Filing for an FAA Waiver
For sport rockets in excess of current Federal Air Regulation (FAR) Part 101 limits, you will probably need to apply to the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) for a waiver of these limits. The FAA is concerned only with operations inside controlled airspace. However, there are a variety of controlled airspace classes in the US, and in most localities, this airspace starts at 1,200' above ground level (AGL). This means in all likelihood, you will have to apply for a waiver for your sport launch if your participants will be flying large rockets.
Waiver Application and Forms
To apply for an FAA waiver, you need to obtain an Application for Waiver, FAA Form 7711-2. This form is available online in our Filing Cabinet, or on paper from your local Flight Standards District Office (FSDO, commonly referred to by pilots as the "fizz-doe") at any airport with air traffic control. Phone the control tower and ask for Flight Standards. Tell them you're interested in launching rockets, and need an Application for Waiver, FAA Form 7711-2. They should know what you want. While you've got them on the phone, ask for the address of the Regional office. You will probably have to file your application with them, so it will help to know where it has to go
Applications must be filed not later than 30 days prior to the date of proposed operations. You should plan on applying for a waiver as far in advance as possible. Launch participants will want to know the waiver altitudes and other special provision when they make their plans.
Applications must be filed in triplicate and signed.
Airspace Review
The FAA is charged with Ensuring the safe use of a public resource: the airspace above all our heads. The primary way they do their job is by making sure that airplanes work as they were designed and have adequate operational limits, ensuring that pilots and other airspace professionals (like controllers) have been adequately trained and receive recurrent training, and by separating airspace users in operation by adequate distances. It is the latter which will have the most bearing on your waiver application.
It's helpful to have an aviation map for the next steps. The application will ask for information relating to the airspace over your launch site, and the map will help you provide it in a form the FAA understands. Go a general aviation airport and look for the place where pilots to pay for fuel or rent airplanes. Ask the folks there for a "sectional" map. A total of 26 sectionals cover the continental US. Unless you are near a map boundary, the sectional should be the one most used by pilots in your area. It costs about $3, and it's fun to look at and try to decipher.
Locate your launch site on the sectional. Then consider the following:
- Are there any airports within 5 miles? If so, you'll need a waiver
of Section 101.23(c), which addresses your proximity to an airport.
- You'll also need a waiver of Section 101.23(b), which covers
controlled airspace.
- You may see a variety of wide straight blue lines on the map with
arrows on them and letters like "V321" on the lines. These are
airways, connections between radio navigation aids for airplanes under
positive airspace control. Having any of these near your launch site
makes the FAA nervous.
- Around larger airports, particularly larger cities, you may see
airports marked with a variety of dark blue circles surrounding them.
These larger airports frequently have high volumes of jet traffic and
these circles represent a class of airspace strictly controlled by the
FAA. Obtaining waivers under these terminal control areas (TCA's) is
not impossible, however. NARAM-33's waiver co-existed directly under
the approach to O'Hare International's Runway 9 Right. Be prepared to
accept lower waiver ceilings in this case.
- Other things to look out for include large blue areas marked with something like "P-405" (representing Prohibited Airspace, e.g., the White House, portions of the Grand Canyon, etc.) and "MOA" or Military Operations Areas (practice areas for armed forces pilot training). The military operates MOA's independent of the FAA, merely telling the FAA when they're using the area. The FAA cannot control access to these areas, and the military generally doesn't allow other uses of "their" airspace.
The presence of these things should not discourage you from applying for a waiver. Depending on other conditions, the volume of traffic, the workload of controllers and other factors, your waiver may be approved with these things and more present, or denied even though they are absent. You will have a better chance of having your application approved if you make your application in a professional manner, and conduct your activities likewise. Keep in mind that the people working on your application are people, and as such they respond to being treated courteously and professionally. Working with the FAA personnel you contact in a cooperative spirit will often bring fruit and establish long term working relationships.
Specific Data on Form 7711-2M
Lines 1, 2, and 3 are for your name, address, and telephone number.
Line 4 asked for the FAR's to be waived. You should list Section 101.23(b) and (c) as outlined in Airspace Review (see above).
Line 5 asks for a detailed description of what you want to do. Example:
Normal operations of Model and High Impulse Rockets weighing more than 16 ounces in accordance with the National Association of Rocketry Safety Codes (please see attached).
Line 6 asks for the location. If you've got the latitude and longitude to the second, use them. (You can determine this with US Geologic Survey maps, sometime available in biking or camping stores. If you have access to a GPS receiver, you can use that for this data) Otherwise, you can refer to a copy of the portion section map, like this:
On the grounds of and directly above the National Warplane Museum, Geneseo, NY (please see attached portion of Detroit sectional map).
or, if you understand the use of the radio navigation aids available to pilots, principally VOR's with DME distances computed:
12 miles along the 035 radial of the DuPage VOR
You can then copy that portion of the section map, circle the launch site in red or some other color, and write the legend, "Area of Proposed Operations." (Remember, these folks talk in Bureaucratese.)
