LOHAN unleashes 'waiting for the FAA' collector mug

It's fair to say that waiting for US Federal Aviation Authority approval for our Vulture 2 spaceplane launch is a bit like sitting blindfolded in a room twiddling your thumbs while trying to imagine what paint drying on the wall of an adjacent room looks like. Suffice to say, we're doing our best to gee up the FAA snail - but …

[Ralph B]

Alternatively

Alternatively, how about a "waiting for the LOHAN tankard" collector mug?

[Lester Haines]

Re: Alternatively

Or, for myself, a "waiting for a concrete answer as to why some tankards have apparently not been dispatched" collector mug.

[DiViDeD]

Re: Alternatively

With you there Lester old boy. I'm tempted by the classic lines and smooth shininess and all, but fearful it might end up in the same wormhole as my kickstarter tankard.

Oh! The beers I've had to sup straight from the bottle!

[bpfh]

Re: Alternatively

That's the one for me :) I'd buy one, but when would it arrive?

(Any news on those tankards by the way? I can get a collegue to pick up from El Reg's London office if needed...)

[Pet Peeve]

Re: Alternatively

Yeah, what ever did happen with the drinking glasses? The last message we got was "don't do anything if you haven't gotten one, we'll take no reply as you haven't gotten it". So, I rushed right out and didn't do anything.

At the rate the FAA is going, I probably STILL will be able to tip the glass to you at launch day even if it's another month or two, but I'd really like to have it.

[Anonymous Coward]

2nd picture of dark haired woman

Stars in space.....there are no stars in space. Please stop photoshopping them in, or its ASA time!!!

[Dave 32]

Re: 2nd picture of dark haired woman

There were stars there? There was a mug there? Pardon me; I was mesmerized by the lovely young lady in that picture.

Dave

[Evil Auditor]

Re: 2nd picture of dark haired woman

"lovely young lady"?

All I saw was the absence of a proper boffin's pipe.

[Anonymous Coward]

Have you tried asking El Reg readership for funding to go to North Korea?

I hear they are very keen on launching rockets.....

[Sporkinum]

What is the actual hold up?

What is the actual hold up? I didn't think you needed approval for a weather balloon launch. Is it because a small semi-autonomous model plane may fly? Does it fall under some sort of drone-type regulation?

[Lester Haines]

Re: What is the actual hold up?

We have no idea what's causing the delay. It's a simple rockoon launch effectively, in restricted airspace.

[Dave 32]

Re: What is the actual hold up?

It's those pesky FAR 101 rules (14CFR101):

<http://www.ecfr.gov/cgi-bin/text-idx?c=ecfr&sid=8b5584c0cf53c0a4f4a5615491e1be66&rgn=div5&view=text&node=14:2.0.1.3.15&idno=14#14:2.0.1.3.15.1.9.1>

Specifically, it's probably 14CFR101.7(b):

"(b) No person operating any moored balloon, kite, amateur rocket, or unmanned free balloon may allow an object to be dropped therefrom, if such action creates a hazard to other persons or their property."

And, the rocket could always poke someone in their eye, which would make it a hazard. :-(

Oh, there may be other issues, too, such as altitude limits on model rockets, etc.

The usual way these things are handled is to get a waiver from the FAA, which can take forever and then some, assuming that it's granted at all.

Dave

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: What is the actual hold up?

Sometimes it is better to seek forgiveness that permission. But perhaps not in a country with as many lawyers and law enforcement agencies. As for the comment about meeting BATF's SWAT people, I did meet some once and had a fascinating pub conversation with a bunch of different agents explaining how inter-agency stuff works. Most of the time. The Bureau of Booze, Smokes, Guns & Fireworks sounded the most fun though.

[DiViDeD]

Re: What is the actual hold up?

Oi reckons it's cos some merkin team is still putting the finishing touches to their own ballocket project (31.276531cm? Is that about a foot and a bit? Pass me a No 3 hammer and I'll MAKE it fit!) and LOHAN won't get approval until the merkins have snatched victory from el Reg's trembling fingers.

Launch and be damned say I.

[Dave 32]

Re: What is the actual hold up?

Actually, the Americans did it not quite 20 years ago:

http://www.asi.org/adb/06/09/03/02/106/halo-launch.html

This was a team led by Bill Brown. But, in order to get around those obnoxious regulations, they had to rent a barge, and go 100 miles off-short, so that they were launching in international waters.

Dave

[WalterAlter]

Re: What is the actual hold up?

Launch the sucker at Burning Man. Dress as ornithopters and you'll have 60-70 thousand costumed and naked people to disappear into.

[WalterAlter]

Re: What is the actual hold up?

The current administration, known far and wide for taking names and keeping score, may find The Register's chronic libertarian philosophical criticism of basic human stupidity and occasional jibes at liberal shibboleths to put them in the same bathtub as conservative groups trying to get their non-profit status or right wing gun nut trailer trash getting their tax returns endlessly audited or whistleblowers in general. I'm thinking that a six figure donation to the Democratic Party Platform Committee might limber things up.

