Originally Posted by teflonrocketry1

All but one of the rockets I flew at the NARAM-61 sport range were damaged when they landed on the asphalt. The site is basically a pavilion surrounded by a U-shaped region of black top and gravel surfaces. The launch area was in front of the metal roofed pavilion facing north in the middle and bottom of the "U" the legs of the "U" point south. The wind blew most of the flights back toward the pavilion, the black top surfaces, vendor row and parking areas. I don't think make-and-takes are much fun if your (first) rocket smashes into the pavement; I saw this happen more than once a NARAM-61. There are plenty of other grass covered areas that could have been used for a sport launch site at the AMA field.

When I got to the field on Tuesday late in the morning there was no registration tent available at either the contest or sport range. Luckily, I knew the contest director; his mother actually set up the registration area and registered me! The distance between the sport and contest range was almost too far to walk, I had to drive my wife over to the contest range were the food truck was located. I felt sorry for the vendors (like BMS and Impulse Buys) on the sport range as I am sure they would have done more business if they were located closer to the contest range. Yesterday, I was surprised by an email from the AMA saying that I paid $19.95 for a 3 month membership trial. When I registered for NARAM-61 I was told the registration included this trial, but I am wondering if the NAR or NARAM-61 organizers had to pay for this out of the $50.00 registration fee they collected.

Not much was in the registration packet;
an EstesRockets.com cooling towel,
a 2019 Estes catalog,
an Estes model rocket cradle (#2293),
a 4" oval Estes sticker,
an estesrockets.com Broad Spectrum SPF 15 Sunscreen Beeswax Lip Balm,
an AMA Koozie and Model Aviation Magazine,
an invite to the Pem Tech party,
and a VisitMuncie.org carabiner and tour guide.
Apogee provided the name badge holders and there was at least one vendor and food truck located at the contest range. Lacking in the registration packet was a hard copy map of the launch sites, FAA waiver limits, and/or a final schedule of events, or even a pen to fill out the flight cards. By Wednesday pens were scarce at the sport range for filling out the flight cards!

Please share your thoughts on NARAM-61.