Kudos for NARAM 53
 

Just wanted to publicly thank Chan and his group for a truly wonderful event. I had a ton of fun even though my contest flying didn't go as well as I would have liked. :o This NARAM set a new standard for data availabilty for contestants and the choice of events was a perfect match for the field. The 1/8 A Streamer Duration multiround was absolutely fascinating to watch, the variety of models was just amazing. Hotel was great, R&D presentations were especially interesting. How many of you ever thought of using Cocoa as a sanding sealer (pick up the R&D disk from NARTS if you're intrigued)?

My personal competition highlight was watching my daughter build a Roachwerks scale Al-Hussein Scud in the hotel room. My sport highlight was flying the Barbie Chucker for a large crowd, including Vern and Gleda, and watching Barbie thermal away into the next county. I may have to start using Barbies for my contest flights. ;)

Only complaint I heard all week was from the vendors that sales were a little slow. But Chan rescued them by making the build room right next to scale pick up available Thursday night and all the vendors I talked to were just raving about how much business they did that night. Attendees seemed to really like it as well. Really typical of the hosting group's behavior all week. They did everything they could to make sure everyone had a good time.

Again, really a great event. My heartfelt thanks to Chan and all the folks who worked so hard on behalf of their fellow rocketeers.

Steve

Thanks to Chan and team from all of us at Semroc. We had a great time and hated to see it over. Thursday night was a nice touch. It was just super to see some of our friends without wiping the sweat from our eyes!

Aw shucks :o , it was the least we could do given that the HVAC guy we had been calling on Monday to install the A/C to cool the field never showed up. Flexibility and being able to respond to issues like the lack of traffic down vendor row in the extreme conditions is purely the result of not having a plan and just focusing on a rolling 2-hour window. Kept things interesting and is a great weight loss plan :D .

--Chan Stevens

Thanks for a FANTASTIC NARAM! I had a fantastic time (and all my flights worked!!!)

The only problem with the hotel, if you can call it that, is air in the pipes making the shower chuff...


Bill

You know someone's a REAL rocketeer when they refer to plumbing problems as "chuffing"... LOL:)

Later! OL JR :)

It's not air in the pipes, it's the Symmons shower valve. Mine hummed.


That was absolutely the best NARAM hotel in the last 20 years. When I made my reservation there was a problem with the rate for the last day I was staying there and they told me they'd fix it when I arrived. I was expecting a battle but as soon as I mentioned it they cleared it right up. Then they told me I had a package waiting before I had the chance to ask for it and offered to carry it to the elevator for me. After a couple of days I noticed a small leak from the toilet. Most people wouldn't have noticed it but being a plumbing professional it caught my eye. I t notified them of the problem and it got fixed and they left a chocolate wrench in my room. Nice touch.


And Chan did a great job running the event. He was clearly in control and that doesn't always happen.

Bill would know, he's a plumber. ;)

Good thing you didn't see any ants and complained about them. No telling what kind of chocolate you'd got then. :eek:
:D

Wish I could have gone. I'm going to try to make it to NARCON or NARAM next year.

This was an AWESOME NARAM! Chan and the crew he surrounded himself with did such a wonderful job. And it wasn't enough that you walked along vendors row and bought something, most were giving things away as well! I can't tell you how many MoonGlo kits I have tucked away (free with purchase....okay, I went by the Semroc booth a couple of times during the week) as well as a free Shrike from Semroc (door prize for coming by the booth so much...lol)! John signed the FREE QCC Explorer that Estes was giving away (okay, I asked him to sign it :rolleyes: ) But the vendors also took interest in the competition as well, strolling along competitor row and talking with us, eating with us (great mid-week social that actually was comfortable if you didn't stand/sit/eat in the sun). I only stayed in the hotel three nights (I stayed most of the time at my mother's about 40 miles from there) but the accommodations and service were fantastic. I thought the desk clerk was going to walk me to my room (okay, I was wishing :o ). And even the cleaning staff would stop what they were doing to assist you. One actually offered to help carry my stuff from the car (okay, I didn't think about getting a cart). But best thing about this NARAm was being able to assign faces to so many of the names I see here on the forum. Looking forward to seeing you all again in Michigan next year.