This has been quite a year. I don’t mean for the world – yes, Australia was on fire, a global pandemic struck and is still ravaging the US, the economy is in free fall, there’s no end in sight, etc. That’s all true. But I mean for me personally. I set some goals back in January for 2020 and I’m crushing them. Like this:
I intended to write this post at the beginning of July, exactly halfway through the year, but things have been busy and time got away from me. I think it’s good to set goals at the beginning of a new year, but it’s just as important to pause a few times to seriously assess progress – or obstacles to progress – and sometimes, to revisit the goals when things change dramatically.
Clearly, a lot changed during this past year. Whatever your goals were at the outset of 2020, the world looked very different on January 1 from how it looks today, in August. Some goals have become literally impossible to achieve, due to external circumstances. Others are still achievable but have become significantly more difficult.
I wrote a post assessing my progress toward my own previously published goals for the year after the first quarter ended, in early April. In short, due to a scarcity of launch opportunities in the winter, and then the COVID-19 pandemic, I wasn’t able to launch anything or get any certifications in high power rocketry (“HPR”). But on the plus side, I transformed my backyard shed into a practical workshop (for rocketry), got a ham radio license so I could use a flight computer in a rocket with telemetry, and did some other cool stuff.
More recently, during the second quarter of the year, I did finally get the chance to fly a few rockets, which was amazing. I got my level 1 and also level 2 certifications in HPR, scoring some nifty badges and checking some major goals off my list. I also got a few additional post-L2 flights for more dual deploy experience.
My original goals for 2020 had also included getting my level 3 certification in HPR, the highest level offered by the National Association of Rocketry (“NAR”). In retrospect, this was pretty ambitious, even in a normal year. I had never launched even a small model rocket before last fall, and in less than a year I was planning to jump (plunge?) into high power stuff, getting multiple certifications.
And L3 in particular is significantly more difficult. True, it’s ultimately just building a larger rocket capable of flying on a more powerful motor (specifically an M, N, or O class motor). But it’s also a much more elaborate process.
NAR has a national L3 Certification Committee; generally two individuals per state are on this committee. You have to contact them and get one to serve as your advisor, and you need to find a second L3 individual as an advisor as well. You have to submit an L3 certification package and application, describing the rocket you intend to build in detail. As you build it, you have to thoroughly document everything you’re doing with plenty of photos and descriptions. Your advisors can question you and can perform on-site inspections of the rocket at any point in time. The rocket itself has to meet certain requirements, such as having fully redundant recovery systems. And of course, once it’s complete, you have to fly it with your advisors present as witnesses, including a successful recovery of the rocket.
That being said, it’s only August, and 2020 is not done yet. Rather, I should say that I’m not done with 2020 yet. I still have goals to achieve, and one of them is my L3 certification. The odds are against me, but I have a plan, and it might yet be possible to do this before the year is up.
Stay tuned for some exciting updates!
Improbable Ventures 