ESTESLAND, Colorado USA — Friday was flying day for the beautiful Giant Scale Models. Thousands of hours were about to be launched into the winds, at hundreds of miles an hour, in hopes of securing between 100 and 300 additional points to add to the model's static scores of up to 800 points. Scale flying day has a reputation for carnage, and today would do nothing to change that reputation.

The day dawned breezy, with winds averaging 15 mph from the West. Several days this week have started that way, and there was usually a lull around 11 AM before the wind swung around to blow in the opposite direction. Most of the scale modelers were content to run their prep checklists twenty more times while waiting for the wind to calm down.

Meanwhile, the contest organizers had set up a MicroMaxx spot landing range for A division-aged kids, so for most of the morning there were three ranges open. The kids launched stock MicroMaxx models upwind of the target area, and whatever they landed on, they got to keep.

Since many of the NARAM attendees did not have scale models to fly, Thursday afternoon and Friday were almost as busy as the weekend on the sport range. Vern Estes, fresh from his first-time-since-1989 launch of his own Big Bertha on Wednesday, took a turn as LCO, launching (and autographing) my Broadsword, along with many other rockets for many other fliers.

As the winds started to calm, I launched my own (non-contest) Saturn V, which decided to jam the upper section at ejection. It recovered sideways, thankfully, and will not have to be made into a Skylab. I saw lots of interesting launches on Friday:

• Bob Kaplow's Happy Meal [between you and me, the value in that thing is entirely sentimental, as it looks something like a blue plastic pie plate that has been stepped on a few too many times. It does fly well, though...]
• Randall Redd drag raced a rabbit against a carrot. [The carrot chased the rabbit.]
• The Touring Alphas (also launched by Vern), which did a gorgeous flight in almost perfect formation through apogee (then one of the A8-3s decided to be an A8-5, but both were recovered nicely).
• Glen Overby's "Paint is Over-rated", which was promptly subtitled "...But Recovery Isn't."
• Alan Estenson's ring fin rocket "Razzle Dazzle" did exactly that while teleporting to 2000' on an E30.

• There were several beautiful sounding rocket flights on composite motors, some of them staged, and a lot of nice clustered flights as well.
• An absolutely perfect Lunar Module lift off and recovery.
• Rachel Bower's glorious Soyuz flew perfectly (much to the relief of those familiar with her previous trials and tribulations).
• Two Little Joes, both clustered, had stunning and memorable departures and just as memorable but not so stunning returns.
• George Gassaway's Bell X-1 lifted off too slowly, missed RSO Chad Ring, stalled, fell, missed Chad again, belly landed beside its pad, rocket still burning, and spun to a halt, once more pointing at Chad. The motor mount broke on landing, and the rocket motor then pushed up to the mid fuselage bulkhead, which made for an interesting sound and light show as the flames tore through the tail section. [This flight later won the Best Midwest Qualified Award].
• A model of Goddard's first tractor motor rocket, at 100% scale but not nearly 100% stiffness of the original, flew about 40 feet before smashing into a zillion pieces. Alas, although this flight in fact did a fair impression of Goddard's first success, NAR contests do not award mission points for unsafe flights.
• A huge Mercury Redstone (about 6" in diameter), not all that overpowered to begin with (the Model Rocket limit is G) apparently suffered a nozzle or combustion failure halfway up the rod, clawed its way to less than 100' on a rather large but ineffective flame, and crashed nose first into Estesland.
• Another huge Mercury Redstone waited until literally the last minute of NARAM, flew a gorgeous, perfect, awesome flight, won its division, and became a display for the Friday night banquet.

A perfect end to NARAM flying.

The awards banquet was packed. And long — there were trophies for the first four places in each of four divisions for each of eight events to award, plus Meet Champion trophies, 2000 Champion trophies, a variety of special awards, a bazillion door prizes, and other fun and games. The official results will be announced in other forums, but I will say that the Langford, Wolf, and Alway families are going to need some new shelves! A huge thank you to the Vern and Gleda Estes, Contest Director Ken Mizoi, the sponsoring NAR and Tripoli clubs, and especially Todd and Kathleen Williams for all their effort in making our first NARAM (and RV trip to Colorado) such a blast.