Southern Arizona Rocketry Association News

2026 Birds of a Feather Launch Plan

Wed, 11 Mar 2026 17:46:42 GMT

Time for our annual Birds of a Feather launch! Friday, March 20th and Saturday, March 21st, 2026 at our TIMPA launch field. Check out the list of Birds below, prep your models, and plan to fly them with like minded rocketeers.

A reminder that all models are able to fly during the launch. Birds on the list will take priority during their launch windows. See you there!

December 2025 Agua Blanca Launch Report

James Cramton — Mon, 29 Dec 2025 23:34:49 GMT

After a summer of drought related fire restrictions, and a flooded road in November, December's Agua Blanca launch squeaked in under 5000 ft clouds to see several dozen good flights in front of 20 attendees. While this can't be an exhaustive launch report, it shares some perspective on some of Saturday's flying.

Wind built throughout the morning to around 10 - 12 mph, but as the wind came up, the clouds lifted and thinned, allowing for some higher flights, including Brandon's L2 certification flight and a James' GoPro 360 camera rocket flight to 4,900 ft on a Cesaroni K454 Skidmark motor. The 360 degree footage produced this still shot near apogee, though the interactive video turned out to have issues; a future flight should yield better results for a fully immersive view at higher altitudes under clearer skies.

The Agua Blanca Launch Site is just below and right of the rocket body, which appears distorted due to the lens positions on the camera. The hill north of the launch site, known on the map as The Hill of Repression, is the dark cone just above and left of the rocket body. It's best to avoid the mesquite bosques you can see as the dense green areas in washes. Recovery is difficult there. Mack had a close call in that regard, recovering just on the edge of a thicket:

Above: Mack's Initiator landed at the edge of a thicket half a mile from the launch site.

The day was not without excitement, with Taylor challenging James' claim to the dubious "Closest to the Summit" crown. Back in April 2025, James landed his GoPro 360 camera rocket 803 ft from the summit of the hill north of the launch site. That mark beat out the 2023 contenders from CU boulder at 1014 ft, and Taylor's mark made a good showing at 870 ft, but later in the day, James flew his 4 inch Squat on a Cesaroni J335 Red Lightning motor to 3,995 ft, reaching Mach 0.85 along the way. That flight landed higher up the mountain, 510 ft from the summit. To be clear, you don't really want to recover up on the hill; it's very rocky and has dense brush in places. So it's a tongue-in-cheek award. But if you happen to land high up on the hill, make sure to note your landing coordinates, to see if you can stake your claim!

Above: The Summit of the Hill of Repression, with the locations of 4 contenders for the dubious Closest to the Summit award.

Above: James' 4 inch diameter 30 inch tall red and white Squat rocket launching on a bright red exhaust from its 38mm Cesaroni J335 Red Lightning motor.

Above: James' 4 inch diameter 30 inch tall Squat rocket landed safely on the brushy and rocky terrain part way up the nearby Hill of Repression overlooking the flats that constitute most of the launch range. Rather unexpected, this stubby and not particularly aerodynamic rocket reached Mach 0.85 on the way up to its 3,995 ft apogee on a J335 motor.

SARA's next Agua Blanca launch is scheduled for January 24, 2026 from 9 am - 3 pm. Registration and event information is available on SARA's website.

SARA Newsletter Redux

Thu, 04 Sep 2025 01:15:49 GMT

Have you ever had more than one igniter failure? I think the most I’ve had is three on one launch. The third igniter was indeed a charm! In keeping with that “wait 60 seconds and try again” theme, this will be the third attempt at launching a club newsletter. And like my third igniter, I expect a good flight of this scratch-built thing this time!

Heads Up - the name of this publication, as suggested by Steve Lubliner (thank you, Steve!) - will be a communication hub for the club. While we have multiple forms of keeping in touch as members of SARA, the newsletter will draw it all together in a fun and exciting manner. Because I do believe the reason why we are all members of a model rocketry club is to have some exciting fun!

Available in your email box and on our website (click on the link at the bottom of this article!) quarterly, Heads Up will feature announcements, calendar items, news pertinent to the club, articles from and about member rocketry projects, a classified section, and general club and safety info that will keep us all flying.

