My Best Recovery Ever.

[fyrwrxz]

Just to keep this thread alive-i have to post this: I had two friends die in Junior High School (early 60's) trying to recover from power lines in the back yard where they lived. We heard the launch and ran a couple of blocks just in time to see them be electrocuted. So- what Mark said: If you can't afford to lose it, you can't afford to launch it. Be safe, my brothers!

[awseiger]

I agree that getting rockets back from power lines is stupid (Who doesn't). I've played alot with High Voltage. It's quick, it's scary, and you can only make ONE mistake. Just one. And the worst part is, it jumps through thin air.

The general danger is such... Anything that looks like an electrical insulator, isn't at 70,000 volts. A piece of wood at 70,000 volts will happily carry enough current to kill you. This is why power lines are hung from giant hunks of ceramic.

I should point out that some weekend in college (We're cool kids, eh!) my friends and I lost a rocket in the power lines right smack across a road. The rocket was hanging low enough that a tall truck (Or the campus buses!) would have brushed it, causing an instant problem. Panicking, we started throwing rocks at the nosecone to try to flip it down while directing taller vehicles around the dangling rocket. A safer solution than going up to grab it, but still kind of stupid. We eventually got it down, but we all kind of wondered afterward if the power company REALLY would have charged us.

Well, I called the power company and they told us that they are required to remove things dangling from power lines. Essentially, if we had called them, they would have had an emergency crew out there in under an hour to take it off, without charging us. We probably would have payed the guys everything in our pockets in thanks, but alas...

Just call the company. If they want to charge you for it, So be it. Things dangling down from power lines are just asking for someone, other than you, to try to get it down. Not to mention, its easier to touch something dangling down. Is it really worth knowing that some curious (proboably drunk, in our case) people tried to poke down your rocket and died?

[Zaphod]

I remember seeing someone at NSL 2007 - standing on top of their car - trying to grab their rocket hanging from the high voltage transmission lines running near the field. Their ~8 year old kid watching from the ground nearby.

That's a prime candidate for a Darwin Award right there. It's sad that the child would be right there watching if something went wrong.

[K'Tesh]

A friend and classmate of mine in high school got it in his mind (as a 6-year-old) to climb a power pole. When he came to (3+ weeks lager) he was missing his left hand, and his right forearm. He also had a nasty burn that came very close to removing his chances at having a genetic legacy. After the remaining tissues died he ultimately ended up having no right arm and his left was amputated to just below the elbow. He had a claw activated by using his shoulders. Nice kid, terrible accident.

I last bumped into him while I was walking with my (now ex) fiance in Oxford (Oxfordshire, UK). He was on his way to the University of Barcelona. I've lost track of him, but knowing my luck (Lord Willing), I'll bump into him again when I'll hopefully be teaching in Taipei sometime next year.