Line 6 is also the line on which you request altitude. Again, in FAA patois, "No operation under this waiver will exceed 5000 feet AGL" are the magic words (AGL meaning "Above Ground Level"). The FAA measures all flight operations for waivers in this language. You have to decide how high you want to fly rockets.
How high a waiver application can be approved depends on what other airspace users might be above your site. The FAA generally likes to have 500 to 1,000 foot separations between users. Example: for NARAM-33, the minimum descent altitude above the site for airplanes into O'Hare was 2,200 feet AGL, making 1,700 feet AGL the waiver altitude ultimately assigned.
If you can read the altitude of the terrain on the section map, you can add this to the requested altitude above ground level to arrive at the altitude above Mean Sea Level (MSL), which might be appreciated by the person processing your application.
On Line 7 you give your starting and ending dates and times, and any rain dates. It's not necessary (nor is it desirable) to use Zulu (Greenwich Mean) Time, but these folks use that "hundred hour" jazz that Colonel Blake on M*A*S*H hated so much. Make sure to indicate what time zone you're referencing, for example "1030 EDT" or "1430 CST" for 10:30 AM and 2:30 PM respectively.
Lines 8 through 14 pertain to air shows and the like, so just put an "N/A" or two there to let them know these areas aren't blank because of an omission.
You sign on Line 15, and have an opportunity to say a little something about how you're going to be running things. Some NAR members have found the following text useful under "Remarks":
All operations will be conducted in accordance with the NAR Safety Codes and shall be under the control of an experienced Range Safety / Launch Control Officer. A spotter will watch for aircraft entering the operations area, and will temporarily suspend operations in this contingency.
Make three copies and send them to the Regional Office Keep one additional copy for yourself. Attach three copies of both Safety Codes, because the Model Rocket Safety Code covers rockets which will be under the terms of the waiver. Also attach three copies of the germane portion of the sectional map, if that's how you're indicating where you are going to fly. Include a short cover letter.
While the FAA will eventually respond, either with a denial, a approval as submitted or an approval as modified by them, if you want some indication of action sooner, try including a plain, stamped postcard addressed to yourself with the following on the back:
Received _________________ (date) an Application for Certificate of Waiver or Authorization, FAA Form 7711-2, at this office. For further information, please contact ___________________ (name) at _________________ (telephone number, extension).
Bureaucrats see these things all the time, and they know what to do with them.
Mail off this packet to the FAA Regional Office, to the attention of Flight Standards. You need to apply at least 30 days (the form says 45 days, so be sure) in advance. If you don't hear back from them in two or three weeks, give them a call. If all goes according to plan, you should get back your application, all the other stuff you sent, and the Certificate of Waiver!
Your approved waiver will probably require you to "activate" the waiver by making two or more phone calls. You will probably be directed to first call a Flight Service Station (FSS). These folks brief pilots before flights and will have a copy of a Notice to Airmen (NOTAM). NOTAMs tell pilots about unusual conditions along their route, and rocket launches qualify.
You should also be instructed to inform the nearest Air Route Traffic Control Center (ARTCC, sometimes shorted to ATC) an hour before the waiver begins, and to call them back when your waiver period ends.
Be prepared for the person answering any or all of these phones to be unfamiliar with your waiver. If you just tell them you're carrying out instructions from the Regional Office to give a Notice to Airmen, pursuant to the terms of your Certificate of Waiver, and/or mention the name of the FAA person noted on your waiver forms, the logjam usually breaks. . A little official-sounding talk will make them feel right at home.
Your waiver will also require you to make sure all flyers are familiar with the terms and conditions of your waiver. The FAA holds the waiver applicant personally responsible for this. Failure to comply with the waiver provisions becomes your legal responsibility and the FAA has the power to fine and prosecute you if they need to. A police you may consider is to make the waiver certificate and application available for inspection by all flyers. The FAA will also probably include a provision in the waiver allowing them to "pull" the waiver at any time. This allows them to adjust for any unusual conditions that might cause your waiver to interfere with other safe operations.
After the launch, send a letter to the person who sent me the Certificate of Waiver, thanking them for their help, and letting them know we had a safe and enjoyable time. It helps grease the skids for the next waiver you want, besides being common courtesy.
Use of Waiver Table
Once your waiver altitude is known, the NAR can provide you with a "waiver table" to assist in the operation of your range. Lines in the table contain engine designations. Columns contain body diameters. Cells contain a minimum launch weight in grams, ounces and pounds for a model using this combination of body diameter and motor to stay under the waiver ceiling. If a model is presented at check-in with a weight less than than indicated in the cell, it must have weight added to it to insure it stays under the waiver ceiling. All models subject to the provisions of the waiver must be checked against this table before flight to insure compliance.