The schedule link has the details on the SMASH model rocket club's schedule for the year. See the schedule for more details on location, date and time.
Launching: Our launch site and waiver supports flights up to I motors, no model rocket over 30 pounds without prior approval. Altitude up to 7000 feet above ground level is the limit. Our club launches are held at the Michigan Farmers Hall of Fame in Delton, Michigan. our club does not charge a launch fee. You do not have to be a NAR member to fly with us, however, all flyers are required to follow the NAR safety code and the direction of the range safety officer. Everyone is welcome to come and fly.
Launch Equipment: The SMASH rocket club uses a "Ms-Fire Alley set up with each flyer using their own launch systems. If you don't have a launch system, don't worry, a club member will have one you can use! If you have any special launch equipment needs please bring your equipment with you.
Outreach:
SMASH members donate their time to assist Scout groups, Church groups or classrooms that are studying model rocketry. SMASH wants to insure that youngsters have the opportunity to be introduced to model rocketry as a fun science and a fun hobby.
Right: Randy Boadway works with a Scout Group to build 16 pencil rockets. Each kid had a chance to launch their rockets twice that day.
Competition:
SMASH has a number of members who are very active in contest rocketry. This includes competing Locally, regionally and nationally.
Right: Bob Alway holding his 4th Place National Trophy for the 2002-2003 contest year.
Field Trip to Kalamazoo Air Zoo Saturday,March 20, 2004 What an amazing trip!
We attended with the HUVARS Section from the Detroit area. Stewart Bailey arranged for a tour of the Flight Center where many of the aircraft are being prepared for showing in the new facilities. We also had a chance to see the new building, what a gem for the area. The new building opened May 1st, 2004.
Doug, Mark and Kelo admire the SR-71 Blackbird. This plane and others are being refurbished for the new Kalamazoo Air Zoo Building. What a treat it was to see these aircraft up close and personal.
The new Air Zoo Building 40 days prior to opening.
Ready to be re-furbished for future display.
It was Rocky Jones and Silvercup bread. Here is a good Web site complete with stories about the rocket and many pictures too. Make sure you check out page two where all the photos are located. http://www.solarguard.com/silvercuprk01.htm
More on the Rocky Jones rocket at the air zoo courtesy of Jack Hagerty (The Spaceship Handbook) http://www.solarguard.com/cadetnews/cadetnew04.htm#silver
Club Launch Report from 2004:
Jacob and a Bandit close to launch time.
TARC Team Gets results in Virginia
The Rockford High School Team America Rocketry Challenge Team traveled to The Plaines, Virginia to participate in the TARC flyoffs. Evan Smith, Ray Farmer, Jimmy Grohoski, Nate Taylor, Forrest Gordon, Mike Naatjes, and supervising teacher Mr. Whitmore make up the Rackford High School TARC Team.
The weather was perfect with very little wind. The team successfully launched their 2 stage dual egg lofter to an altitude of 1,410 feet. The goal was to reach 1,250 feet.
Above: SMASH at NARAM-46
Fran and Gary Miller judge Science Fiction and Future Scale. Kevin Wickert plays a tune while an aircraft lands at the Plainwell Airport during Straight A Regional.
Best picture from NARAM-46
Pictured is Amanda Boadway sweet talking the Scale judge. She is good!!
Winter Events:
Club business meetings and special events take place 4 or more times a year. The first club meeting of the calendar year is for elections of club officers. The remaining club meetings will have a specific event planned to keep members active in the winter time. Club business meetings are also used to plan projects and events for the year.
Club build sessions are scheduled to allow members the opportunity to get together and build a specific model together as a group or build what ever the member is interested in. Sometimes a session will be scheduled called a Kit-Bash. This event has everyone bring in the same model rocket kit to the build session. The rules are to build a rocket from the parts in the kit without building the kit the parts were designed for. Some really creative stuff usually comes from this kind of event.
KY MICHAELSON lead the project to put the first private amateur payload into space. He achieved that goal in May of 2004. Pictured is Amanda Boadway, Randy Boadway, Ky Michaelson, Sami Mohney, and Kelo Waivio at NARCON. The red nose cone is the nose from the launch which achieved 77 miles in altitude. The nose will be heading for the Smithsonian in the future.
Ky talked about the tribulation of making a launch like this legally and with all of the proper government approvals. The process took a number of years to comply with.
