TRA sanctioned Research launches

[Warren B. MusselmanModerator]

Well I’m in deep shit… I’ve been planning flights at 90-95% of waiver altitude including my last couple proposed flights… certified motors to be sure though.

Warren

[denverdoc]

exactly why i posted the question, my understanding was 75 percent for research, which given the waiver and 25k BoD needs creates a paradox. No research flight can exceed 22.5 in which case you don’t need TRA BoD approval for any Ex flight and do need it for commercial flights between 25 and 30.
JS

[Chris LaPanse]

Well I’m in deep shit… I’ve been planning flights at 90-95% of waiver altitude including my last couple proposed flights… certified motors to be sure though.

Warren

Note that the requirement can be waived in some cases, and only applies to research launches. You should be OK…

[denverdoc]

Well I’m in deep shit… I’ve been planning flights at 90-95% of waiver altitude including my last couple proposed flights… certified motors to be sure though.

Warren

Note that the requirement can be waived in some cases, and only applies to research launches. You should be OK…

Chris, My rocket sims at 29K on commercial motors and intend to fly it
with prior BoD approval. It would seem that if you have static test or other data from flights then you may get some relief, hence the 93K flight at Balls.
JS

[James Russell]

Any launch commercial motor or research at a research launch is considered a research launch and has to meet the guidelines set by TRA for a research launch. With good data on rocket and motor configuration BoD can approve a flight predicting over the 75% of the waiver. Things they would most likely want to see is data on said rocket with same, equivalent or greater motor giving a good base line some one could confirm without a doubt the rocket will not break the waiver. That is the most important thing, we do not want to break our waiver. TRA has made an agreement with the FAA to review all flights over 25k, this would be a different approval but could be done at the same time. This is more or less a safety zone that has been factored in to help insure that we do not break the waiver and cause problems with the FAA. If you think you will be right at the 75% you can if you want to file for BoD approval but really not necessary in my opinion because going over a little unintentionally it the whole purpose of it. Planning a flight to go over 75% and close or not to the wavier should have BoD approval just to have someone recheck your figures, info and sims, if it is reasonable they will approve it. Once I have my project done or at lest laid out were I can better decide if I need to go through the BoD for approval.

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