By Bob Kaplow (circa NARAM-50)

In the mid 70s, Midwest competition standards were considered by outsiders to be somewhat lax: just about any flight that didn't hit someone was considered qualified! If a rocket DID hit someone, we took into account who the victim was :-) Since then, a marginally qualified flight became known as "Midwest qualified".

The Best Midwest Qualified Flight award was first presented by Steve Behrends at NARAM-19 to the most spectacular prang of the week. The winner was Bob (Brandy) Bruce who flew a scale-like 2 stage rocket that crashed, staged, and took off again, dubbed "Phoenix Arise". Ironically, it was one of the very few sport flights back when 98% of the models flown at NARAM were competition, and most of the 2% were test flights. IIRC, Steve also "retroactively" awarded NARAM-17 and NARAM-18 winners.

Later awards were a joint effort headed by Matt Steele and Chris Pearson of SNOAR fame. Bob Kaplow was a frequent co-conspirator, and inherited the duty when they moved on. The panel of judges usually consists of the RSOs and LCOs from the NARAM and sport ranges. Historically, the award is constructed out of the remains of crashed rockets and other NARAM debris collected during the week. Often part of the winners crash is included in the trophy.

Much notoriety is attached in being nominated for the award. The only thing worse is to actually win! I've had the misfortune of having to nominate myself for the award once, at NARAM-39, when my Wylie Coyote rocket crashed into Mark Johnson's van, and left a rubber streak on the side window. Mark preserved this streak for several years. Fortunately, I did not win.

It's too easy to just auger in a really big rocket. While that is good enough for a nomination, much of what makes for a winner is "style" points. Style points can be earned for doing spectacular aerobatics. Or for selecting a particularly good target like the RSO, the CDs car, a tank, or phone line to hit. Or for pure stupidity.

While the sport range generates some interesting prangs, competition events seem to particularly attract nominations for this award, including Plastic Model Conversion, Eggloft, Scale, Gliders, particularly Radio "Controlled", stages, clusters, or a very long burn motor (F7, D3). It's pretty much according to Murphy's law: whatever events have the most opportunity for something to go wrong. REALLY WRONG.

Here's what I've pieced together in the way of the history of the award winners and a few honorable mentions [recent additions due to Chad Ring, who took over the award at NARAM-51]: