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Sunday, 09 July 2006 |
For my next balloon I decided to make something that could lift a small payload. I figured I better see what the rules were. For Australian free balloon regulations see the 1998 CASR Part 101 on Unmanned Aircraft and Rocket Operations. Have a look at sub-part 101E for the unmanned free balloon regulations. It seems the regulations were worked out on helium balloons that have a much greater lift to volume ratio. The regulations say that a 'light balloon' is less than 2 m at all times in flight and is capable of carrying a payload of no more than 4 kg. My balloon was going to be bigger than 2 m but there was no way it was going to lift 4 kg. Looking at the other categories my planned solar balloons just did not fit. No category was applicable. I rang CASA to try and clear up the ambiguity. They suggested to read the regulations as 'or' rather than 'and' when classifying the balloon by size and payload capacity. The main concern, they stated, is the payload mass not the size of the balloon. This is good for me. So I did not have to do any notifications I decided the first prototype was going to be a balloon that carried a payload of less than 50 grams so it is classified as a 'small balloon' by CASA. To do this it was going to be about 2-3 m in diameter.
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Last Updated ( Wednesday, 19 July 2006 )
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