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
- posted 17 years ago