Over on TRF there is a moderated thread going on about whose dick is bigger: either the NAR or the TRA, so I posted what follows:
I guess my question is: why does it have to be the NAR or TRA? And why is that our only choices? I mean in California, there you don't have to be a member of either organization to fly HPR. You do have to get a California State 3rd Class Pyro License. Same with AR aka as TRA EX. AR is completely and totally unregulated as far as I know in all 50 states. You don't need to be a member of either Org nor be some specific Level to do AR. If you want to do AR, you just do it.
And therein lies the problem as I see it. Anybody can legally do AR , but the NAR nor the TRA will allow you to do AR; TRA will allow you to do AR as EX if you join the TRA first. Its the same situation for Model Rocketry. You don't have to be a member of ANY organization to do model and large model rocketry. And the vast majority of people who do model rocketry are not members of either ORG and never will be either. Neither the NAR nor the TRA as far as I know, recognize the State of California's Pyro License as a legitimate organization in which you can goto NAR or TRA launches, without being a member. SO California modelers are penalized by having to be a member of 1 of the 2 national orgs, in their own state!, before they can fly at NAR/TRA events in that state. And although as I pointed out AR is completely legal in all 50 states, if you do AR , neither the NAR or TRA again will allow you to do that form of rocketry at all, and TRA will but again only if you are a member first . California modelers are also penalized by the fact that the NAR/TRA does not recognize the California State Fire Marshall's "certification" of rocket motors . SO if you were a California manufacturer of model or hpr motors, and you got them okayed by the CSFM, you could then legally sell them in California; but since the NAR/TRA doesn't recognize the CSFM as a cert agency, those motors could not be used anywhere else in the United States. And they couldn't be used at NAR/TRA events in California!
I am not suggesting that what this world needs is another or even a new rocketry organization. 2 organizations competing fro the same small slice is more than enough. What the rocketry community needs to recognize is that the NAR/TRA jointly ONLY represent approx 8300 people nationwide. Think about that for a second. In a country of almost 300 million there are 8300 members TOTAL in our 2 national orgs(4500/3800). And of that 8300 figure perhaps
6500 at most are certified to do HPR.The number of people who do plain old model rocketry year in and year out number in the hundreds of thousands if not millions; the number of people who do AR number , well we have no way of knowing this number but I would assume at least a few thousand. And the vast majority of these people never hear about the NAR/TRA nor care.
So the next time you start arguing the + and - of which Org is "better or best".. keep the above stats in mind. When it comes right down to it, BOTH the NAR/TRA is pretty insignificant in the great scheme of things.
The only real significance the NAR/TRA has is basically set themselves up as the "gatekeepers" ; i.e., If you want to sell rocket motors in this country, you have to go through the NAR/TRA. If you want to do HPR, you have to go through the NAR/TRA.
shockie B)