Rocketry Postal Contests

Background

A postal modeling contest is a contest where you fly your model and submit the results to the contest organizer, originally by postal mail, thus the name. Terrill Willard has started a series of postal rocket contests. You can find more information on his contests at the Rocketry_Postal_Contests Yahoo Group. Postal contests are all about you and your model (and a stopwatch), just like the photo above.

Back when I started flying model rockets and joined the NAR in the mid-'70s, you would frequently read about local rocket contests and see contest model plans in the NAR's Model Rocketeer magazine. If you were interested in design, engineering, and optimizing model rockets (in other words, if you were a budding rocket scientist), contest rocketry was the thing to do! (Ironically, the casual Sport Rocketry reader today probably thinks there is only one contest, NARAM, held each year.)

The problem with contests is that many rocketeers don't have a local NAR section (club) hosting contests in their area. I spent my first three years as a NAR member reading about, designing, and building contest rockets on my own before I flew my first contest ("only" 125 miles away.) I would have loved to have been able to fly a postal meet back then, and I imagine there are others today who will jump at the chance to do so.

So why not join in the fun? Stop by the Messages and Files area of the Rocketry_Postal_Contests Yahoo Group for more information, pick an event, build and fly a model for the event, and submit your results. Maybe you'll be the winner next month!

I've been posting details on my contest entry each month. Hopefully this will give current or potential participants some ideas on a relatively competitive entry for each of the events. Below is a table with a link to my entry page and the contest results for each of the past events and a list of future events.

Postal Rocketry Contests (past and future)
Month	Event (click link to my entry)	Results
November 2010	NAR 1/4A Flex-Wing Duration	Contestant Flt 1 Flt 2 Total 1. Jeff Vincent 51 93 144 2. Bruce Canino NG 9 9
December 2010	NAR A Helicopter Duration	Contestant Flt 1 Flt 2 Total 1. Jeff Vincent 33 50 83 2. Terrill Willard 6 5 11
January 2011	FAI S3A (multiround A Parachute Duration)	Contestant Flt 1 Flt 2 Flt 3 Total 1. Terrill Willard 148 30 59 237 2. Ed LaCroix 30 78 57 165 3. Jeff Vincent 96 - - 96
February 2011	NAR 1/2A Superroc Duration	Contestant Flt 1 Flt 2 Total 1. Ed LaCroix 11,400 8,500 19,900 2. Terrill Willard 8,000 11,800 19,800 3. Jeff Vincent 14,600 1,016 15,616
March 2011	NAR 1/8A Streamer Duration Multi-round	Contestant Flt 1 Flt 2 Flt 3 Flyoff Total 1. Ed LaCroix Max Max Max 37 97 2. Chad Ring Max Max Max 31 91 3. Jeff Vincent Max Max Max 26 86 4. Ryan Woebkenberg Max Max Max - 60 5. Steve Foster Max 19 - - 39
April 2011	FAI S6A (multiround A Streamer Duration)	Contestant Flt 1 Flt 2 Flt 3 Total 1. Ed LaCroix 51 105 59 215 2. Terrill Willard 79 74 58 211 3. Gary Lindgren 123 45 41 209 4. Jeff Vincent 56 - - 56
May 2011	NAR 1/4A Parachute Duration	Contestant Flt 1 Flt 2 Total 1. Jeff Vincent 60 119 179 2. Ed LaCroix 77 81 158 3. Terrill Willard 54 58 112
June 2011	NAR C Rocket/Glider Duration (I didn't enter this event, but here is a link to the B RC R/G I built last fall.)	Contestant Flt 1 Flt 2 Total 1. Ryan Woebkenberg 143 297 440
July 2011	FAI S9A (multiround A Helicopter Duration)	Contestant Flt 1 Flt 2 Flt 3 Total 1. George Gassaway 71 0 73 144 2. Terrill Willard 42 53 0 95
August 2011	NAR A Streamer Duration
September 2011	NAR Set Duration - 50 seconds

See Rocketry_Postal_Contests Yahoo Group for more details.