we moved our NAR Headquarters from Marion Iowa to Middletown Virginia on November 1^st. The changeover went surprisingly well, thanks to the planning and execution of our NAR staff:

• Mayra Marquez, Headquarters Manager
• Marie Stumpe, Headquarters Manager Emeritus
• Todd Schweim, Communications Director
• Monica Rooker, HPR Certifications and Social Media Director
• Anne Heacock, Accounting

We had to update several aspects of our business operations, in particular our banking services. We successfully changed our bank from US Bank to Chase Bank; largely due to our need for a national bank and to take advantage of services Chase offers that will help our financial systems become more efficient. Our NAR Headquarters phone number remains the same (319)373-8910 and we have a new address:

National Association of Rocketry
PO Box 260
Middletown, VA 22645-0260

Email contact for our Headquarters operations is nar-hq@nar.org. We are not experiencing any major interruptions in service to our members. The only delay that is affecting a few members is in the forwarding of mail from Iowa to Virginia. Please note the new address.

Chuck Neff, our Section Activities Chair, reminds me that we are renewing NAR Sections during December. We changed the renewal dates to decouple our renewals with our insurance renewal to make both processes less cumbersome. I spoke with Chuck the other day and the spin up of the new process is predicted to be smooth.

I will wrap up this edition of my column with a reminder to pay attention to launch angles and adjust them as needed during your launches. It is our organization’s safety goal to have flights recover safely and not among people or parking areas. During launches, please stop and readjust launch angles if needed to prevent unsafe landing zones. One suggestion is to try and angle 30-45 degrees to the left or right of the down wind direction, which should help to push flights in a diagonal direction away from the flight line and crowds.

Until next month, fly safe, have fun, and pay it forward.

 

John N. Hochheimer
NAR President
NAR 74537 L3

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Message from the NAR President (November 2023)

Fellow NAR Member,

Our NAR Headquarters Manager, Marie Stumpe (shown at right, with her husband, Kevin) is heading to retirement. She has been our HQ Manager since 1985; that’s right, almost 40 years. Marie worked with 5 NAR presidents – Pat Miller, Mark Bundick, Trip Barber, Ted Cochran, and me. She started with a typewriter, paper records, and lots of stamps. Marie lived through several member data bases and conversions. She has seen our membership grow over time from the low thousands to our present membership of 9,569. The NAR and our members owe a debt of gratitude to Marie for the countless hours she spent keeping us organized, member cards and pins sent out, and answering so many questions from our members. Marie will continue part-time for several months to finish up a few last projects. You can send her a note of thanks via email at nar-hq2@nar.org.

Our new NAR HQ Manager is Mayra Marquez. Mayra started with us a few years ago to help process HPR certifications and has worked closely with Marie to learn our systems and processes. Moving our HQ presence from Iowa to Virgina is going smoothly and we should have most of the move complete for a transition in November. However, there are a few loose ends that will require a little patience. We are keeping the NAR HQ phone number (319-373-8910), but it may be a few days to get everything in place and the number transferred. Also, mail is being forwarded to our new NAR address (PO Box 260, Middletown VA 22645). If you experience a delay in a response to a letter or our phone is not working, please be patient. Mail being sent to the old address will take a few extra days to arrive in Virginia. The phone companies tell me it is easy to port the number from one company to another, and I am hoping that to be true. Regardless, we will do everything possible to keep our move seamless to the members.

I also want to let you know that we are experiencing a delay in sending out member cards. We had a glitch in the restocking of new blank cards from the printer to the fulfillment house that processes our cards. Please be patient, we are working with the fulfillment house to get cards out and back in sync with the normal process. Our website is set up to assist you with a temporary membership by going to this link. By the way, this link is available all of the time, so if you are waiting for a new or replacement card, an updated certification card, or left you card at home and need proof of membership/hpr certification, go to the link. I use it often when I attend a launch without my member card or have a question from launch organizers about a member’s certification level.

Don’t forget, NSL East is November 10-12, 2023, in Pence Indiana.

Until next month, fly safe, have fun, and pay it forward.

John N. Hochheimer
NAR President
NAR 74537 L3

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Message from the NAR President (October 2023)

Fellow NAR Member,

Summer is over, here in the mountains of Colorado the leaves are changing. But there are still many opportunities to get out and fly rockets! We have NSL East November 10-12, 2023, in Pence Indiana. I will be bringing a few rockets to fly. While I will not be testing the limits of their 17,999 ft waiver, I will certainly need the six square miles of recovery area.

It is a busy time at the NAR. We are preparing to move NAR Headquarters to Virginia over the course of the next month. Our long-term NAR HQ Manager, Marie Stumpe, is passing the baton to our HPR Certification Manager, Mayra Marquez. Mayra’s HPR certification duties will be picked up by Monica Rooker. If you follow us on social media, you are familiar with Monica’s work. Marie plans on spending time riding her new electric bike and enjoying some well-deserved free time with family and friends. I plan on sending out a special announcement later this month to give you a complete rundown of the changes. We have also begun our first round of an accounting audit, so our accountant is busy keeping me and a few other board members on our toes.

I hope you read your recent Sport Rocketry issue. Tom and Todd continue to excel in bringing us awesome content and photos. Please go to page 17 of the September/October issue for a timely and well thought out safety commentary from the Officers of NAR Section 774. There are a lot of great flight safety reminders and practices from our friends at San Luis Valley Rocketeers, the hosts of NSL West 2023-2025.

In September, the NAR and our insurance company settled a claim arising from a launch over the summer. I will not go into specific details, other than to note that one or two nominal flights that safely landed on the launch site were not well-received by cattle sharing the site with us. The result was several of the cattle ended up expiring; a significant loss to the farmer. We worked closely with the local Section leaders, the farmer, and our insurance agent to come to a mutual agreement of compensation for the losses. There will also be mitigating actions taken in the future to minimize the risk to livestock at this particular site. I urge all Sections and flyers to carefully consider where the rockets are landing. Rockets should not land among livestock on or adjacent to a launch site.

I will finish this month’s column with a plea to our members to support our educational program, scholarships, and grants to teachers. We have had several generous donations from members who have retirement funds that require disbursements and as a beneficiary from a member’s life insurance policy. Please consider donating to the NAR to help us build perpetual funding sources for scholarships and educational grants. For each $50,000 added to our investment endowment account, we can fund a $2,000 scholarship for the foreseeable future. Our goal is to obtain enough funds in an endowment account to fund all our scholarships and grants from the investment proceeds.

Until next month, fly safe, have fun, and pay it forward.

John N. Hochheimer
NAR President
NAR 74537 L3

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Message from the NAR President (September 2023)

Change is good for an organization; every year we provide our members with a chance to shape the the NAR as you vote for Trustees to serve on the NAR Board. This year, we have a new Trustee joining the Board, Mr. Jasper Barnett. Jasper brings a fresh perspective to the Board, and I am looking forward to working with him. Steve Lubliner was not voted for another term on the Board, and we will miss Steve’s candor and participation at our meetings. Steve has agreed to stay on as our Safety Committee Chair, NFPA representative, and liaison to the Spaceport America Cup. I want to personally thank Steve for his continued support to the NAR on and off the Board.

Kevin Johnson and I were re-elected to the Board. Kevin continues as our Treasurer, and I remain President. There are a few financial and business tasks that we want to complete, like an audit of the finances of the NAR. Being re-elected will give us the opportunity to make these important business activities happen. Steve Kristal will continue to serve as our Vice President and Mark Wise as our Secretary. Thanks to Matt Johnson for running as a candidate for Trustee.

Another milestone change is with the NAR’s Education Committee. Vince Huegele recently completed 20 years of service as Chair of our Education Committee. He passed the baton to Robyn Jackson, who is coming on board with many great ideas and experience in rocketry education. Thanks, Vince, for the 20 years of dedicated service!

You can see all the changes and current Trustee and Committee Chair contact information on our website under the page of Organizational Contacts.

