ALTOONA, Wisconsin USA — The National Association of Rocketry has officially announced its Level 3 user certification program, making the announcement earlier this week on their website at http://www.nar.org/.

Other than being an existing Level 2 certified NAR member, a flyer must also follow the following guidelines:

1. The certification rocket must be substantially built by certifying flyer. Individuals using rockets with substantial "prefabricated" components will be required to demonstrate suitable construction knowledge to the satisfaction of the Certification Committee. Only the builder of the rocket may use that rocket for a certification attempt. Rockets built by other than the certifying flyer are specifically disallowed. Certification rockets may be built from commercially available kits and may contain components built to the specifications of the certifying flyer but fabricated by others.
2. Multiple stage rockets are specifically disallowed for certification flights.
3. The rocket must contain a redundant mechanism for performing the initial recovery event. For single event recovery, the main parachute must have redundant mechanisms for ejection. For drogue-main recovery systems, the drogue parachute must have multiple mechanisms for ensuring drogue deployment. Motor ejection charges may be used as a redundant ejection mechanism, but rockets depending primarily on motor ejection for any recovery event are specifically disallowed.
4. The capability must exist to externally disarm all pyrotechnic devices in the rocket. In this context, "disarm" means the ability to physically break the connection between a pyrotechnic device and the power source to its igniter. Simply turning off the device controlling the pyrotechnic(s) is not sufficient.
5. The rocket must conform in all respects to any restrictions imposed by the NAR High Power Safety Code and NFPA 1127.

• The flyer may present the rocket for inspection to one member of the Level 3 Certification Committee (L3CC) prior to its final assembly. The purpose of the inspection is to verify, to the satisfaction of the L3CC member, that the rocket is being constructed in a manner suitable for the stresses encountered in a Level 3 flight. The L3CC member performing the inspection will sign his/her approval on the Certification Form.
• The flyer may prepare a construction packet with descriptions of the construction techniques, and including photos and/or diagrams. If a construction packet is used in lieu of a physical inspection, this package must be approved and signed by one member of the L3CC.
• The flyer may build and document a test flight of the rocket. The test flight must utilize a Level 2 motor with thrust characteristics similar to the intended Level 3 certification motor. The flyer must be able to show that the rocket received stresses approaching that anticipated in the Level 3 flight (either by flight simulation or by recording altimeter or accelerometer).