Sagitta Cantina

Where I normally work in Downtown Cleveland, Ohio, we are often inconvenienced by a host of things, movies using the city streets to portray New York, the usual construction orange barrels, BLM and other protests, and even finally a celebration for a major sports championship. All of these things, and more, can be an annoyance in one way or another (for the parade for the championship victory, a typical commute of 15 minutes top, took me over an hour and fifteen minutes to get to the parking garage. These things generally don't last for long, and in the case of film shooting are generally restricted to certain areas which can be avoided.

The Republican National Convention in town this week is a completely different matter. Already the whole drafting department has been sent home with their computers to work at home during the week of the convention. This was of course a nuisance since the computers needed to be altered to work as stand alone units, no longer on the company's intranet. Friday we dissembled our computers, placed them on a dolly and wheeled them about two blocks away to the parking garage. We had to navigate around ten foot fences erected in the middle of the street blocking some intersections and making it so we couldn't just stop in front of the entrance of the building and load stuff.

All of this I am willing to bear, for the "betterment of the community". However, I was just thinking of spending some time going out to launch, when I decided to check on something.....

Yes, you guessed it,

From the FAA website

NOTAM Number : FDC 6/3692 Download shapefiles
Issue Date : July 11, 2016 at 2001 UTC
Location : CLEVELAND, Ohio
Beginning Date and Time : July 17, 2016 at 2200 UTC
Ending Date and Time : July 22, 2016 at 0700 UTC
Reason for NOTAM : Temporary flight restrictions for Special Security Reasons
Type : Security
Replaced NOTAM(s) : N/A

F. THE FOLLOWING OPERATIONS ARE NOT AUTHORIZED WITHIN THIS TFR: FLIGHT TRAINING, PRACTICE INSTRUMENT APPROACHES, AEROBATIC FLIGHT, GLIDER OPERATIONS, SEAPLANE OPERATIONS, PARACHUTE OPERATIONS, ULTRALIGHT, HANG GLIDING, BALLOON OPERATIONS, AGRICULTURE/CROP DUSTING, ANIMAL POPULATION CONTROL FLIGHT OPERATIONS, BANNER TOWING OPERATIONS, SIGHTSEEING OPERATIONS, MAINTENANCE TEST FLIGHTS, MODEL AIRCRAFT OPERATIONS, MODEL ROCKETRY, UNMANNED AIRCRAFT SYSTEMS (UAS), AND UTILITY AND PIPELINE SURVEY OPERATIONS.

(emphasize mine)

No model rocket launching within 30 nautical miles of the arena. Damn this week just got worse.

Under recent circumstances, I can understand an abundance of caution on their part and probably wouldn't fly anyway BUT... technically, if it's a true model rocket (under 3.3 & 1500) I don't think legally they can say or do anything if you fly next to the runway fence. FAA has no say within the lower size model rocket regs. They only come into play above those limits.

Of course, common sense and NAR codes routinely ask not to fly within 5 miles but that isn't law either. That's a self imposed code and optional under the law.

Now, as a matter of respect or courtesy, that's a different issue altogether.

Smells like a Crock-O'-$hit to me.
I think a major change we need in this country is giving these ELITISTS in our country no more and no less protection/special treatment for safety/security than the average subject/serf/minion Citizen is given.

Ghrocketman wrote:Smells like a Crock-O'-$hit to me.
I think a major change we need in this country is giving these ELITISTS in our country no more and no less protection/special treatment for safety/security than the average subject/serf/minion Citizen is given.

Exactly... OL J R