Southern Neutron at NARAM-49

For many more photos of NARAM, both contest and sport flying, go to Chris Taylor's "NARAM Live" site.

For NARAM results, go to this link on the NARHAMS site.

The Southern Neutron Team has four members:
George Gassaway (Alabama)
Ed LaCroix (Arizona)
Terrill Willard (Arizona)
Ryan Woebkenberg (Indiana)

We fly for Launch Crue, Section 519
L to R - Ryan, Ed, George, & Terrill

\	Saturday: US Team flyoffs & Sport Launch Chad Ring of Launch Crue packs the chute for his S3A FAI Parachute Duration model.	Chad won the S3A event, making the US Team.
	Dave O'Bryan and Greg Stewart, as Greg prepares one of his FAI S8-P E R/C R/G models. Greg made the Team, Dave is First Alternate.	George took 2nd in the S4A (A Boost Glide) event.
	Sunday: US Team flyoffs & Sport Launch George's S8P Rocket Glider after 100 point landing.	Some of the other models after landing. Target time of 6 minutes, landing close to the orange tape. George won this event and the S9A Copter event.
Monday - A Boost Glide & B Streamer Duration
	Ed LaCroix of Southern Neutron, with his B Streamer Duration model. Our team took second place in this event.	Terrill Willard of Southern Neutron, after scanning the skies for thermal clues. Terrill is also a soaring pilot, flying full-size sailplanes
	Sport Rocketry editor Tom Beach (left) and Rob Edmonds (right) watch while Ed flies his Ascent electric sailplane.
	Keith Vinyard with an A powered Boost Glider that used very tiny 2-channel R/C gear
Tuesday - A Helicopter & C Rocket Glide
	Ed & Terrill after an incredible recovery of our first A Copter flight that was meant to be a "return" flight that flew away. They found it more than a mile away, past the corn and far away trees in the photo at right. Far right, the GPS track of their travel. We flew it again, thermalled it off, and won the event.

	Ryan Woebkenberg of Southern Neutron, practicing before flying an R/C Rocket Glider model, based on the Apogee 30. A servo problem on flight two took the model out of contention to win, settling in for second place.	Ryan's Apogee 30 R/C R/G model on boost. Unfortunately, Ryan had to go home after Tuesday's flying. (Chris Taylor pic)
	A very notable recovery event was Chad Ring's C Rocket Glider. It was a Stiletto-C Slide wing, free flight, that flew away. It was in the air for about 40 minutes, landing 4 miles away. It had a Walston transmitter onboard. With zero experience, Terrill Willard used the receiver to track down the model, as Ed LaCroix and Chad drove on with him. The model was found 60 feet up a tree, later it fell out so rule 10.4 was not needed. Chad took 3rd place in C Div.	Kevin Kuczek had a nice R/C model. It had some tailboom and tail problems that cropped up on test boosts. He ended up 5th in C Div
Wednesday - B Eggloft Alt & Spot Landing
	Ed prepares our B Eggloft model. It used a vac-formed capsule by Wayne Hendricks. First flight flew to 104 meters, taking second place to the Bumbling Brothers who took first at 106 meters. We had a second flight of 114 meters, but broke the egg.	For range duty, Ed & Terrill were trackers. George did "Capcom" to communicate with the trackers and write down the angles.
	Hey, if someone is going to pass up a light and small egg due to a certain number written on it...we'll take it. We proxy flew Red Baron Team's (Ryan's Dad David & his sister Tracy) egglofter to 3rd place, using this egg.	Open Spot Landing was also held, with the target about 300 feet away. With coaching from Launch Crue, we managed to eek out a 4th place, at 44 meters from the spot. the remaining teams were outside of the 50 meter maximum limit.
	Some of us at dinner that night.
Thursday - E Superroc (A/B Div) & G Superroc (C/T Div)
	Click this link to go to a page with much information on our G Superroc models and flights.
	At left, Tom Beach watches as Ed prepares our twin F10 powered model, on a BRB HPR Pad.	Ed dips into the 25 pound bucket of Launch Crue tracking powder, while Terrill watches out for cobras.
	Ed (right) in the "Launch Crue Zone" after recovering our third flight of the day. Launch Crue had a 16 foot rail, we used a 12 foot rail.	A year of planning, seven test models built thru the year, two models at NARAM, a NARAM crash, a NARAM track lost, and a NARAM track on flight three of the day....finally, first place!
	John Buckley of Launch Crue. John later added more tubing to make a successful max-length flight.	Don Fent of Launch Crue
	The Launch Crue prepping area. At far right, Jim Stum	Chad Ring, during his RSO duty shift.
	For some reason, one of the trackers was stationed under a tree, with a very limited range of view. Many models went untracked by this station due to the tree when the wind made them weathercock too close to this tracker. At one time, four flights in a row. The tracking baseline also was far too short for the event.	A number of other Superrocs

Friday - C Scale Altitude
	At far left is our model, a Black Brant-VB. I did not get any photos during the event. The model was 5th in static, flew to 3rd place.
Awards Banquet
	For NARAM scoring itself: Launch Crue took 3rd as a section John Buckley 2nd in C Div Chad Ring 4th in C Div Southern Neutron 1st in Team Div	John Buckley
National Championships	Launch Crue took third place as a section.	Chad Ring took second place in C Division
	Southern Neutron Team took first place in Teams. Ryan was unable to attend the last half of NARAM	John Buckley took 4th place in C Div

Click thislink to go to a page withinformation on our G Superroc models and flights.

Back to CONTESTS

The Southern Neutron Team has four members: George Gassaway (Alabama) Ed LaCroix (Arizona) Terrill Willard (Arizona) Ryan Woebkenberg (Indiana)
We fly for Launch Crue, Section 519	L to R - Ryan, Ed, George, & Terrill