Jay Apt was an astronaut on four space shuttle missions and had an excellent power point presentation of his adventures in space. Jay is currently serving on the NAR board of directors and is an excellent example of what the youth in America today can achieve if they apply themselves.
Key note speakers astronaut Jay Apt with Estes Industries founder Vern Estes. Vern holds a built Scout that traveled in space with Jay on his first shuttle mission.
Vern and Gleda Estes Founders of Estes Industries and the company that started it all. They talked about the hardship and joys of running a business. At the peak they had 250,000 mail order customers. They sold the company in 1969 to Daymon Corporation and Vern stayed on as a consultant for 10 years.
The motor making machine called Mable was the start of the making of one of the most reliable rocket motors in the world. Millions have been made and fired.
Club Launch Report from 2005:
Right: Cadets find out about rocketry and SMASH
Field trips are also an important part of SMASH. Members have attended field trips all over the country including the now closed Michigan Space Center, the Kalamazoo Air Zoo, and the National Air and Space Museums in the Washington DC area.
Pine Island Elementary Deltie build in May 2005
Bob and Peter Alway display a Backslider and their official government stamped patent certificate.
Members of the Comstock Park High School Team America Rocketry Challenge had a successful qualified flight on Thursday, April 6th. The team has had some set backs and some interesting practice flights. The team had a fantastic flight said mentor Randy Boadway. This team qualified to go to the fly offs as they flew to 796 feet with a goal of 800 and remained in the air for 60.395 seconds giving them a score of 21.395. Team members include Alycia Choroszucha, Jennifer Baker. Jessica Parsons, Jerrad Navarro, and Zack McCormick. They all are 9th graders at Comstock Park High School.
Jessica Parsons, Jennifer Baker. Alycia Choroszucha, Jerrad Navarro building their TARC models for 2006.
Many club members of SMASH were into model rockets in their younger years. Many were reintroduced to the hobby later with the inception of mid and high power rocketry. These people were born again into rocketry.
The 2002-2003 contest year had a number of people from SMASH in high rankings including Bob Alway who's team Bumbling Brothers landed a national ranking of 4th place. Randy Boadway and Kelo Waivio know as Round Tuit ranked 10th in the country. Amanda Boadway held 13th place, Andrew Meyers was 51st nationally in A-Division. Alex Grishaber was 11th in the country in B-Division. Jay Calvert was in 29th, Ray Cramer 48th, Susan Cramer 76th, Kelo Waivio 82nd, Randy Boadway 83rd. Steve Scherbinski, Bob Alway, Joe Myers, Bill Geresy, and Dorothy Scherbinski also ranked in the top 200 in C-Division
Left: Author Peter Alway mentors Jeff Graham who is judging sport scale at a regional event.
Club Launch Report from 2003:
Jay Calvert launches Randy Boadway's level 1 attempt. The model landed 80' up in a tree.
NARCON National Rocketry Convention in Racine, Wisconsin
The original Big Bertha and Farside.
Rockford TARC Team
SMASH at NARAM-47 Cincinnati, Ohio
2004-2005 Contest year good for SMASH
SMASH 3rd Place in Sections, Bumbling Brothers 3rd place National Standing in T-Division,
Jeff Graham Level 1 John VanderVoord Level 1 Randy Boadway Level 1 Jay Calvert Level 3 Vic Kovacs Level 2
High Power Achievements
Club Launch Report from 2006:
Comstock Park TARC Team makes awesome flight!
A Guardian ready to launch.5..4...3...2..1..
End of Page
Zack McCormick at a build session
2006 Outreach
White Pines United Methodist Church use rocketry as an outreach and Randy Boadway from SMASH sponsored this outreach for Both White Pines and SMASH. More than 50 rockets were flown in August 2006.
2nd Byron Church Outreach held Sept 16, 2006.
Springfield Middle School, Battle Creek, Michigan
Sept 26th Build, Sept 28th Launch, sponsored by Jeff Graham
Ostego Festival Demo Launch
Sept 23, 2006 attended by Bob Alway, Jeff Graham, Jay Calvert, Joe Mosher, Randy Boadway.
Rich Debler Published
Find out about the 501st Missile Wing in Richard Deblers article found in the Apogee Newsletter. Rich worked on the Tomahawk in the 1980's, see his story at: Apogee Newsletter
Richard has been a member of SMASH for a number of years.
