CANON CITY, Colorado USA — Over 200 registered participants have decended on Canon City, Colorado for a week of rocket flying fun and competition. NARAM-42 represents a year of intensive planning and preparation by the COSROC and CRASH NAR Sections led by Contest Director Ken Mizoi.

UROC's Fred Williams shows off his scale Aries with four 24mm motors. Click to enlarge.

The first "official" NARAM event began Thursday and Friday with the NAR Board of Trustees meeting. Saturday morning we christened our launch site, several hundred acres of rolling land located next to the Fremont County, CO Airport. The property is owned by Vern Estes, one of the founders of the sport rocket hobby.

A live video transmitting rocket built by Steve Lubliner of the NAR SARA section in Tuscon, AZ. Click to enlarge.

Today's flying consisted of a wide variety of sport rockets. Kits, scratch built, you name it, hit the skies in a steady fashion from 8:30 through 4:00. Despite the lack of an FAA waiver, several NAR Level 1 certification attempts were made and succeeded. Flying was interrupted twice by brief showers, which quickly cleared, and allowed flying to resume.

Participants could also stroll "Vendor's Row" and shop for a wide variety of kits, parts, plans, chutes, and engines. The Tallahassee Volunteer Fire Department manned the food vendor slot accomodating not only lunch, but breakfast, as the range opens at 7 AM to avoid the heat.

Vern Estes graciously spent considerable time out on the range Saturday meeting NARAM participants. He was joined by former astronaut and NAR member Jay Apt, who flew into the event in his own plane, directly from the Oshkosh airshow. Locally, NARAM will be treated to coverage from three newspapers and one TV station.

Quote of the day: "The strange thing is, this seems normal." - Jenni Bundick, on hearing about people building rockets in the hotel room.

Former astronaut and NAR member Jay Apt and Estes founder Vern Estes display an Astron Mark and Astron Scout flown by Jay to orbit on two of his Space Shuttle missions. Click to enlarge. Just because there's not a waiver at NARAM-2000 doesn't mean there aren't some big rockets lifting off in Colorado. Click to enlarge.