Safety is a high priority in all of my rocketry projects. I take an approach to safety utilising both real-world and simulated tests to predict and mitigate risks, as well as using generous safety margins for all testing to minimise the damage should unexpected problems ever occur. This ensures that I can safely push the boundaries of low-power actively controlled model rocketry while maintaining a safe environment for both myself and others. This page describes how I use real-world and simulated testing to ensure safety, as well as my collaboration with the UKRA Safety Committee.

Collaborating with the UKRA Safety Committee

Ensuring the safety and legality of my projects has required close collaboration with the national governing body. Use of thrust vector control (TVC) as well as centimetre-level tracking have never been seen before at the low-power model scale I'm working at, so the UKRA safety regulations had not been well developed. My projects in this field have therefore required direct collaboration with the Safety & Technical Committee to ensure all testing and flights are done in the safest way possible.

This collaboration has involved the following:

• Consultation and risk assessment: From the project's inception, I've been in contact with the committee to discuss the regulatory and safety implications of my designs. This has involved submitting comprehensive flight profiles, system specifications, and risk assessments for review - leading to their approval of my unconventional rockets.

• Contributing to the Safety Code: Through our technical discussions, I had the unique opportunity to contribute to the development of new safety regulations, with my projects serving as a key case study. Specifically, I proposed new safety methodologies for actively-controlled rockets as direct analogues for those in place for passively-stabilised rockets, including the following:

1. A mandatory "hold down" or similar test to validate the flight stability of the software and hardware, offering an alternative to the traditional centre of pressure/gravity check. While this has yet to be implemented into the safety code, it remains one of my most powerful risk-mitigation steps which I utilise for all of my actively controlled rockets. 

2. The implementation of a software-based abort system to deploy a recovery system if the rocket ever deviates from the planned flight envelope. This has now been implemented into the safety code under section 8.3.