Cadet
members from the Wicomico Composite Squadron participated in the 18-19 May “Team America Rocketry Challenge”
(TARC) in The Plains, Virginia. Only 100 teams were invited out of 690
entered from 48 states. Nationally, the CAP entered 27 teams in the challenge with
seven from Maryland. Only the Wicomico
Composite Squadron was selected from among all CAP entries.
TARC is an aerospace design and engineering event for teams of US secondary school students (7th through
12th grades) conducted by the National Association of Rocketry (NAR) and the Aerospace Industries Association (AIA). Teams can be sponsored by schools or by non-profit youth organizations such as Scouts,
4-H, or Civil Air Patrol (CAP).
The goal of TARC is to motivate
students to pursue aerospace as an exciting career field and it is co-sponsored by the American Association of Physics Teachers,
the Department of Defense, and NASA. The event involves designing and building
a model rocket (3.3 pounds or less, using NAR-certified model rocket motors) that carries a payload of 1 Grade A Large egg
for a precise flight duration of 45 seconds, and to an altitude of 850 feet (measured by an onboard altimeter), and that then
returns the egg to earth uncracked.
Over a period of months, the Wicomico cadets built and launched two
different model rockets. One rocket was a two staged, single-engine each stage
design with the second rocket being a two staged clustered engines model.
The following cadets contributed to this effort and have received
their CAP Model Rocketry Badges: C/A1C Garon E. Clark, C/2nd LT Kevin
A. Gravenor, C/SRA Zachary M. Jones, C/AMN Ryan K. Murray, C/SSGT Patrick B. Naumann, C/CAPT Daniel L. Nicholson. C/AMN Bretton
S. Rosenberry, C/AMN Sooley Sanourath, C/TSGT Jacob D. Terlizzi, C/A1C Kurt W. Webster and C/SSGT Brandon M. Wojeck. Support was provided by CAP Senior Members Robert L. Bryant, Mollie Harrison, “JR”
Walters and Tuck Rosenberry.
After the "Challenge,"
the rocketry cadet and senior team members visited the Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center of the National Air and Space Museum
in Chantilly, VA. The museum is near Washington Dulles International Airport and is the companion facility
to the Museum on the National Mall. (Click here to visit its website.) The visiting Wicomico members enjoyed seeing various types and vintage of aircraft.
(Selected material and photos provided by Senior Members Bob Bryant, "Tuck" Rosenberry and Mollie Harrison.)