Changes to the NAR by-laws were also on the ballot this year. We updated throughout the by-laws references of Trustees as a male to a neutral reference to Trustees. The by-laws also were tidied up a bit to recognize how changes in technology enable us to use resources like virtual meetings and online voting. Most importantly, we changed our member class from Leader to Young Adult member and expanded the age from 16 to 24 years. We also added two board seats for Young Adult members that are filled by recommendation from our Nominating Committee and ratified by the Board. We are working on the implementation of this change now and hope to roll it out soon.

As I mentioned at the Town Hall, our finances are in great shape and we are benefitting from the steady membership growth we have seen over the past year. I was pleased to announce scholarship and educational grant winners at the Town Hall.

I hope that you are all enjoying these final days of summer and able to launch with family and friends. I am gearing up for my annual trek to Black Rock to support ARLISS and launch a few big rockets. Please remember to keep safety in mind with all your rocketry activities. Safety is everyone’s job.

Until next month, have fun, be safe, and pay it forward.

John N. Hochheimer
NAR President
NAR 74537 L3

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Message from the NAR President (August 2023)

The 2023 US Spacemodeling team.
Photo by Jim Wilkerson.

The summer seems to be flying by (pun intended). I hope that all our members get a chance to fly your projects and enjoy the flying season. Remember, our summer Town Hall meeting will take place on August 9, at 8:00 PM Eastern Time. Register here to listen in. I will be announcing the results of the Trustee Elections and the fate of proposed by-law changes at that time. We will also open up the meeting for a business meeting following the State of the NAR report.

As I am writing this column of the newsletter, NARAM-64 is nearly complete, with all flying done. All that’s left is an award’s banquet, distribution of plaques for winners in the competition events, and bragging rights, as champion Section, for one NAR Section for the upcoming year. Although the competition group was small this year, competition among the individuals and teams was intense and camaraderie among the participants remains at a high level. If you have not tried our National Rocketry Competition (or NRC for short), or if you used to fly competition and have not done so recently, we have excellent resources available in the contest flying section on our website. Big shout out goes to Vern Richardson (Event and Contest Director), Thomas Kindig (Sport Range Director), and Ed LaCroix (National Events Chair).

Earlier in July, the NAR hosted the 2023 World Spacemodeling Championships in Austin, Texas. Congratulations to the US Team pictured above and everyone that supported the team There was an excellent showing for both junior and senior teams with numerous individual and team medals. Team USA was the overall event champion, a feat never accomplished in prior World Spacemodeling Championships. I also want to thank those of you who volunteered your time to support the event as organizers and range crew. This was an epic undertaking, and it took the dedication of many individuals to make it happen. James Duffy, our Event Director, organized an excellent group of volunteers to do the many tasks it took to host the championships. Job well done by all!

I will conclude this column with a reminder about safety. We all continue to enjoy this great hobby, due in part to our excellent safety record. Please follow our safety codes, avoid flying when conditions could lead to fires, keep your rockets on flying fields, and consistently adjust launch angles to avoid overflying spectators and parking areas.

Until next month, have fun, be safe, and pay it forward.

John N. Hochheimer
NAR President
NAR 74537 L3

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Message from the NAR President (July 2023)

Fellow NAR Member,

Summer is here and hopefully lots of great flying where you are. After I write this column, I will be finishing up packing and heading out for the 2023 World Space Modeling Championships in Austin, Texas. Big shoutout to all the volunteers who have helped to plan this event, the Olympics of rocketry, and to those who are volunteering to serve as range crew for the next week.

I am also thankful to the volunteer mentors from the NAR who helped with the ESRA launch held this past weekend in New Mexico. Special thanks to Steve Lubliner, who serves as the NAR liaison to ESRA.

I do want to bring up some unsettling news that serves as a reminder about safety around the materials we use in rocketry. While the commercially manufactured rocket motors used by NAR members are safe to use and when stored properly, we need to remain vigilant about safety when handling and storing them.