So, let’s get to enjoying this newsletter. And please let me know your feedback at president@sararocketry.org once you’ve done so. This publication is for you, the SARA club member. Producing it for the sake of producing it is a waste of time. Making it yours will make producing it worth the while.

Onward...

MOB

2025 SARA President

Heads Up 1-compressed.pdf

Let NAR Know You’re a SARA Member!

James Cramton — Sat, 16 Aug 2025 18:17:06 GMT

Let NAR Know You’re a SARA Member!

46 of our 98 SARA members are members of the National Association of Rocketry (NAR), and NAR needs your help linking your NAR membership to SARA in their new website. NAR is asking all NAR members to log into the new website and check out the resources there. But in particular, affiliating your NAR membership with SARA, will help NAR validate our section’s membership for their upcoming audit of its sections nationwide. Please take a minute to link your self to SARA on the NAR website:

Go to the NAR Website (https://nar.org/) and log into the site using the Member Login link in the upper right

There is a form to login, with a link for forgotten username/password that you’ll need your first time.

Once logged in, mouse over your name in the upper right corner, & click the Profile link.
On your "Member Profile" page, scroll down until you see the "More Member Options" near the bottom left.
Click on the "Clubs/Additional Members" link, and click the green Add Club icon next to your Primary Member record.
Click on the "Select a Club" field, find Arizona in the dropdown list, and then click on the "+" next to your State to see a list of Sections. Scroll down the list and then select Southern Arizona Rocketry Association.
Then click the "Save" button to complete the process.

Agua Blanca Road Conditions 19 April 2025

James Cramton — Sat, 19 Apr 2025 23:24:10 GMT

As of late April, 2025, the road conditions on Manville Rd on the way to the Agua Blanca launch site are quite good. Modest 2WD SUVs or pickup trucks should have no problem. Lower clearance sedans or wagons may need to consider carpooling, but the conditions are some of the best we've seen. The road has new gravel in a number of critical areas that improve driving conditions significantly. Most of the road is primarily loose sand with decent traction, but it's best to keep moving slowly and steadily.

You'll see a Rocket Range Ahead sign about 1/4 mile before you reach the Agua Blanca Launch Site. When you reach the launch site, you'll see the activities north of the fence just before the fork in the road. Take the right fork and then proceed through the signed gate, follow the road a short ways till you see the last of the signs into the launch range. Stay to the right on the established tracks to stay clear of the launch pads, and proceed south toward the road to park in the spectator area.

2024 ANNUAL MEETING REPORT

Tue, 28 Jan 2025 00:50:36 GMT

The Southern Arizona Rocketry Association 2024 Annual Meeting was held on December 14, 2024 at Udall Park. Following is a report of the items discussed, and a roster of SARA's 2025 Board of Directors:

REPORT:

COMMUNICATING WITH MEMBERS WHILE AT LAUNCHES:

Designate Announcement Coordinator for each launch
Announcements made at launches for volunteering, STEM Outreach, and attending board meetings
- Not the LCO
- Involve youth
- Announcement sheet available at each launch

VOLUNTEERING AT LAUNCHES:

Develop a Volunteer Coordinator position and staff it
Separate membership status from volunteer roles on event registration
Make set-up volunteer slots start earlier
Revisit registration to allow volunteering for multiple roles at a launch
Launch queue priority for volunteers, designated with wrist bands
Volunteer roles better defined on the web site:
- Goal: To complete registration for a launch event, registrant must select a volunteer position for the launch
- Starting point document on Google drive from James

OTHER ITEMS:

Shorten the safety briefing to 5 minutes
Secure a Porta-Potty for December launch (MOB asking John C to take care of this)
Add “Subject to change“ and reasons why to the launch schedule
Suggestion to shift hot launch months from 8 AM to 7 AM (Not at this time.)
Need to drive participation of younger members in running the club (under 50)
Wes Taylor (½ year visitor) volunteering to act as SARA City of Tucson liaison, and SARA Membership Drive coordinator

Board was elected for 2025:

Michael O’Brien President

Matt Christensen Vice President

Liz Knepp Secretary

Jeff Black Treasurer

Steve Lubliner NAR Sr. Section Advisor

John Carey Tripoli Prefect

Ken Weaver Member At Large

Wes Taylor Member At Large

Newsletter 3rd Quarter 2024

Sat, 13 Jul 2024 14:48:11 GMT

SARA Newsletter 3rd Qtr 2024.pdf

All the links should work now on this!

