Virtual NARCON
 

For those who may not of seen it yet, NARCON 2021 will be virtual.

https://www.nar.org/narcon-2021/

Here's your opportunity to "attend" without having to travel! :)

Solo beerlofting is what got me in trouble in my 20's. :o

Looks like Bernard Cawley (BEC here) will be one of the presenters. Altimeters maybe?

Looks like a good opportunity to attend a NARCON...never been to one.

Earl

Been to two. Better than NARAM. :cool:

Yep - altimeters. What else? :)

Specifically altimeters for and in NRC events. Let me know if there is something in particular you would like me to cover or show as my talk is still in the rough outline stage.

Agreed. I've never crashed a rocket at NARCON, and everyone seems to smell better. <G>

James

I'm sure you will cover it and I suspect any altimeter purchased would talk about this, but the size ports needed to ensure proper and accurate sampling and just how the altimeter should be mounted too to ensure same.

And of course any of the 'extra' little 'best tricks of the trade' that only come from flying altimeters quite a bit. I've never even flown one. :(

Earl

:chuckle:

I do intend to spend quite a bit more time on installation considerations including both of those points than the usual article seems to, including mine in the 2020 NAR Member Guidebook.


I’ve been thinking about how, in the virtual environment, to present some of that sort of thing. There has to be something better than just having you look at a static picture on a slide on a screen.

Even if it's a static port? :D

I’m looking forward to this I need to block off 1/2 day vacation for that Friday afternoon :)

I made my first NARAM with the successful Virtual NARAM so tee up NARCON ... this will be my first NARCON too :cool:

I have to say if not for your detailed reporting on your many successful AstroCam flights with your FS MINI onboard I wouldn’t have even known about that company to make the purchase. I had never heard of FlightSketch before you mentioned them. I liked the FS MINI so much I waited patiently for the restock email and bought a second one :D

I especially like that flights and pictures can be posted to their website, very cool and what a great feature :cool:

https://flightsketch.com/flights/1343/

https://flightsketch.com/flights/1342/

Please touch on this awesome, affordable and yet very simple Bluetooth altimeter! I can’t wait for the release of some of their other planned products.

;)

I have been flying them since the betas over a year ago, and I will certainly have to say something about the Mini, and also the upcoming Comp (as I have been flying a prototype). BUT....I was asked to focus on altimeters for the National Rocketry Competition events and the FS devices are not yet accepted for contest use by the NAR. I have been working with Russ (the man behind FlightSketch) and with the NAR contest board chairman to facilitate that wherever I could, but at the moment the ball is in Russ' court (and he has real life, job, kids and COVID complications in same to deal with along with working on FlightSketch stuff and running his web store). I won't go into details here about why it's not yet contest accepted, but there is still some work to do on the on-board software to get it there.

That said, the majority of the time it does a wonderful job and the price/feature combination is simply unbeatable. For sport flying it is great as is, though I recommend one look at the graph of the flight and not just the summarized data.

I got my Virtual NARCON ticket last night and I have your session marked as attending :)
Looking forward to it Bernard!
It’s cool you are working with Russ. I hope he is very successful with his FlightSketch line of products and can get contest acceptance. I plan to fly mine again when our field reopens in the spring.

Good times!

Maybe you're right. :)

Anyone else have a suggestion? I'm working on this presentation currently.

Keep it clean and stay sober? Always good advise I think. :)

I just bought a FS Mini because it fits in really small spaces.


I can't wait to get one if their FS Comp.

Terry

Just wondering, how many Ye Olde Rocket Forum regulars are planning on attending?

Have my ticket and agenda all planned. The drive will be short this year; just have to go downstairs.....

Signed up this morning - since it’s not looking good for a launch Saturday I’ll be “at” the convention all day.

Attending a convention of any sort in a sober condition sounds lousy.
Bring single malt Scotch. Macallan 25 is superb.

I will be host of the Manufacturers' Forum Friday night. ;)

Sorry, no. I have been flying a prototype FS Comp for some time, but have not tried the Sport (or any other deployment altimeter).

