Rocketry Planet

WORLD WIDE WEB — As the 52nd national meet of the National Association of Rocketry draws to a close, the organization has released the location of next year's event. The annual meet, known as NARAM, will be headed just northeast of Cincinnati, Ohio, just outside of the town of Lebanon the week of July 23-29, 2011.

Located just off U.S. 42 (also known as Cincinnati Avenue) at the intersection of McClure Road, next year's event will enjoy closer proximity to creature comforts such as retail dining, lodging and entertainment venues, however those features come with a cost.  In this case, the field will be smaller and the waiver lower.

"As with the last Cincinnati-area NARAM, this one's going to be located near conveniences such as every retail/dining option known to mankind, airports, entertainment options," said NARAM-53 Contest Director Chan Stevens in an online announcement, "but that proximity means less open area, smaller fields."

NARAM-53 to be held in Ohio, just above Cincinnati and just outside of Lebanon, July 23-29, 2011.

Located on the southeastern outskirts of Lebanon, the NARAM-53 launch field is relatively "long and skinny" according to Stevens. The field is approximately 1800 feet in width and runs about 3500 feet in length, encompassing an entire sports complex normally used as soccer fields.  Stevens reported the existence of a thin tree line to the north, easily spotted on satellite imagery, which gets heavier to the west as a small creek bed winds through the open farmland.

"No corn!" Stevens added.

The NARAM-53 hosts are still working on the event waiver, but nearby neighbors will more than likely require a relatively low figure.

"There's one small industrial building that's nearby that would limit waiver to about 3500 [feet], but they typically shut down for a week in July and I'm going to at least try to coax them into aiming for our week so that I can get a higher waiver," Stevens' posting stated. "In all likelihood, though, the site probably won't handle the upper ends of the [high power rocketry] scale."

On the NARAM-53 contest slate are the following events: 1/2A Alt, A HD, 1/4A FW, 1/2A SRD, C RG, 1/8A SD MR, C ELA, PMC, B Scale Alt, R&D as well as FAI flyoffs.

NARAM-53 GPS Location: 39 deg 25'21.37"N Latitude, 84 deg 14'16.28"W Longitude

Click here for Google Maps link