Fellow NAR TARC Mentors —
TARC 2022 is “in the books”. We held the Finals last weekend, our 18th in-person Finals, 19th Finals of any type (last year was “distributed” to 10 sites and 202 had no Finals, both due to COVID) and the 20th year of the program
The weather for the 2022 Finals was not great — overcast, occasionally drizzly, and muddy but no wind — but it was just good enough to fly and we did. The photo below was taken from a drone by John Langford and you can see the beauty of the 42-pad range layout and the Great Meadow launch site. You can’t see the mud from altitude!
It was really great to see the 100 teams of bright and excited students and the 110-person NAR range crew all in person again, three full years since our last in-person Finals. Many of you were part of this highly professional range crew or were there supporting a team that you had mentored. Thank you for what you contributed in either way to making TARC a great experience for the students. We do it for them — paying forward to the next generation of aerospace professionals and NAR members.
The winning team this year was from Newport High School in Belleview, WA, with a combined two flight score of 13. The second-place team was the second team from that same school, with a score of 14! We cap the number of teams that can be in the Finals from any single school at two and we’ve never before had teams from the same school finish 1-2. I would say that school has an impressive program! The first-place team will be going to the Farnborough (England) Air Show in July as the guest of Raytheon Technologies, to fly there against the winning teams from TARC-equivalent programs in the UK, France, and Japan.
The full TARC 2022 Finals results are posted on the NAR website
HERE, including with flight data (motor type, rocket weight, times, and altitudes).
TARC 2023 registration opened earlier than in past years, on May 18. Teams that register by September 1 can get “early bird” pricing on the registration fee. The rules for TARC 2023 are posted
HERE on the NAR website and
HERE on the website of our Aerospace Industries Association partners. I don’t have all the other documents (approved motor list, Handbook, etc.) updated to TARC 2023 yet, but will by mid-June.
Key elements of the TARC 2023 challenge:
- Flight goal for qualifications is 850 feet and 42-45 seconds
- Single egg, any orientation
- Recovery must be in two separated sections, each with a parachute
- Airframe has no specific requirements other than the usual minimum length of 650 mm and maximum mass of 650 gm
- Same 3 altimeters from Perfectflite — which are in fact available directly from Perfectflite (APRA is out of production but those from prior years may be used)
I am keeping the NAR TARC mentor list updated as you provide me with changes in your contact information or status, but it is posted only in a place that only registered teams can access, as it was getting used too often by spammers. Please keep me posted on your availbility and how teams can reach you.
Thank you for you valuable contribution to TARC 2022 and I look forward to working with you and with all the students in TARC 2023. Let’s go recruit some teams!
Trip Barber
NAR 4322 L3
NAR TARC Manager