Jim Watts Level 2
This was the first year for SMASH to launch at the Michigan Farmers Hall of Fame in Delton, Michigan.
2006 was an excellent year for SMASH and its members. National Rankings (top 15):
2nd SMASH Section
3rd Bob Alway - Bumbling Brothers - Team Division
4th Amanda Boadway - A Division
6th Alex Calvert - A Division
6th Randy Boadway - Round Tuit - Team Division
6th Kelo Waivio - Round Tuit - Team Division
9th Austin Flook-Haley - A Division
9th Jeff Graham - C Division
10th Jill Rose - A Division
10th Cody Calvert - B Division
11th Ian VanderVoord - A Division
12th Jacob Rose - A Division
13th Joe Mosher - C Division
14th Gerald VanderVoord - A Division
15th Jay Calvert - C Division
Club Launch Report from 2007:
Building rockets is just half the fun, SMASH members build E Super Roc's for this years contest. And members like Rob Gustin practices his scaling skills by building up and down scales of the Estes Camanchee.
2007 started off with a bang. SMASH members attend the annual after Christmas party and Rambo gift exchange. This years celebration was at the Wayside Entertainment center in Kalamazoo, Michigan.
Amanda Boadway and National A Division Champion Sarah Wolf partner to bash a kit together to build a violin shaped rocket. Author Peter Alway advises Sami Mohney and Shannon Wickert on their designs that were built at NARCON in Wisconsin in March of 2005.
The Sonda 1 was a popular sport scale model that SMASH members built in 2005
NARAM-49
The premere event for SMASH in 2007 was hosting the National Association of Rocketry Annual Meet (NARAM) at the field in Delton, Michigan. This being 2007 and 7 square being 49 makes this a great number for this NARAM.
The events were:
List
List
List
The contest director was Randy Boadway. Randy has been a member of SMASH since about 2000 when he moved to Comstock Park. He became President of SMASH in 2006. Randy did an excellent job leading the section to a sucessful hosting of NARAM-49.
And the winners were:
NARAM-49
A Division:
B Division:
C Division:
T Division:
Section: SMASH, MI
National Champions:
A Division:
B Division:
C Division:
T Division:
Section: Superstition Spacemodeling Section, AZ
SMASH National Performance for 2007:
2nd SMASH Section
3rd B Division Andy Sutherland-Alway
4th B Division Josh Smith
3rd T Division Spanish Inquisition
4th T Division Bumbling Brothers
2008:
SMASH Member Matt Johnson on the cover of Sport Rocketry Magazine
2009:
SMASH Member Amanda Boadway makes cover of Sport Rocketry Magazine
SMASH earns National Award for Best Outreach in 2007-08 for large sections
SMASH Contest Performance for 2008:
1st T Division NARAM-49 Dark Side
National Performance:
2nd Sections: SMASH
3rd T Division Dark Side
4th T Division Spanish Inquisition
4th A Division: Amanda BoadwayDivision
Matt Johnson Level 1
The SMASH model rocket club is section #500 of the National Association of Rocketry. The SMASH model rocket club has been active in west Michigan since 1988. Members of the club are from all over West Michigan from Grand Rapids to Kalamazoo to Battle Creek and beyond.
SMASH supports all type of sport model rockets from Micro Max motors on up. The club will fly each month April
through October with section meetings and other activities during the winter months. SMASH sponsors NAR
sanctioned model rocket competitions each year.
National T Division Ranking
2nd Bumbling Brothers - Bob Alway, Pete Alway
3rd Dark Side - Randy Boadway, Jeff Graham
5th Spanish Inquisition - Gary Miller, Fran Miller John Buscaglia
27th Howling Sea Sponges - Andrew Alway-Cooper, Patrick Sutherland-Alway
National C Division Ranking
6th Dave Gilmore
10th Jay Calvert
13th Rob Gustin
33rd John VanderVoord
40th Joe Mosher
43rd Pam Gilmore
44th Jack Mohney
50th Matt Johnson
62nd Andrew Alway-Cooper
National A Division Ranking
4th Ian VanderVoord
7th Gerald VanderVoord
17th Sam Austin
National B Division Ranking
6th Amanda Boadway
7th Josh Smith
15th Patrick Sutherland-Alway
18th Josh Gruell
National Sections Rankings
1st SSS(AZ) 91667 points
2nd SMASH(MI) 88302 points
3rd Launch Crue(IN) 59530
The is the 4th consecutive year SMASH has landed a 2nd place national standing. Each of the four years it has been behind the SSS Section from Arizona who have now been in first place for a record breaking 5 times in a row. Toppling the
NARAM-51 Team Division Champion:
Bumbling Brothers, Bob Alway, Pete Alway
The Bumbling Brothers pull off an impressive win at NARAM-51 with 1st place entries in R&D, Sci Fi, and D Dual Egg. They pulled off a 2nd place in Peanut Sport Scale. These 4 event alone were enough to win the division at NARAM.