[Tim Jenkins]

Re: What is the actual hold up?

Possibly something on the lines of an aversion to having a bunch of foreigners, some bearded, and all with very strange accents, gathering on a US aeronautical facility to carry out the last stages of a complex plan involving flying things, lots of which was discussed and refined in a very dubious internet forum by people with weird nicknames?

Just a thought...

[A. Coatsworth]

All the articles about Cash'n'Carrion in the last weeks got me wondering: is it possible to get these goods directly in Vulture Central? (and by the way is it *possible* to visit Vulture Central?)

Shipping and handling fees are prohibitive for a lowly computer-botherer in the wrong side of the pond, but if said commentard just happened to be visiting the Capital of the Empire later in the year....

[Someone Else]

Welcome to the Colonies, Lester...

<sigh />

[Steve Davies 3]

Re: Welcome to the Colonies, Lester...

Don't forget to go arse about faced when entering dates.

[BobRocket]

Just launch it

Just launch it and say it was an accident, I'm sure they'll understand

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Just launch it

The added bonus of this course of action would be the chance to meet your local FBI and Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms SWAT teams (great guys!), followed by an all-expenses-paid Carribean vacation at Club Fed Guantanamo Bay.

(Icon shows LOHAN launch team member being fitted with complimentary orange Federal Bureau of Prisons jumpsuit--tres chic!)

[Robert Helpmann??]

Re: Just launch it

Get it reclassified as a gun and have someone local pull the trigger. That ought to work. Good luck!

[D@v3]

Re: Gitmo

It's funny how 'waterboarding at Guantanamo Bay' sounds like fun, unless you know what it really means

[MrXavia]

Re: Gitmo

Oh I am sure there are plenty of people out there who would enjoy it....

[Andrew Newstead]

Always easier to apologise afterwards than to ask permission?

[Rumournz]

have an upvote for the Grace Hooper ref

[Major Major]

There is even an IT angle to this: http://oranlooney.com/lbyl-vs-eafp/

[PC Paul]

Just Do It!

Why not, after all even if the FAA get upset now everyone involved will be long retired before the next mission after LOHAN at this rate...

[Mark 85]

FAA?

Did they even get the paperwork? I'm wondering if it's not sitting on Joe's (or someone similar) desk.. the guy who retired a couple of years ago.

[Tempest8008]

Is that an embroidered patch I spy?

Is that an embroidered patch I spy, gracing the breast of that fine flight suit flatteringly fashioned by Fenke?

I'm supposed to get one of those.

[Triggerfish]

Bigger Mugs

You need to sell larger mugs.

[Phil O'Sophical]

Re: Bigger Mugs

larger mugs

They're all fully occupied preparing the launch.

[Beornfrith]

Likewise! My suggestion wasn't the winner but my motto did make the shortlist...!

[Beornfrith]

That was supposed to be in reply to Tempest's post but a login-cock-up put paid to that, apparently :)

[Jon 88]

Wish I could help

I actually work for said government body... but I am not part of your approvals process. Hope you can launch soon!

[VeganVegan]

Is it still possible to apply for Spanish permission?

Even if it meant shipping LOHAN all the way back again.

It'd be amusing to see which bureaucracy is slower, USA or Spain.

[John Brown (no body)]

Re: Is it still possible to apply for Spanish permission?

IIRC, the "Spanish problem" wasn't a slow bureaucracy but the condition that to "import" the rocket motor from Germany into Spain one has to own and operate a fireworks factory.

Quite how this "import" thing from one EU country to another jibes with the EU free market and free movement of people and goods eludes me right now.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Is it still possible to apply for Spanish permission?

Wouldn't the obvious solution there be to find someone who owns a fireworks factory? They are probably interested in rockets. And there'd be some publicity to be had.

[Elmer Phud]

'How long?' timer

You'll realise it's been a while when the 'batteryless' keyring goes dim.

[Stevie]

Bah!

This highlihgts a flaw in the planning stages: The decision *not* to launch from a vessel at sea outside national controlled waters and design for an aquatic landing.

[Justin Clift]

Hmmm...

Perhaps shipping the kit which backers were promised first, before trying to flog more stuff?

[timmythegeek]

Did you try and get help from the EAA

Since this is Experimental and they have a huge pull with the FAA you might try going through them. To help speed along the process.

mine is the one still full of snow.

[Simon B]

+1 for the lovely Fenke, i'll buy her a pint to say thank you for making a hard day at work more pleasant. Send her to sort out the FAA, you can't argue with a woman unless you have a death wish, the FAA would be no match :)

[WillbeIT]

Just checked...

...and it is official. The project is travelling at exactly 0% of the maximum velocity of a sheep in a vacuum

[Diogenes]

Re: Just checked...

Is that a spherical sheep ?

[Nigel Cro]

Not just me then...

I'm not sure if I am relieved or not to realise that I am not the only person who hasn't received my silica based beer receptacle?

(sorry, far too many contradictory negatives in that sentence, but I can't be ar**d to retype it)

[x 7]

FAA?? Whats the Fleet Air Arm got to do with this?