20th April 2006 - The federal government in it's infinite wisdom, has decided to force CASA to charge you $130 every time you book air space. Yes, you read that correctly. Fortunatly for us, CASA WA (and Queensland) have decided that they will only charge us $130 for all flights if we book for two years in advance. South Australia on the other hand were recently charged over $400 for four waivers. Obviously this is going to have a negative effect on air safety as people are just not going to bother to do the right thing and get a waiver. (2008: This situation is currently being reviewed).

If you live in Perth or the surrounding area, then don't bother. Just attend a Perth Advanced Rocket Club launch at Toodyay. If you live in a rural area or a major town other than Perth, then the procedure is as follows:

Download the form 'Application to use airspace' from the downloads page. You only need to fill this form in once per year. Some of the questions are a bit ambiguous and may not relate too well for your specific intentions, so lets have a quick look at some of the questions:

Q5. Launch location - This is the location of the launch site in Lat and long. If you don't know the exact location (down to seconds) you can just provide a map and CASA will work it out.

Q6. Launch Date - Provide a list - This isn't set in concrete and you can always add/change dates - You just have to provide 48 hours notice.

Q9. Number of rockets to be launched - 'Many' will suffice as an answer to this question.

Q10. Mass and size of rockets - You don't need to specify each rocket - all CASA cares about is that they don't exceed the definition of a Mid Power model rocket ie: Less than 1500grams and less than 320N/sec total impulse.

Send the form into CASA along with a big fat cheque for $130 and they will either accept or refuse your application.

If you have a date booked but intend to cancel it, you should contact CASA 48 hours before hand and tell them so they can cancel the issued NOTAM. Contact details for CASA are:

Mr John Pritchard: PH: 9366 2828