National Rocket Competition - NRC

Look, up in the air! It’s a bird! It’s a plane! No, ...it’s an NRC flight!!!

A what?!?! What is an NRC?

I am certain you have all heard the launch announcement that the upcoming flight is an NRC competition flight, followed often by the question, “Timers ready?” and wondered, What is going on?

The simple answer is that a competition flight in the NAR National Rocket Competition is ready to go. While competition has been a part of the NAR practically since its founding, in 2017 the competition system was simplified.

Under the new system, the NAR designates 6 events each year to be flown in NRC competition for year. These events include a mix of duration events, altitude events and craftsmanship events. While the specific events vary from year to year, the general types of events are consistent from year to year. As examples, SD and/or PD will be flown each year, as well as BG or RG, and some version of altitude.

Generally, the events selected are low power, 1/4A to B. With these smaller engines, most of thee events can be flown easily at the Acton field.

The events for this year are:
FAI 1/2A Streamer Duration
1/2A Altitude
A Payload Altitude
B Rocket Glider Duration
B Helicopter Duration
D Dual Egg Lofting Altitude

These same events plus three additional events are flown at NARAM. In this way, the NRC is practice for the upcoming NARAM.

Modelers fly events of their choosing at any CMASS launch. Moreover, any event can be re-flown at a subsequent launch in an effort to improve one’s score. The contest year starts just after NARAM in the summer and ends just before the next NARAM. So when that egg lofter parachute fails to deploy and the landing crushes the egg disqualifying the flight, at the next launch the egg lofter can fly again in search of a better and qualifying flight.

At its simplest level, a kit sport rocket can be used for an SD or PD event. Performance can be improved using a competition kit from Aerospace Specialty Products or Apogee. The NAR website has a section dedicated to contest flying with links to plans for contest rockets and tips on contest flying. The club has stop watches for timing, but contest flyers will need to provide their own altimeters and eggs.

Flying NRC competition is an opportunity to develop new skills, play around with new materials and see just how well one’s rocket performs. Since it is a competition, the National Scoreboard on the NAR website shows where one stands relative to other modelers.

The NAR website has more information on competition flying as well as a link to the famous “Pink Book”, known more dryly as the U.S. Model Rocket Sporting Code, the rule book for competition flying.

If you have any questions, please catch me at the next CMASS launch. Or better yet, get hold of an altimeter and a payload kit and fly the altitude and payload altitude events at the next CMASS launch.

(Photograph by Curtis Heisey)

Any suggestions for finding 3:1 aspect ratio parabolic vacuum-formed plastic nosecones for BT-5 and BT-20? Pratt Hobbies seems to be out of that business now. Apogee has BT-5 nose cones that look good, but their BT-20 cone is an ogive, not a parabola.

Who has the lightest body tubes these days? I guess I should buy a selection and weigh them.

For weight considerations alone, I have pretty much gone with the Apogee vacuformed nosecones. Whether it is an ogive or parabola seems less a consideration than the simple weight savings.
Apogee and ASP both indicate the weight of their tubes in the spec chart. This information should let you calculate weight per linear inch or cm as you wish.
For my competition rockets I have moved largely to home rolled vellum body tubes. There is a bit of investment needed here to create mandrels to wind around, but a simple mandrel can be made from spent engine casings. Cost and weight are both considerably less than commercial alternatives.