Sparky Motors

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Angelo Castellano
Posts: 413
Joined: Sat Dec 06, 2008 1:52 pm
Location: Toronto, ON

Sparky Motors

Post by Angelo Castellano »

The following was posted on rocketry planet today and on a few lists:

cc Tripoli mailing list, CAR-ACF Board, MAAC, NAR, canadianrocketry mailing lists

There have been references to our association and sparky motors for the last few days.

Canadian Association of Rocketry - L'Association Canadienne De Fuséologie is a Canadian federally not for profit association representing amateur/model rocketeers across Canada. The history of amateur/model rocketry in Canada goes back to 1965 with it's approval by the Canadian Federal government with the assistance of the Canadian Aeronautics and Space Institute (CASI), the Royal Canadian Flying Clubs (RCFCA), the new Canadian Association of Rocketry(CAR), and then with the help of the Youth Aeronautic and Aerospace of Canada (YAAC).

Today CAR-ACF is the only nationally recognized amateur/model rocketry association in Canada and its standards and guidelines are recognized as safe and consistent. These standards and guidelines, available at no charge, have given the association an outstanding safety record.

During the summer of 2008, a motor was certified by (at that time) the CAR Motor Certification Committee (MC2) . An error was made as the motor didn't meet the standards set by NFPA in relation to sparkies and was not cross certified by NAR or Tripoli.

It should be noted that although MC2 uses NFPA as the standard for testing, CAR-ACF is not under jurisdiction of any NFPA rules but under the juridiction of Transport Canada, Natural Resources Canada (NRC) - Explosives Regulatory Division, and the model and high power safety codes of our association. CAR-ACF, as per rules, uses total impulse to differentiate between model rocket motor and high power motor. For motors under 160 N-sec that meet the definition of high power under NFPA 1125, you will see a note on CAR-ACF motor certification letter indicating that it is considered NFPA high power, and the reason why.

CAR-ACF does not have a representative on NFPA.

No reports of fires resulting from model impulse sparky motors have been submitted to the CAR executive or reported through our RSO committee. The final decision to allow any flight still will rest with the RSO at the time of launch - a process that appears to be working well.

As there have been questions asked and issues raised, the issue of sparky motors is now with the CAR-ACF RSO committee. Once a recommendation is reached, it will be put to the Board of Directors. There is no time frame for the decision at this point.

Angelo Castellano
President
Angelo Castellano
Past President
Canadian Association of Rocketry - L'Association Canadienne De Fuséologie
S573 L2 NAR87131 TRA11312 L1
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