  Saturday & Sunday, July 26 & 27, 2008
NARAM-50 was almost the third NARAM we didn't bring the Saturn to.
Jess and I both were tempted to throw the Saturn out of our
bedroom window if we didn't finish this time. Time seemed not in
our favor, and midday Saturday, we decided against going to the Old
Rocketeer Reunion in order to finish the model. It was midnight
Sunday morning before the clear coat was on... and it was about 5 pm
before we were on the road and on our way to Scale turn-in at NARAM.
We finished...we arrived, we turned-in.
Left: Scale
Judging room on Thursday evening, Team and C Division models... Note Jess holding the video camera (George Gassaway photo)
Right: Saturn I model shortly after liftoff on 2 D12s and 2 C6s (Chris Taylor photo)
Friday, August 1-- 1st Place Flight
 Flight Summary
The Saturn lifted off via PVC Spider ignition of 2 D12-3s and 2 C6-0s
(plugged with tamped wadding)...Staged by RC to a B6-6... Ejection
triggered by RC just after apogee (motor was backup). Chutes
worked great. (I would use a shorter delay motor next time; 6
seconds is probably too long).
2nd Stage post-burnout stability issues:
The upperstage flew fairly straight during the short burn
of the B6 motor but began to coning and/or tumbling immediately after
burnout. After analyzing video by Chris Taylor ( naramlive.com
scale flights video) I believe that the problem may be due to the
high-drag shape of the short 2nd stage, combined with low motor thrust,
high weight and a low-area fin arrangement. It seems the B6 motor
thrust was sufficient to keep the stage going straight until burnout,
when rapid deceleration led to a level of instability that the small
fins could not compensate for, despite successful swing tests of a mini
boilerplate version of the stage. This issue can likely be
resolved by implementing pop-out fins and will be easily tested in
subsequent boilerplate flights.
Flight Damage:
An internal staging coupler tube suffered heavy charing and was
smoldering after recovery (resolved by Steve Humphrey's timely
spit-extinguishing technique). The bottom of the model suffered
some exhaust deflection damage due to deflection of the motor flames by
the spider's tubing.
See below for some additional photos taken on launch day:
The following photos were taken by George Gassaway, Steve Humphrey,
Chris Taylor, and Bob Sanford. Hover over each image for caption
and author.
For links to NARAM-50 scale pics on other sites:
NARAM Live by Chris Taylor
George Gassaway's NARAM-50 Page
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