Another incident was reported closer to home this week, involving persons making or altering fireworks in their home. Two family members are hospitalized and the house is potentially damaged to the point where it is not livable as a result of the explosion and fire. Why am I bringing this up? On my news feed, the alert was for 2 injured in an explosion involving model rockets. What? It turns out that was someone’s first impression and what they told authorities they thought happened. Yes, the model rocket part. It is irritating that the headlines still read model rocket, yet the accompanying text refers only to fireworks. I don’t think this will harm our hobby, by itself, it is not helpful either. Part of my job as president is to help temper these false impressions of the hobby. I do the best I can by example, pointing the media to educational and fun programs, and speaking up to correct the incorrect media reports. I reached out to some of the local media outlets to suggest that they make some corrections, but they have moved on to the next topic, as I suspect most others have too. I did get the chance to tell them about safety and fun aspects of the hobby. Please do safe and fun things as you enjoy flying and building rockets. If you get the chance to spread your enthusiasm, let others know.

Not much else on my plate for you now. Please stay safe, don’t get overheated with the summer heat, fly your rockets, and have fun.

John N. Hochheimer
NAR President
NAR 74537 L3

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Message from the NAR President (June 2023)

Fellow NAR Member,

I hope your Memorial Weekend was relaxing and, like me you spent some of that time at a rocket launch. I was at the National Sport Launch held near Alamosa Colorado at an excellent launch site. The event was sponsored by the San Luis Valley Rocketeers and hosted by Event Director, Matt Abbey. Matt was an excellent host, the range was awesomely huge, and the accommodations great. Thanks to all who volunteered to make this event successful and thanks to all who attended to fly. I am looking forward to next year!

Safety Minute:

I would like to bring up a safety issue that occurred over the weekend. This is intended to be a reminder to all about the importance of ensuring that onboard or component electronic systems should be operated and secured in a safe manner, on and off the flying field.

An incident happened at one of the hotels in town where some of the National Sport Launch attendees were staying. Please note, while the incident is still being investigated, I will not provide specific information about what happened. In brief, a high-power rocket motor accidently ignited in a hotel room. There were no serious injuries, but the room was damaged and guests at the hotel had to leave their rooms while the fire department controlled the situation and cleared the smoke. Let me remind all of important safety considerations:

• Please avoid bringing high-power motors into hotel rooms, especially with ignitors inserted into the motors.
• Do not assemble ejection charges in hotel rooms.
• Do not assemble complex rockets in hotel rooms.
• Treat assembled rocket motors, igniters, and ejection charges with care and high levels of safety.
• Please, make sure that all electronics are turned off and disconnected from any igniters or ejection charges when not in a safe location.
• Please understand the safe operation of all electronics you use.
• Please ensure there are no igniters in any rocket motors, particularly high-power motors, unless on the pad or otherwise deemed safe at an outdoor location.
• Please follow the NAR Model Rocket and High-Power Safety Codes on and off the flying field.

Let’s be safe out there!

Additionally, I am aware that there is some chatter on one or more of the rocketry forums about the use of rails for larger rockets. Apparently, the rumor is that the NAR Board of Trustees is secretly considering implementing a rule/policy change that would require all larger rockets to be launched by rails only. Although some NAR Sections have local range requirements that rockets above a certain size must be launched from a rail, there is not a NAR-wide requirement for requiring rails to be used for mid and high-power rockets. Our NAR Sections can implement launch requirements that are more stringent than the NAR safety codes; organizationally, we leave this to the discretion of the local club. The NAR encourages factual and open discussions about safety issues related to the hobby and discourages ill-informed discussions based on conjecture or rumor that is unfounded.

Thanks, and now back to fun things.

In case you missed it, the American Rocketry Challenge (ARC) finals were held on May 20 at Great Meadow Foundation. This year’s event was fun and well-run, as usual. The winning team, Hardin Valley Academy from Knoxville, Tennessee, were a first year Rocketry Challenge team and are looking forward to going to Paris in a few weeks to fly against teams from France, Japan, and the United Kingdom.

We would like to extend our sincerest thanks to all the NAR volunteers who dedicated their time and effort to make the American Rocketry Challenge a success. Your commitment to inspiring the next generation of rocket scientists and engineers is truly commendable. Without your hard work, we would not have been able to provide such a valuable experience to the participants. We appreciate your contributions and hope to continue working with you in the future. Thank you once again for your support!

