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Home / Archives / News Archive 2000 / FAA denies waiver application for NARAM2000
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FAA denies waiver application for NARAM2000 |
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2000 Archived News by National Association of Rocketry
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Friday, June 30, 2000 |
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CANON CITY, Colorado USA — After three weeks of unsuccessful negotiations with the FAA, Dan Wolf, National Events Chairperson for the National Association of Rocketry, inform the NAR membership and NARAM 2000 attendees that the Federal Aviation Administration denied the waiver application for the NARAM 2000 launch.
The NARAM 2000 launch site, located on land owned by Vern Estes of Estes fame, is also located within 5 miles of the Fremont County airport. Ken Mizoi, NARAM 2000 Contest Director, along with the NARAM 2000 organizing committee were well aware of the proximity the launch site ad to the airport from the early planning stages of NARAM 2000, over a year ago. The planning committee contacted Dick Baker, the Fremont County Airport Manager and Vern Estes, who is a member of the Fremont County Airport Advisor Board as part of their preparation and were assured there would be no problems.
Mizoi had already applied for and received a 10,000 foot waiver for a launch last year on the NARAM 2000 site, partly to insure that a waiver could be obtained for this location. The waiver process was routine and contact with the FAA office in Denver during the process gave no indications of any concerns on their part.
This spring, during the NARAM 2000 planning process, the altitude limit for NARAM was lowered to 6000 feet to insure compliance with NFPA 1127. A local road, Route 67, borders the launch site on one side and the traffic on the road was above the 2 car per hour limit. The change was not an FAA limitation.
In early June, Mizoi received a phone call from the Seattle office of the FAA to inform him that the waiver application for the event was denied, citing that the launch location was within 5 miles of the Fremont County airport even though the Fremont County airport was fully aware of our activities and supported them, and the previous waiver had been obtained to 10,000 feet for the launch last year. That waiver had apparently been issued from the Denver office., and a change in procedures from the previous year had the waiver application now going to the regional office in Seattle, where it was denied.
For the past three weeks, Mizoi had been working with the FAA and the Fremont County airport to try to obtain some type of waiver to allow HPR flights. As a minimum, he requested limited launch windows during times when the airport traffic was lightest, during the weekend to allowed HPR flights to be made at least on a limited basis. The FAA office in Seattle would not budge.
In a final effort to secure a NARAM waiver, NAR President Mark Bundick contacted the Washington DC FAA offices. While that contact resulted in a review of the proposed waiver, the FAA would not grant a waiver for a launch within 5 miles of the Fremont airport. They cited parachute jumping, glider towing, and glider operations conducted on the airport along VFR (visual flight rules) traffic traversing the airspace.
The result is that there will be no waiver at NARAM 2000, limiting launches to 1500 grams and 125 grams of propellant. This does allow for limited HPR flying such as H128 and H180 reloads in rockets weighing less than 1500 grams. Level 1 certification flights will be allowed if they meet the LMR requirements. |
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