Did Tripoli ban pull pins?

I think I read that.

I believe so too.

No.

At one time there was a proposal to update the NFPA section to ban the use of pull-pins for ignition, but it didn't make it into the final set of rules.

-- Roger

Reason I'm asking is that I have a flight computer with that option, and it is useful for air starts when the initial launch G load is too low to activate a G switch activated air start function.
Some scale models actually look better with a slower launch.

jadebox said:

No.

At one time there was a proposal to update the NFPA section to ban the use of pull-pins for ignition, but it didn't make it into the final set of rules.

-- Roger

Click to expand...

OK. NFPA....how about Tripoli NAR?

I was looking for the first discussion I recall about this several years ago...I think the ban on pull pins actually made it into the Tripoli safety code - section 2.12.6 at that time.....have things changed?

https://www.tripoli.org/LinkClick.aspx?fileticket=7x3m7vITjik=&tabid=185

NFPA has never considered such ban that I can recall. But I do have a pdf copy of a 2012 version of the TRA safety code that had such a ban:

2-12.6 A rocket motor shall not be ignited by any of the following:
a. A switch that uses mercury.
b. “Pull wires” that disconnect or complete a circuit.
c. “Pressure roller” switches

Click to expand...

Yes. https://www.tripoli.org/LinkClick.aspx?fileticket=7x3m7vITjik=&tabid=185

The rule is designed to eliminate the ignition of an upper stage when the rocket is on a tower on the ground. You can still employ a pull pin or a pressure roller switch as a sensor input to an ignition circuit, but you can not simply use either one or both to directly fire the igniter. It is the result of an accident at a recent LDRS that resulted in a burn injury of an invited guest (a girl friend of a Tripoli Member and not involved with the launch so uninsured and not permitted to be at the away pads) who was left on an ATV about 30' away from a rocket mounted on a tower that was being lower to fix an electronics problem IIRC. A motor igniter was to be activated by a pull pin upon drag separation of a booster. Somehow the booster separated from the upper stage on the horizontal rail which ignited the sustainer motor and the exhaust cooked the leg of the person on the ATV. The girl friend was uninsured and hired a lawyer who sued TRA, the sponsoring club, and the owners of the rocket, but strangely enough not her boyfriend who took her to the away pads in violation of the launch rules......

Bob

I bet he doesn't bring another non-member to a launch again to the pads.
If, he even is a member now.
I would assume such actions would be cause for being banned for a time, or for life.
Did she have a "Press Card"? and cameras?

Please correct me if I am missing something here, but isn't this a newer version of the code?

https://www.tripoli.org/LinkClick.aspx?fileticket=vF/34Qq57zg=&tabid=185

Titan II said:

Please correct me if I am missing something here, but isn't this a newer version of the code?

Click to expand...

Yes it is. If you click on "File" and then "Properties" in Adobe Reader it will show you the creation dates of the files. TRA produced several revisions within short order at that time.

The last revision, aka the overlay, doesn't have the pull pin provision.

Titan II said:

Please correct me if I am missing something here, but isn't this a newer version of the code?

https://www.tripoli.org/LinkClick.aspx?fileticket=vF/34Qq57zg=&tabid=185

Click to expand...

In the above 7/31/2012 version it's here.
A-5 A rocket motor shall not be ignited by using:
a. A switch that uses mercury.
b. "Pressure roller" switches

From TRA's Safe Launch Practices dated 7/31/2013 https://www.tripoli.org/LinkClick.aspx?fileticket=RhLaGq2C+HY=&tabid=326

4. A rocket motor shall not be ignited by a mercury switch or roller switch.


Bob

It's too bad you get linked to several versions on the same website.

Bob

A friendly reminder I discussed this in 2012 under "Pull Pins Outlawed?" I'd like to think I had some effect bitching privately to the powers that were at the time had some folks reconsider...
(p.s.-the 'Fizz and Fly' project never got off the kitchen counter...LOL!)

UhClem said:

Yes it is. If you click on "File" and then "Properties" in Adobe Reader it will show you the creation dates of the files. TRA produced several revisions within short order at that time.

The last revision, aka the overlay, doesn't have the pull pin provision.

Click to expand...

So pull pins are NOT prohibited?

MaxQ said:

So pull pins are NOT prohibited?

Click to expand...

They don't have mercury and are not pressure roller switches.

Note that NFPA 1127 requires that all firing circuits be inhibited unless the rocket is in the launching position.

MaxQ said:

So pull pins are NOT prohibited?

Click to expand...

That's correct.

-- Roger

Incidentally:

"We got two categories of pilots around here. We got your prime pilots that get all the hot planes, and we got your pud-knockers who DREAM about getting the hot planes.
Now what are you two pud-knockers gonna have?... Huh?”
Pancho Barnes- The Right Stuff"

Is most likely a sanitized line from a movie script not attributable to the person in question. Chuck Yeager in his biography made a statement to the effect that, " Pancho wouldn't use a 5 letter word when a 4 lettered one would do."
If Pancho Barnes had said something to the above effect it most likely was a lot more caustic. Other sources mention that many of the test pilots wives were a bit surprised/shocked by her language. Kurt

ksaves2 said:

Incidentally:

"We got two categories of pilots around here. We got your prime pilots that get all the hot planes, and we got your pud-knockers who DREAM about getting the hot planes.
Now what are you two pud-knockers gonna have?... Huh?”
Pancho Barnes- The Right Stuff"

Is most likely a sanitized line from a movie script not attributable to the person in question. Chuck Yeager in his biography made a statement to the effect that, " Pancho wouldn't use a 5 letter word when a 4 lettered one would do."
If Pancho Barnes had said something to the above effect it most likely was a lot more caustic. Other sources mention that many of the test pilots wives were a bit surprised/shocked by her language. Kurt

Click to expand...

That PC thing ? Or maybe they wanted to keep a G rating?
Still funny.