ESTESLAND, Colorado USA — The biggest impression I got from Mark Bundick's NAR Town Meeting was that NAR has a huge number of volunteers doing wonderful things to serve education, youth, manufacturer's associations, vendors, and hobbyists around the country. The organization is solvent; it has dozens of programs that serve its 5500 members, and a variety of outreach initiatives to support future growth.

And, yes, it is also a driving force in the litigation with BATF to make flying larger rockets easier for all of us. Although constrained by nondisclosure agreements, Mark did have some general comments to make. First, he reminded us that this is a lawsuit about procedures, not about science. In essence, NAR isn't trying to get the BATF to agree about, say, whether something is or is not explosive, but it IS trying to get the BATF to consistently follow the law and its own procedures.

Second, he reaffirmed that NAR will be working hand in hand with TRA throughout the process -- the organizations are presenting a unified front. Third, negotiations with the BATF are likely to get serious, which will mean that litigation may be postponed while the two sides see if an agreement can be reached. It's going to take some time, folks.

Wednesday was alternately breezy and calm, and the breezes were hard on the contestant's D Super Rocs and A Boost Gliders. D Super Rocs are models that are at least 150 cm long, with length in centimeters (up to 300) multiplied by altitude achieved to get the final score. They were being flown in an altitude competition, which means that each flight was tracked from a distance by two pairs of observers, who then reported azimuth and elevation information to the data reduction people, who then calculated the altitude of the model in meters, multiplied that by the model's length, and provided a score.

That's the theory. In fact, the skys were a bit hazy, making most of the models hard to see. Some of them reached incredible altitudes, making them still harder to see. Most of the rockets were equipped with copious amounts of brightly colored chalk, and that made the trackers' jobs easier. Some of the models without chalk were never seen again.

As with Tuesday's competition, most competitors assumed that at least someone was capable of flying a minimum diameter, 3 meter Super Roc vertically on an Apogee D3 motor, and so many tried to be that person. The problem with that strategy in a breeze is that the rockets are easily tipped off at liftoff, and a good number ended up cartwheeling or crimping and being disqualified. Others used up several seconds of valuable burn in horizontal flight. Still others managed to make it to apogee, only to fail to deploy a recovery device. But again, the best flights were a sight to see, with an absolutely vertical flight accompanied by the long psssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssst of the D3 motor.

My eleven-year-old-son, in his first NARAM, used a brute force approach and flew a stretched Mean Machine on a D12-5 for a perfect, and qualified, 102 meter flight, which looks to be in the top five at this writing. Lots of contestants also used more conservative motors, including D9s, D10s, D13s, and even an occasional D21.

The A Boost Glider Duration competition was run simultaneously, and the problem with the breeze here was that a lot of models flew away, and were unable to be returned. The breezes also made for a lot of severely-vertically-challenged boosts, some skywriting, and gliders that forgot how to glide. But there were also great flights! Delties were extremely common, as were all manner of Flat Cat descendants, folding wing models, and other interesting approaches.

Lots of folks flew Apogee A2s, some flew A3s, and a few flew A10s. This is the one flying event I entered. I flew a styrofoam folding flying wing parasite glider on a scratch built carrier using an A10-3. The first flight flew away after over two and a half minutes of circling with the hawks. It hasn't been found yet. In order to qualify, I had to get one back, so I crippled the second glider by adding wing tip weight and drag so that it did a tight spiral. It flew only a minute or so, but I got it back, for my first qualified NARAM score, and a competitive one at that.

My son flew a Deltie for a nice flight and was generously qualified on a Red Baron second flight to finish in the top 10 in A division.

Thursday was calm in the early morning and reasonably calm most of the day, and D Rocket Gliders and C egg lofters were on the menu. Unlike boost gliders, rocket gliders are required to retain all their parts, which makes for interesting design tradeoffs. There was a huge variety of them — they included tiny folding wing scratch models, 'Cuda RC gliders, Edmonds Ecee and DeeCee Thunders (some modified for RC) Holverson Swingers flown on Apogee D10s, and a variety of scratch built fixed wing models. The long-burn motors were used by the brave, and the usual rule that things get worse, not better, as the boost progresses was reaffirmed.

Several flights rained balsa. One flight looped at launch, buzzing the RSO, and then performed three and a half more loops before diving to the dirt and re-kitting itself. But multi-minute flights were quite common, too, and some of those were much longer and positively majestic.

Egg lofters try to cram an egg, padding, and a huge parachute into a rocket that can be lifted on a C motor. The morning sky was dotted with mylar parachutes, and the neighboring fields filled with rocket hunters trying to get a return. C4, C5, and C6 motors were all used. Again, multi-minute flights were common. Friday is for Scale flights, and will be a nail biter all around.