The FAA in general is very helpful, but not always.
Most of the guys I have talked to in three different regions have been
helpful and great. Some have even humored my ex-boss with some silly
concepts.
However, not always. People rotate, policies change, and there are bad
days.
My favorite example was a courtesy notice about a exempt launch
(sonde sized) that was flatly refused. Our answer was, of course,
"Never mind !" and proceeded to fly.
-Gar.
From: "Monroe L. King Jr." <monroe@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Subject: [AR] Re: Pilot, ALASA, and cubesat launch (was Re: some interesting
Date: Thu, 07 Jan 2016 19:02:30 -0700
I have sat down with the FAA several times over the years Ken. This is
why the reaction because the FAA has been very helpful to me over the
years.
I've never heard an FAA official make a blanket statement like that
before about rockoons.
I've never approached the FAA with anything over land before because my
launch site is on the gulf coast. But surely black rock is big enough.
JP did a rockoon somewhere that was over land. But then he's also done
the proper background launching balloons.
