This is the type of post that I would like to write on the museum blog (which you all should be reading by the way since I write 99.99% of the posts) since it is museum related, however this would not exactly be politically correct.

Yesterday I went to Fiesta Island with two others from the education department to launch rockets with a school group. The normal routine involves setting up the launch area, giving the launch safety speech to the kids, launching the model rockets, cleaning up, and going out for lunch at Phils (sometimes). Most of the time we are alone in the Over the Line area but sometimes we have a boy scout group trying to leech off of our rocket launch permit and launch their own rockets. Every once in a while a Park Ranger stops by to check our permits. I think they have come by only two to three times in the three years and dozens of rocket launches I have done with the museum.

Yesterday two Park Rangers in their truck stopped by. We showed them our permits and they went on their merry way. About an hour later a helicopter hovers over the bay and watches us for a while. A little bit later a cop pulls up checks out what we are doing and then leaves. Just as we begin to clean up from the launch and leave the same cop pulls up and talks to my coworker Rossco.

When I get back to the cars with my box of launch equipment, I learn that the helicopter reported us to the FAA! The cop told us to call the FAA to clear things up. As we sit in the car, Rossco, our rocket expert and pilot, calls and talks to some bureaucrat about what happened. Rossco explains to him the type of rockets and engines we use and that we have finished for the day and are leaving. The bureaucrat tells us that we need to call at least 24 hours in advanced and no more than 48 hours in advance for FAA approval. We book our classes months in advance and it would suck for us if they tell us no the day before the launch.

The best part was when he then tells us to “Cease and Desist” any more launches for the day. Rossco already told him we are done for the day and we are sitting in the car to leave! I dont mean to say that all FAA people are power hungry jerks but this particular guy just wanted to make himself sound important and in charge. Who says cease and desist when they have already been informed that we have?

In the three years I have done rocket launches and the ten Rossco has, we have never been told that we needed FAA approval to launch rockets at the only model rocket launch site in San Diego. Either the City of San Diego needs to tell the FAA that the planes that take off over 3 miles away are in no danger of our tiny little rockets or they need to shut fown Fiesta Island as a rocket launch site. The latter would be a really bad choice!