Until next month, be safe, have fun and pay it forward.

John N. Hochheimer
NAR President
NAR 74537 L3

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Message from the President, (May 2023)

Fellow NAR Member,

I want to start out this month’s column with a sincere thank you to Trip Barber for pulling together content for the many issues of the eRocketeer over the past 5 years. Trip has been dedicated to making the NAR the best we can be and has spent a lifetime giving back to the community and pitches in when he sees a need. I am sure he will find something to fill the time he spent corralling articles and content from our contributors. Thanks Trip!

In case it is not obvious, we have changed the format of the eRocketeer. Todd Schweim, our Director of Communications developed this new look for our monthly newsletter, and I am excited to hear how our members feel about it. Please go to our Members Forum to let us know your thoughts.

ARC – American Rocketry Challenge – has a new brand identity. So, drop the “The” and the “T” moving forward, as we will now refer to the world’s largest rocket contest as ARC or the American Rocketry Contest. I like the change and hope to get TARC out of my vocabulary and replace it with ARC.

Speaking of ARC, I know there are 100 teams practicing, getting their rockets and gear ready for a trip to the finals, raising money for travel expenses, and bragging to friends about their accomplishments. Thanks to all of the volunteers who help students to build and fly rockets as a part of ARC. And a big thanks to the range crew who will gather on May 19-20 for the 2023 ARC finals.

Have you signed up for and are you planning on attending the National Sport Launch West? I’ll be there and hope to get some of my rockets out from being packed for moving and ready to fly. As your flying season gears up, please inspect them to make sure they are in top shape and ready to fly. Look at things like parachutes, shock cords, glue and epoxy joints, and electronics before you head out to a flying site.

Another safety reminder – let’s continue to be vigilant about fire safety. Make sure your fire equipment is in good shape and ready for action. Clear areas around launch pads of combustible materials. Keep an eye out for potential problems when rockets eject on or near the ground; don’t assume that nothing is burning, go inspect and make sure everything is safe.

Board elections are open for voting; please vote. Also, we have changes to our bylaws that require a member vote to ratify. Voting is easy and can be done in person, by mail, or electronically.

Until next month, be safe, have fun and pay it forward.

John N. Hochheimer
NAR President
NAR 74537 L3

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Message from the President, (April 2023)

Fellow NAR Member,

The NAR volunteer community has lost a key and dedicated volunteer. Our NARTS manager, Brad Cline, passed away unexpectedly. Brad served as the NARTS manager for about 15 years. He did an excellent job of updating our store offerings and was praised by our customers for his attention to detail and timely fulfillment of orders. We will miss Brad and our prayers are with his family.

Due to the passing of our NARTS manager, we will temporarily close the NARTS store until we can get a new manager in place and everything back up and running. We will post notices on the NAR website to inform our members of changes.

Don’t forget to update and discuss your safety plans and actions with your Sections. Now is a great time to update and clean safety equipment, replenish the first aid kit, and make sure all emergency contact lists are up to date.

At our January Board meeting, we made the following actions:

• Audit of NAR Finances – the Board is working with our accountant to pursue an audit of our financial practices. This is being done to ensure we are following the best possible financial controls.
• Pursue 501(c)3 group/subordinate affiliation – this status will allow NAR Sections to be recognized in the same IRS status as the NAR. It is a procedural action and the Board will work with our accountant to determine the best course of action. Once granted, our Sections will be able to have donations recognized in the same manner as they would be if someone or organization donated to our parent organization, the NAR.
• Periodic review of dues structure – the Board agreed that it would be a good practice to periodically (at least every 2 years) to review our dues structure. This does not necessarily mean increases every 2 years, rather that the Board will make a deliberate effort to ensure that our dues reflects current financial needs of the organization.

