FAIR HAVEN, Vermont USA — A Vermont rocketry club thinks Fair Haven has the right stuff.  Kevin O'Classen of Goshen approached the Select Board Tuesday on behalf of the Champlain Regional Model Rocket Club, asking to use the Fair Haven Airport as a launch site for high-power sport rockets.

"We're a bunch of science-oriented geeks who need a place to launch our rockets because we lost our field in Essex due to encroaching development," he said.

O'Classen said he used to fly model planes at the airport — an activity which continues there under the Rutland County RC Fliers — and recently read a newspaper story on the airport.

"I looked at maps and saw it could be potentially useable and figured there was no harm in asking," he said.

Development around the site off Old Stage Road in Essex has reached the point where the club can no longer maintain the required minimum distance of 1,500 feet from any inhabited structure, O'Classen said.

O'Classen said the club works with a number of different regulatory agencies and gets permission from the Federal Aviation Administrator for a two-day window each month, proceeding or scrapping based on weather.

"Our motto is 'semper Gumby' — always flexible," he said.

The most powerful rockets go as high as 6,500 feet, according to O'Classen, and deploy a parachute as they return to the ground.

"Ninety seconds from launch to recovery is a fairly normal flight," he said. "I have never seen a flight over three minutes."

The group invites and encourages spectators and maintains outreach programs. O'Classen said they would be willing to speak at the local schools.

"Our last launch, in Essex, was one of the best-attended launches we've had, with about 25 people," he said. "We flew 60 rockets in five hours. Four of those were high-powered rockets. We didn't take anything over 2,500, 3,000 feet."

Resident Shaun Tomasi questioned whether it was a safe location.

"We're kind of in a commercial flight path from Burlington to Kennedy," he said. "You might hit Jet Blue going by."

O'Classen said the group coordinates very closely with the FAA and are told when and how high they can launch.

"They're very much in the driver's seat," he said. "We have simulation software. If there's any doubt about keeping within the required height, they don't fly. Our relationship with the FAA is very valuable."

On top of all that, O'Classen said the responsibility is on the rocketeers not to shoot down any airplanes.

"Before we commence any flight operations, we visually scan the skies looking for any aircraft," he said. "If aircraft are visible, we hold. When we actually start flight operations, we have to call the FAA and tell them we are starting operations and when we close, we have to call and tell them."

O'Classen also said that nobody has ever been hurt at one of the launches.

"Nationwide, our safety record is near-perfect," he said. "The only problems that have happened are property damage. We have stringent safety codes and we follow them. Our club has never had any incident of injury or fire or property damage."

Selectman Ray Bunker asked if there would be any remuneration to the town.

"I can see the club ponying up a couple hundred a year," O'Classen said. "It'd come out of my pocket, but I don't care. It's worth it for a site. We don't have any place in Vermont we can launch."

While the club has its own insurance, Airport Committee Chairman William Rozensky said the town should check with the Vermont League of Cities and Towns to make sure there were no conflicts with that policy. He also asked if the rocketeers would coordinate with the model plane club, triggering several jokes from the audience about "target practice."

The board voted to table the issue until its next meeting so the town manager could look into the legal issues involved.