RAINBOW VALLEY, Arizona USA — National Association of Rocketry (NAR) Sport Services announced today that the NAR Board of Directors has approve the definition of "Active Recovery".  The term and concept had been approved earlier this month by the Tripoli Rocketry Association (TRA) Board of Directors, and signals the beginning of joint projects with the two organizations.

The Active Recovery term was born of necessity, due to members desiring to use non-conventional recovery methods during certification attempts.  Passive recovery doesn't "break open" the airframe, which increases the amount of drag the airframe experiences during the recovery phase.

The definition officially goes into effect for NAR members on July 30, 2006 and reads as follows:

DEFINITION:

Active Recovery is the deployment of a primary recovery device that actively changes the physical configuration and dramatically reduces the vertical descent rate of the rocket model when deployed. This device must be of sufficient size, based on the weight of the model, so that the device is capable of safely recovering the rocket. The active recovery device can include parachutes, streamers, helicopter devices, R/C control and any other devices that are physically deployed to provide safe recovery of the model. In the event that dual deployment and secondary recovery devices are used, the deployment of a secondary recovery device must actively change the configuration of the model in order to inhibit ballistic recovery and slow the decent rate so as to allow for safe deployment of the primary recovery device.

Passive Recovery methods such as airframe drag recovery do not actively deploy a recovery device that changes the physical configuration of the model. In the event that dual deployment is used, passive secondary recovery methods such as ballistic recovery do not change the physical configuration of the model. For these reasons, Passive Recovery is not permitted to be used as a valid method of recovery for certification flights in HPR models.

08-04-2006 04:33 PM  #1
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