What is the actual law (with provided quote or cites) regarding purchase of H and I motors?
I realize that some of it may be up in the air as to whether BATFE allows EZ-Access, etc., but as it stands now (as far as I understand the current legal rulings), we are proceeding under the assumption/interpretation that they ARE allowed.
But here is my specific question -- what I 'understand' is that one can purchase an 'H' motor for purposes of certifying at Level 1. And they are apparently not supposed to purchase any others until they certify, or until the certification attempt has failed.
One is apparently also not supposed to FLY an 'H' motor or above unless it is specifically for a certification attempt -- and in those cases it would appear that everything is technically legal no matter how you look at it, because the attempt must be supervised by someone who is already legally qualified.
So, is there a LEGAL reason why one cannot buy more than one 'H' motor without certification, or is it 'tradition'? For example, I have two different level 1 rockets for my attempt. They require two different motors (diameter) because of the size of the rockets. I may have 'hangar rash' on a rocket, so I'd like to have a backup plan available, which is why I would want to have two engines. This would appear to make sense, and would appear (to my mind) to be legal -- especially if it was made clear during purchasing that these were for a level 1 attempt.
However, if I'm going to a multi-day launch, and will attempt a certification flight (and hope to succeed ), then I'd like to have a few more motors available for the launch. And since there are often delays in acquiring/shipping motors, it would make sense to get them ordered in advance of the launch.
So, what is that ACTUAL LAW that applies? Does the law state that one can't FLY an 'H' until certified, or that one cannot physically BUY an 'H' until certified? It doesn't seem that the latter could be the case, since it appears that you are allowed to buy them for certification attempts, but I honestly don't recall ever having seen it specfically spelled out.
Jerry, I already know about CFR dumpty-dump-de-dump, I'm asking folks for OTHER interpretations.
David Erbas-White