Agua Blanca Launch Site Road Conditions

James Cramton — Sat, 27 Apr 2024 21:40:35 GMT

As of late April, 2024, the road conditions on Manville Rd on the way to the Agua Blanca launch site are quite good. Modest 2WD SUVs or pickup trucks should have no problem. Lower clearance sedans or wagons may need to consider carpooling, but the conditions are some of the best we've seen. The roughest part of the drive is the first quarter mile, with the deepest dip immediately west of the Agua Blanca Ranch gate on the way into the Ironwood Forest Access Point Parking Lot. The western portion of the road is primarily loose sand with decent traction, but it's best to keep moving slowly and steadily.

2024 SARA Club Officers

Wed, 15 Nov 2023 22:21:45 GMT

Thank you to all who helped SARA have an outstanding 2023.
Congratulations to our incoming 2024 board of directors.
They are:

President: Michael O'Brien
Vice President Ken Weaver
Secretary Val Moreno
Treasurer: Jeff Black
Members at Large:
Davin Uurtamo,
Kevin Westfall
Tripoli Prefect: John Carey
NAR Sr. Section Advisor: Steve Lubliner

Ken Weaver
SARA vice president

SARA President resignation and vacancy!

Wed, 19 Apr 2023 17:31:54 GMT

Members of Southern Arizona Rocketry Association,

We’d like to inform you that our SARA Club President, James Cramton, submitted his resignation to the board in order to pursue other priorities, effective 5/31/23.

We are very grateful for his many contributions to SARA as he served in this role for the last several years and wish him all the best.

Per our bylaws we will hold a special club election on a Zoom meeting: Thursday, May 11th, 2023, 7:30 PM.

We are now accepting nominations of individuals to serve as club president in writing.

You may email them to board@sararocketry.org (preferred) or submit them directly to a board member and we will reach out to them to confirm that they accept the nomination.

Additionally, we will accept nominations from the floor during the meeting on the 4th.

Please be aware that for in-meeting nominations, the nominee must be present in order to accept.

If you have any questions, please reach out to the board at board@sararocketry.org

ZOOM link:

Join Zoom Meeting

https://us06web.zoom.us/j/83157217606?pwd=V0p5V1o4VkZJZHRrRDZJY202clUxQT09

Meeting ID: 831 5721 7606

Passcode: 280166

One tap mobile

+17207072699,,83157217606#,,,,*280166# US (Denver)

+12532158782,,83157217606#,,,,*280166# US (Tacoma)

Respectfully,

Ken Weaver

SARA vice president

October C6-7 Altitude Contest!

James Cramton — Tue, 23 Aug 2022 20:45:17 GMT

SARA is returning to its long history of contest rocketry! Buoyed by a large collection of donated C6-7 motors, SARA is providing motors for our 2022 C6-7 altitude contest! The gist of the contest is to fly an electronic altimeter in one of 4 common model rockets on a free C6-7 motor. The highest flight wins! Eligible model rockets include:

Estes Alpha (not the Alpha III)
Quest Astra
BMS School Rocket (BT-50 size)
Rocketry Works Socrates

Material substitutions are permitted, provided the overall profile of the rocket is consistent with the kit parameters--same length, diameter, nose cone profile, etc.

Prizes include a $25 Rocketry Works gift certificate, plus others TBD.

The contest will be held at SARA's October launch at the TIMPA site, on the weekend of October 21-23. We'll have a running tally of results throughout the launch.

Contestants are welcome to borrow an Altus Metrum Micropeak altimeter from Rocketry Works for this event.

The full contest rules are linked below, but the intent of this contest is to be an entry level contest to build interest for members new to contest flying. Certain arcane contest trickery is explicitly excluded. Let's just go out and have some fun flying models rockets! It's a great way to get kids involved in contest flying, too!

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1piJfkiRSYsg0_-pDmmxBeg7QJXxPp0u0/view

New Level 3 Certification

James Cramton — Fri, 10 Jun 2022 23:04:29 GMT

SARA President James Cramton completed his Level 3 certification at LDRS 40 at Lucerne Dry Lake in California. James' L3 build is called Window Sticker Mayhem--an extended Madcow Blue Iguana--a 5 inch diameter, 12 foot long fiberglass kit with a camera bay. The flight on an M1400 motor reached an altitude of 7930 ft AGL with a smooth recovery not far from the flight line. James and his son Zachary made the trip to LDRS 40 to complete the flight before Zachary heads off to college this fall. Full technical details, including flight data and images from the ground and air are available here.


Near apogee looking south toward Big Bear from Lucerne Dry Lake

Agua Blanca Launch Report

James Cramton — Sun, 08 May 2022 00:02:51 GMT

SARA held its first overnight at its new Agua Blanca launch site, in Ironwood Forest National Monument, under permit from the Bureau of Land Management. Attended by a handful of fliers, it was a class 1 launch, since we are still in the process of applying for our class 2 FAA waiver for this location. That means we were flying model rockets weighing less than 1500 grams (3.3 pounds) pad weight, with less than 125 grams of propellant. We flew a variety of low and mid power flights Friday evening and Saturday morning, with our largest flight of the day being James Cramton's H195 powered, 3 inch diameter rocket with a GoPro Fusion 360 video camera on top. The flight captured a great interactive video (click the image to view video) showing the boost phase, as well as the descent with the parachute bundled in a JollyLogic Chute Release until 500 ft above ground level. This device minimizes drift, yet still allows a slow, safe landing under parachute. A trained eye will spot the unintended release of the altimeter pod from the payload bay at apogee, but the payload and main rocket body recovered within 30 ft of each other, on the slopes of the nearby "Hill of Repression," as it is known in Google.

The overnight camping portion of the event was a nice way to avoid the approaching summer heat in Southern Arizona, enjoy a friendly camp out, and get our flying in before the morning heats up. Although the site has no water and no facilities, it has outstanding conditions for rocket camping, with dark skies, only wild or bovine neighbors, and an early start to flying in the morning. Keep your eyes on SARA's event calendar for more launches at this great launch site, which can support motors into the M, N, and O range once we secure an FAA waiver.

In the interactive 360 flight video, the nose cone looks like it's split in 2 because the camera has 2 lenses offset slightly. One of the great things about working with GoPro's 360 camera line is that the post-processing software does a great job of automatically leveling the horizon and providing a stable and interactive video that you can watch like you're along for the ride; you can drag the video in real time to look around. James 3D prints the nose cone with the GoPro mount built in, and the camera is secured with Kevlar line that provides a secure connection to the rest of the rocket and the parachute. Without that Kevlar, this flight would have ejected the GoPro with the nose cone, without the parachute! The camera would not have landed as safely as the altimeter bundle!

Steve Fraser also shot photos from the launch site and environs. It's an interesting location!

Desert Heat 2022 Pre-registration is open!

James Cramton — Tue, 08 Mar 2022 04:47:51 GMT

Desert Heat 2022 is ready to go in 3 weeks! Friday through Sunday April 1 through 3 is the date, and if you register by March 27, you'll save $5 per day of the regular registration fees! Members save $5 per day on registration fees.

We have a full weekend of flying planned, with a volunteer thank-you launch and pot luck dinner Friday afternoon and evening, a full day of flying Saturday, followed by a night launch Saturday evening, and more flying Sunday morning. RV and tent camping is available on site; just sign up and pay the $25 camping fee for the weekend during registration.

Also, you can pre-order your Desert Heat 2022 T-shirts on the registration form to ensure we order enough shirts in your size. We'll order extras you can purchase at the launch, but we may run out of some sizes before the end of the launch.

Our FAA waiver for class 2 high power rockets will be 5,000 ft above ground level (3,000 ft after dark), with flights from 1/4A up to M power.

You can find plenty more details available at SARA's Desert Heat page!

Or, you can jump right in to register now!

vNARCON2022

Fri, 28 Jan 2022 21:00:43 GMT

Just a reminder.

vNarcon 2022 is ongoing this weekend.

Fri, Jan 28, 2022 at 6:00 AM - Sun, Jan 30, 2022 at 8:00 PM (MST)

vNARCON 2022 (accelevents.com)

It can be interesting and useful.

And checkout SARA's own James Cramton's presentation!

Level 1 Certification Build session

Saturday 29 Jan 12:00 PM (MST)

Many Thanks! to Saturday's 12-04-2021-SARA-TIMPA Field Clean up crew

Sun, 05 Dec 2021 23:38:13 GMT

The club owes you all a big thanks and debt.

This has been an extraordinary effort by 20 people, spending over 170 personnel hours on the field, for the club to be able to have the possibility of flying the TIMPA field again!

Thanks to all of You!

David Bailey

Stuart Bailey

Jeff Black

Bob Brown- TIMPA tractor driver

Evan Brown

Eric Burch - Personal tractor and driver

Matt Christensen

Steve Fraser

Kevin Hedspeth

Llyn Fulmer

Terry Gilpin

Dan Grossman

John Grove

Anson Knoblach

Gerrit Kaup

Paul Kaup

Steve Lubliner

Bill Olsen

Ken Weaver

Tim Wharton

This does not take into account all the hours of behind the scenes effort, spent by other members to take care of the many other items that allow everyone to fly rockets.

Please remember to thank them the next time you see them and please help the in any way you can. The club only works if we all pitch in and help wherever we can.

Ken Weaver

Vid2u@aol.com

SARA vice president

NAR section # 545

Tripoli Prefecture # 93

12042021-SARA-TIMPA Field Post Clean-Up.mp4

Updated Public Health Policies at SARA Events

James Cramton — Sat, 05 Jun 2021 17:23:06 GMT

SARA is pleased to announce launch policy updates in response to recently changed CDC public health guidance and revised regulatory mandates from state, county, and city authorities.

Fully vaccinated individuals (2 weeks after final vaccination shot) are not required to wear facemasks. With this freedom comes the individual responsibility to honestly represent your vaccination status.
Unvaccinated individuals must wear facemasks when away from their car at a SARA launch.
Please continue to practice social distancing; park every other space in the parking lot, and maintain 6 feet between you and others not in your bubble
Please stay home if you are sick or have been exposed to someone who may be sick, or if you or a family member may be at increased risk of COVID-19 complications.
The flush toilets at the TIMPA runway are now available again, so we have eliminated the port-a-potty on site and the associated $5 fee that was necessary during the height of the pandemic.
Preregistration is required for SARA events, and a waitlist is available if we exceed the newly raised 50 attendee limit for the TIMPA facility. Fliers are welcome to register a number of guests, but all attendees count toward the total. This limit is likely a practical limit on the number of attendees we can support at this launch site during a 3 hour launch.
SARA is an all-volunteer organization, so please consider volunteering at a launch. Launches don't happen without volunteers, and we will need to stop launch operations if we are understaffed. If you haven't volunteered a 1 hour shift recently, it's time to step up to carry your share of the load. You can sign up for a variety of roles when you register for the event.
All events for the remainder of 2021 are now posted in the Events section of the SARA website. You are welcome to register for any of these events as soon as they are on the website. So if you want to fly in September, you can sign up in July to ensure your space.

New SARA Website

James Cramton — Sat, 05 Jun 2021 17:07:55 GMT

SARA's website (https://www.sarerockery.org) is now hosted on the Wild Apricot platform, which provides streamlined member and event management capabilities, as well as online dues and event fee payment and an online store for SARA merchandise that we will stock soon. All SARA events will require pre-registration so we can limit attendance and better staff resources to keep lines short and the events running smoothly.

If you find any information missing that you used regularly, please email info@sararocketry.org so we can bring it back from the archives. We've taken the opportunity to reorganize some site content, and we want to make sure the SARA website is useful to you. So let us know what you think!

SARA Website is Moving Here!

James Cramton — Thu, 13 May 2021 21:55:54 GMT

SARA is in the final stages of migrating to its new member management software, hosted by Wild Apricot. This software makes membership and event registration easier, and will ultimately host the club website and an online store for merchandise and garage sale items to raise money for SARA. The new website is still bare bones, but we'll flesh it out in the next month or so. So far, testing has gone well, but we are still learning. For example, the software does not handle the idea of splitting a launch into 2 separate launches, so we probably won't attempt that again, but it does do a great job of managing registrations, volunteer sign ups, and membership signup and renewal.

We'll make a full announcement when we are migrated over to the new platform.

https://sara.wildapricot.org