01-25-2023, 10:18 AM
|
|
Banned
|
|
Join Date: Mar 2005
Location: Raleigh, NC Area
Posts: 1,743
|
|
Quote:
Originally Posted by luke strawwalker
Well, we all have our preferences, and that's a good thing. Lotsa guys love HPR, that's fine, to each his own, but it's not my thing, and while I was interested in it when I became a BAR a lil over 20 years ago, yeah what I saw on the ranges wasn't impressing me at all safety wise. Then I've seen enough nonsense from rockets that buried themselves SO deeply in the soil off the range that they had to dig a 6 foot deep pit to just recover the electronics and motor casing, and left the rest there because they'd have to dig another few feet to recover it, to a HPR flying between a guy and girl on a 4 wheeler when it was leaned over on the launch rail to work on the upper stage, and the second stage went off and flew between them, burning them both (would have been fatal had it been off a foot either way). HPR's crashing down THROUGH vehicles and destroying them, including landing on the rear wheel of a motorcycle someone was riding and destroying it (again, a foot forward it would have been a fatality no doubt about it). Lots of stuff like that. Just not worth it to me having that on the property or being involved in it myself, particularly considering the costs involved.
Not to say that NOBODY can or has gotten hurt in LPR/MPR; the kid that took the X-15 to the chest was the worst I've heard of. That's been awhile back and out of 60 years of rocketry that's not a bad record (course ANYTHING like that is too much, but yeah, probabilities are a thing). My point is, that's the WORST we've seen AFAIK, and it was bad enough. I can tick off a half dozen HPR related incidents that WOULD SURELY have been fatal but for the tiniest of margins of SHEER LUCK. NOT good! AND, to top it off, whenever I've suggested that it should be looked into or have new safety rules or procedures put in place, it invariably leads to the same response... a visceral backlash that I'm try to "ruin someone's fun" or "making a mountain out of a molehill". Meh, I've come to expect it. "Rules for thee but not for ME" kind of thinking... see it all the time. Just how it is, how people are nowadays. Oh well... so long as it's somewhere else FAR AWAY, so be it...
Later! OL J R
|
Yes, the X-15 accident was terrible.
Also, let us not forget the Boy Scout Leader, Michael Bentley, that was killed by a rocket streamlining in, back in 2015, I believe.
https://www.pressenterprise.com/201...le-model-mentor
I found a photo of the liftoff of the two rockets involved in the drag race, but I am not sure which rocket struck and killed scoutmaster, Michael Bentley ( R.I.P. ).
Dave F.
|