We have won a decisive final judgment in Federal Court that declared the BATFE's regulation of ammonium perchlorate composite propellant (APCP) in hobby rocket motors null and void.  This agency now has no jurisdiction over this material.  We have sent a letter to the Director of BATFE insisting that he comply with this judgment.  However, we find that BATFE continues to have materials on its website concerning their now-void regulation of APCP and we are hearing from you that the agency has not provided appropriate guidance to local agents telling them to stop enforcing these regulations.  We are putting together evidence to take further legal action against the agency and its Director for this disregard of the court.

 

Our legal team needs your help to stop the BATFE's continued now-illegal actions.  They need documentation of specific instances where BATFE agents have sought to inspect a high power rocket magazine or LEUP holder since the Court judgment became final on May 16, 2009, and have stated that their actions were still appropriate because "they had not been told that APCP is no longer regulated".   If this has happened to you, please send an e-mail to president@nar.org providing the date, time, place, name of the BATFE agent involved, and a description of the circumstances. 

A major key to flight safety on a rocket range is the skill and performance of the crew that runs that range.  If the members of this crew understand and follow the NAR Safety Codes when launching rockets, and use their experience to do careful inspections of all of these rockets before flight, then the range will be safe.  Safety requires this kind of close attention to every rocket and every flight, and this takes time.  When a range gets so busy that the safety checkin line starts backing up and people are waiting for pad assignment, even the best range crew can get "launch fever" and start focusing on how to increase the launch rate as their first priority.  That's when bad things can start happening even to a good range crew on a good range.

 

When a checkin officer has "launch fever", he (or she) stops pausing to think about important details about what they are checking in, such as whether a rocket's motor is the right one (thrust level and delay time) for that rocket's size and weight.  Getting rockets checked in becomes more important than getting them checked over.  When an RSO has "launch fever", he/she gets tunnel vision and starts focusing on the pad about to be flown without looking around beforehand for approaching air traffic, proper launch rod angling, or people inside the safe standoff distance on adjacent pads.  He says "safety is go" before rattling off the quick countdown but is already thinking about the next flight rather than focusing on whether flying the current one under the current conditions is the right thing to do.  

 

Safety takes time and attention to detail, on every flight.  Don't let "launch fever" lull you into cutting corners.