[AR] Re: Canada - legal engine testing?
- From: "Marcus D. Leech" <mleech@xxxxxxxxxx>
- To: arocket@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Wed, 13 Nov 2013 00:23:55 -0500
On 11/13/2013 12:05 AM, qbert@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx wrote:
I think I even sent you the regulation way back then, It's changed
since then but still ends up being a catchall regulation, (if they
want to pursue it)
This is the current definition;
"explosive"
means any thing that is made, manufactured or used to produce an
explosion or a detonation or pyrotechnic effect, and includes any
thing prescribed to be an explosive by the regulations, but does not
include gases, organic peroxides or any thing prescribed not to be an
explosive by the regulations. (The gases is why hybrids are allowed)
"explosion"
A release energy in a sudden and often violent manner usually with the
generation of high temperature and the release of gases.
*
*I don't think anyone would linterpret the *correct and desired*
operation of a rocket motor to be an "explosion". Certainly, when they
malfunction,
they can fall under the definition of "explosion", but since they
aren't *designed* to explode, then unless they also operate by the rapid
interaction of
a chemical pyrotechnic mixture, they aren't *explosives* under the act.
A partially-full gas-tank will *explode* under certain conditions, but
that doesn't mean that partially-full gas-tanks are regulated under the
explosives act (they're regulated under *other* regulations, no
doubt, but not as explosives).
I've had this clarified by ERD themselves, back in the days when I
operated Propulsion Polymers. So unless the regulations have
fundamentally changed, then the testing an operation of rocket motors
that don't otherwise fall under the explosives act is not governed by
the Explosives Act, and the regulations that follow from the Act.
Now, there are plenty of *other* regulations and laws such things may
fall under, but the ERD regs aren't among them. Noise by-laws,
reckless endangerment if you're running tests in your backyard in a
suburb, etc. But the mere operation of a combustion chamber that
rapidly burns a liquid oxidizer and fuel together, producing a
supersonic jet of gas, isn't governed by the Explosives Act.
Is an oxy-propane torch an explosive? What if you turn the controls up
to "maximum", to get a nice dull roar out of it, and gases leaving the
vicinity
at high speed? Is it then an explosive, and governed by the
explosives Act? If you asked ERD, they would say "of course not".
I'm not saying that you won't get in trouble for testing hybrid or
bi-liquid rocket motors in your back-yard. But the Explosives Act isn't
likely
to play any role at all.
I used to test rocket motors out at my farm all the time. I did *lots*
of tests out there. Never a problem. I was sensible about it. Took
lots of precautions to limit exposure in the case of an accident, etc.
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