NARAM-51 Section Champion: SMASH
SMASH blew away all the other sections at NARAM-51 despite holding a small lead on Wednesday they pulled way out front after the 4 top events were flown on Thursday and Friday.
Records:
D Dual Egg Loft Duration - C Division - Dave Gilmore - 638 Seconds
Dave Gilmore set the only SMASH record this year at NARAM. There were 6 other records flown by others. But this flight was most memorable. Many of the SMASHers were flying eggs in the afternoon. Everyone was teaming up to be ready to shag far flying models. This flight was no exception. Through the team work of SMASH a number of members were able to track the flight to the ground more than 10 minutes after leaving the pad. The model and two eggs traveled about a mile to land in a grassy area just past a truck storage facility.
Places from NARAM-51:
A Division:
1st D Dual Egg Loft Dur - Gerald VanderVoord
3rd B Rocket Glide Duration - Ian VanderVoord
3rd Random Altitude - Gerald VanderVoord
1st 1/8A Helicopter - Ian VanderVoord
B Division
2nd Peanut Sport Scale - Amanda Boadway
1st B Altitude - Patrick Sutherland Alway
4th 1/8A Helicopter - Josh Smith
C Division
1st D Dual Egg Loft Duration - Dave Gilmore
4th Sci Fi Future Scale - Dave Gilmore
4th B Rocket Glide Duration - Dave Gilmore
1st Randon Altitude - Pam Gilmore
4th Random Altitude - Dave Gilmore
T Division:
2nd Peanut Sport Scale - Bumbling Brothers
3rd Peanut Sport Scale - Dark Side
4th Sci Fi Future Scale - Bumbling Brothers
1st R & D - Bumbling Brothers
3rd R & D - Dark Side
1st D Dual Egg Loft Duration - Bumbling Brothers
3rd B Rocket Glide Duration - Spanish Inquisition
2nd Random Altitude - Dark Side
2nd 1/8A Helicopter - Spanish Inquisition
2nd A Streamer - Spanish Inquisition
SMASH recognized by the NAR Sections for having the best outreach program in the nation. SMASH held 20 launches and 22 outreach events in 2009. The outstanding dedications has allowed hundreds of kids to be introduced to the safe, educational and fun hobby of model rocketry.
Randy Boadway, President of SMASH was excited to receive this award. Randy is part of the team Dark Side, their Research and Development report and presentation featured Outreach. With the support of the NAR SMASH will be able to take Outreach to the next level in 2010.
National Champions for 2008/2009 Contest Year
Arizona section is a monumental task. the flyers are awesome and they can produce the numbers to win. SMASH was only 4% behind Arizona, they were 4% behind at NARAM-49 as well. SMASH is accumulating enough points each year to be national champions in any given year. It is just unfortunate that Arizona can turn up the heat and beat SMASH out of a national championship. There will be a great deal of celebration when SMASH does finally bring down the giant. the new contest year has already started and the first regional for SMASH will be September 12-13.
NARAM-51 Results
The mighty Dave Gilmore shows off his egg lofter built in the SMASH build session hosted by Matt Johnson.
Photo by Chris Taylor
Photo by Chris Taylor
Photo by Chris Taylor
Photo by Chris Taylor
Photo by Chris Taylor
Photo by Chris Taylor
Photo by Chris Taylor
Congratulations to the members of SMASH who attended NARAM-51 and brought back medals for placing in an event. It was an exciting week despite the terrain and bad weather.
SMASH brought home 13% of the medals awarded at NARAM-51
Night Launch was a huge success at NARAM-51
Josh Smith was nominated for the Best Midwest Qualified Flight for spattering an egg all over the RSO Jim Filler
7 Members DQed out of events at this NARAM