I REALLY wish the SST would reach flyable before NSL....but considering all else that's going on in the world, I'm not going to hold my breath for either the Sport or NSL this year.

Will anyone here be attending the social hours tonight or Saturday or the virtual beer loft on Saturday? That's through Zoom and doesn't appear you need to buy a ticket since the Zoom ID and password are listed on the NARCON site.

Car shopping looks to be filling my weekend, so I doubt I'll have the chance to do either. You know I love a good beer lofting. :rolleyes: :cool:

I’m going to try to make the Virtual Beer Loft on Saturday. I definitely have the tour of LOC Precision, Manufacturers Forum and tour of Estes Industries on my must see list :D

Looking forward to this Bob!

I opened up the event to make sure everything was ok just in time to hear the board vote to make all issues other than the current one of Sport Rocketry available online.

Can someone that saw the manufacturers forum list the highlights here for us?

Hasn't taken place yet, starts in about 45 mins.

It's not too late to register!

James

I'm on vaca down on Fort Myers Beach. Just got back from drinking up during Happy Hour. I may not make it that long. :chuckle:

Estes - next bring back is an upsized Orbital Transport, Mars Snooper and ANTAR are enroute, new starters released early spring, strong hint/teaser on licensed products from actual aerospace companies, new Space Force kit that resembles the old Centuri X-24 - not a glider, C5-0 is coming - not this year along with higher impulse booster motors, Hobby Lobby unique designs are being swapped out Feb/Mar - will include the Mars Leaper.

Sounds great! :cool: Thanks for the update.

North Coast - 24mm powered Argo Javelin - smaller/cheaper, Big Daddy-ish Scorch kit using body wraps - pseudo military style, tail cone style motor retainer - compatible with Estes screw on retainer, bring back of the 2.6” Corporal, printed catalog coming soon, 4” kits coming - 29mm powered (including the Quasar, Phantom, Big Brute), r/c version of the F-117, Interceptor G is possible, eventually.

Estes catalog - coming early February. If you ordered from Estes website in last 6 months you’ll get one in the mail.

ASP - 13mm Black Brant 3, Aerobee 150 1.9” optional parts for different versions included, more MMX kits coming - all scale kits, another 24mm scale kit coming - later this year - more details as we get closer to release.

Apogee - GPS controlled chute still in-work but it is coming, new module in RockSim Pro - Launch Visualizer - 3D animated Google Earth-like simulation of rocket flight/recovery, eventually Visualizer will be on website and will run sim files independent of RS, v10 of RS out shortly.

IMPLS Launch System - owner Thomas Kindig pretty much gave a briefing on his really slick looking and operating launch rack and controller consoles. I won’t repeat it here the info is on the website https://www.implslaunch.com.

Aerotech/Quest - F52C Enerjet 66.2 N-sec, 1.3 sec burn time, USPS mailable, 5-8-12 delays, mimics original exhaust, updated old style Enerjet graphics, Spring release, 29mm G8/12ST long burn/end burner motors, 130/144 N-sec, plugged only, Spring release too, three new/bring backs from Quest - Sport, Lightning (30mm diam), Icarus (35mm diam) - 24mm with included 18mm adapters - Icarus w/wood fins the others plastic, 24x70mm D22W QJets - 19.3 N-sec, E26W QJets, 27.9 N-sec (Estes E9 equivalent) - both motors lighter than BP equivalent and both mailable, BlackMax QJets coming eventually, L and M long burn motors definite possibility, Blue Thunder QJets a definite possibility too, more reloads (Redload?) for the 29mm Hobby-line case.

I have two observations. It seemed that Randy Boadway/eRockets was slated to present stuff. What happened? Hope everything is ok.

Secondly, Estes really didn't show a lot new from the last manufacturer's forum. There was a rehash of kits already available (no discussion about the Big Red Max), a more complete Dark-1 (X24 Buglike kit), Mars Snooper upscale box (no built-up), the new Antar was shown, AstroCam by itself, new igniters (same as last time), and the new catalog. Really the only thing else announced officially was an Upscale Orbital Transport.