The NAR Board also performed a review of By-Laws:

• Cleaned up gender references
• Changed “model” rocketry to “sport” rocketry
• Explicitly refers to Voting by electronic means – this was done to reflect current practices in voting.
• Clarified Annual business meeting – previously, there was some ambiguity in language between Board meetings and the Annual meeting of the association. Changes clarify the differences.
• Participation on NAR communication platforms – the changes clarify that participation on NAR communication platforms (like the NAR Members Forum) are member benefits and there are policies of participant decorum that will be enforced. Non-compliance with the policies can result in privileges being revoked, which is not considered to be an official NAR discipline action subject to a tribunal review.
• Membership Classes: Changed Leader members (16-21 years) and Senior members (21-25 years) to Young Adult members (16-25 years)
• Board of Trustees: Board may have up to 2 Young Adult Trustees who are recommended by Nominating Committee and ratified by Board. Young Member Trustees will have the same privileges and responsibilities as Senior Trustees. They are eligible 18-24 years at nomination and the term is 1 year and can be renewed for 2 additional years
• Officers are Senior Trustees
• Board working sessions can be held at the discretion of the President
• All financial reporting will be in the form of the IRS 990

These changes were accepted by the Board by unanimous agreement and will be included in the voting package being sent to all members. Members will be asked for a yes or no vote on the collective changes as presented. A copy of the revisions can be viewed on our website as a part of the minutes of the January meeting. The changes will also be included as a part of the voting materials for the Trustees election. The Board recommends members accept these changes.

Registration is open for NSL-West. Join us for a National Sport Launch May 27-29 in Alamosa, Colorado. This is the place if you are interested in flying your high power rockets. Event Director, Matt Abbey has a 52,000′ Waiver in hand.

Please remember that your Members Forum is for all members and our expectation is that postings are done in a civil manner and follow the spirit of our safety codes and NAR policies. Please be courteous to each other.

Until next month, please be safe, pay it forward, and have fun!

John N. Hochheimer
NAR President
NAR 74537 L3

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Message from the President, (March 2023)

Fellow NAR Member,

Congratulations to NASA astronaut and fellow rocketeer Woody Hoburg, the pilot on the SpaceX Crew 6 mission to the International Space Station that launched on March 2, 2023. Woody flew rockets before he started riding them! He was a TARC competitor from North Allegheny High School in PA in the first year of the TARC program (2002-2003) and went on from there to larger high power rockets and to MIT, first as a student then as a professor, before his selection as an astronaut.

As an organization, the NAR is doing so much to help young rocketeers succeed in academics, go on to STEM careers, and now even go to space. That’s right, when you, our members, help a young child fly their first rocket, do build sessions with scout and school groups, volunteer to mentor TARC, NASA Student Launch, Spaceport America, and ARLISS teams, your contributions are enriching the lives of these children and young adults.

What else can you do to encourage rocketry? Did you know members ages 14-17 are eligible to participate in our Junior HPR Level 1 program. This program offers a great opportunity to mentor younger members who are interested in high power rocketry. When we start our younger members off on a path of good building skills and a solid understanding of the nuances of building rockets to withstand the power of more powerful motors, you are giving these rocketeers a solid base to grow. For more information, go to our website.

Our flying season is getting started for the year. I am looking for some free time to check out my fleet for safety and repair needs. You can make your first launch of the year a safe and successful one by checking out your rockets, cleaning them up, and making sure they are flight worthy. Pay extra attention to those rockets that have been retired for a while; some of our building materials don’t always age well.

NAR Sections should also remember to do an annual safety stand-down. Section leaders should take some time at the beginning of your next launch or during an upcoming meeting to review procedures, make improvements to outdated safety operations, and clean up that safety gear to be ready for the season.

I’ll conclude with a plea to all of our members to fly safely and ensure our excellent safety record remains intact. The NAR recently paid our annual insurance payment — $107,000 this year. A significant contributor to the premium is our membership numbers (not a bad problem). I can’t imagine what the bill would be if we did not have the excellent record of safety we have. I also want to remind all that our insurance is not an excuse to fly unsafely. Please follow the safety codes, use common sense, don’t fly under marginally safe conditions, and help us promote our safety culture. NAR insurance is a safety net for good safe culture, not risky behavior.

Until next month, please be safe, pay it forward, and have fun!

John N. Hochheimer
NAR President
NAR 74537 L3