May 12, 2020
Last week the National Association of Rocketry announced that the National Sport Launch, scheduled for Memorial Day in Colorado, has been postponed until next year. Monday, the Tripoli Rocketry Association similarly postponed its annual launch LDRS until next year. Both events will stay at their current venues. Previously the NAR had postponed its National Rocketry Festival including the NARAM-62 competition to next year due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The NAR’s yearly board elections, normally held at the Association Meeting at NARAM will be held online and through mail ballots.
Apr 28, 2020
NAR President John Hochheimer issued a statement April 28, 2020 updating the NAR’s COVID-19 policy. The full statement is on the NAR’s Facebook page, and should be on the NAR’s website shortly, but here is the summation:
Policy – Effective April 28, 2020 the NAR policy on scheduled section and NRC launches, section meetings, and large gatherings is that NAR sections follow all applicable national, state, and local requirements, restrictions, and recommendations for the physical location of the event(s).
This policy will probably remain in effect indefinitely. It essentially means that each section must deal with COVID-19 rules at the local level. What this means for SoAR is not yet clear, but the SoAR Board will discuss ways of conducting launches and meetings that will comply with federal, state, and local laws and guidance. Keep checking here, the SoAR Facebook group, and SoAR’s forums on groups.io for more info.
Mar 17, 2020
NAR President John Hockheimer announced a policy on NAR and Section activities in response to COVID-19. All NAR Sections (this includes SoAR) shall postpone or cancel Section launches, meetings, and other group activities through April 28. This may be extended. At this point, that means that the April Dawsonville launch is canceled. At the moment, events in May are still on, but that too may change based on federal and state guidance.
Apr 6, 2020
The April RocketTalk meeting that would normally be held at the Tuxford Subdivision in Alpharetta, will be held online instead through the facilities of Zoom. The meeting will start at 7 PM as usual and feature more-or-less the same format. This will be the perfect chance to participate in RocketTalk for those of you who can’t normally attend due to distance.
This is a video conference, so it’d be nice if you have a web camera, but if you want to just be heard and not seen, that’s cool too.
Invitations will go out through the SoAR Groups.IO groups, so keep an eye on them. Instructions will go public shortly before the meeting starts, at the RocketTalk page. (As of 6PM, the instructions are up. Note that you’ll have to sign up for a free Zoom account if you don’t already have one, so start a few minutes early if you need to do that).
May 20, 2019
The teams from Creekview High in Canton, GA finished fourth and fifth overall at the TARC Finals in The Plains, Virginia.
Creekview Team 2 had a first flight score of just 6.0, putting them in good position for the second flight, but couldn’t quite hit the second flight as well, and ended up with a score of 27, while Team 1 was outside of their landing window with the first flight, but were consistent with altitude and finished with 25.96.
Team 2 from Madison (WI) West High School won the event with a score of 10.0 (8 on the first flight, and 2 on the second flight). They will be going to the Paris International Air Show to compete for the International title.
The goal is to take three large Hens eggs (the number chosen as tribute to the Apollo 11 aniversary!) to as close as possible to the target altitude (which was 856 for the first flight and changed by 25 feet for the second) and return them safely to the ground between 43 and 46 seconds after liftoff.
Congratulations to Creekview High for their efforts this year!
