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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!
 
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?
 
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. :y:

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.
 
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 later) 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.
 
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At the last Radical Rocketeers launch I was at, a large dual deploy, all fiberglass, minimum diameter 54mm rocket landed clear acrosspower lines. the main chute was so low, on one of my recovery drives, we almost hit it with our car. the power company said they would call back within 2 hours, bit by the time we left, 3 hrs later, they still had not responded. I later heard that it was safely recovered later in the afternoon
 
Hey folks, THIS should be a sticky up top along with the success story too!


A popular member of this forum lost his life last year when he tried to retrieve his rocket from a power line. Reading about that just a day or so after having traded posts with him here on the forum makes the danger no longer seem so hypothetical. You will never get me to go near a rocket that is hung up on a power line. If your rocket is so valuable that you can't afford to lose it, then you can't afford to launch it.
 
They are used to mark territory, I believe. Certain brands of shoes are associated with certain gangs.

In some college towns, it's a prank that roommate pull to show that you've stayed out all night (had sex) and have to walk home barefoot (the walk of shame)... at least, that's what I'm told.

Personally, i think it's a terrible waste of resources. It make me sick to think that we're raising a bunch of college educated young adults who would waste money and resources like that!
 
No, no charge. (I asked before they came out)

I called the 'Emergency and Power Outage' number, explained my name was Tim Lehr, and told them the situation....

No, but seriously, anything caught on a power line is considered a hazard by the Electric Company, and they will get it down.

They arrived in less than 45 minutes, on a Sunday.
Is your name Tim Lehr or Jeff Schubert?
Matt
 
that would be Jeff. just a note some power companys will charge a fee for retrieval, at mwp 10 I hung a rocket and got a bill for $32(which I paid, the 29/40-120 case runs more than that). I don't know if that fee was something they had just for mwp, I would guess that is normal for that company.
Rex
 
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My brain is confuzzled...
In his post, he says his name is Tim Lehr, but his siggy says Jeff Schubert...
:confused:
 
Not only humor, but if they said the service call will be $1000.00 they wouldn't have his name :wink:
 
or giving them an address of 1600 Pennsylvania Ave NW, Washington, DC 20006...:)
Rex
 
I wonder if a couple extra bucks of "Insurance" on top of the launch fees and some arrangements with the local power crews might encourage folks to leave this "hanging rocket" situation to the pros and NOT attempt to retrieve rockets off of the power lines themselves. Trying to snatch a reachable $200 rocket off of a power line sounds like a bargain considering the alternative $300-ish fine/charge from the power crew to get it back right?
 
When I lived in New Jersey as a Kid, I noticed Shoes on Powerlines all the Time.
 
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?

If you really need to you can just put Razors on a Frisby and slice it down. Heck, nowadays you can get a Quadcopter with a Burning Laser and cut it down like that too. They make handheld Burning Lasers now. They are all the Rage with Survivalist Types. They could easily be mounted on a Quadrocopter. High Voltage be Damned!!!!

Uh oh, I just realized that by Posting that, one of you crazy Folks is likely going to Build it. Ohwell....
 
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My nephew's RTF Riptide got hung up in some wires. I was sort of worried that there would be a bill or some other problem if I told them we were responsible for it, and the rocket wasn't expensive enough to be worth any trouble. I called the utility company and told them I noticed a rocket haging in the wires, and it might be a safety hazard. They didn't ask my name but asked for a phone number in case they needed more info. About 2 hours later I got a call from the utility worker who pulled it down. He said he didn't know if I knew whose rocket it was, but it was down, and he was leaving it on the curb. I ran around the block and got it. Successful recovery!
 
My nephew's RTF Riptide got hung up in some wires. I was sort of worried that there would be a bill or some other problem if I told them we were responsible for it, and the rocket wasn't expensive enough to be worth any trouble. I called the utility company and told them I noticed a rocket haging in the wires, and it might be a safety hazard. They didn't ask my name but asked for a phone number in case they needed more info. About 2 hours later I got a call from the utility worker who pulled it down. He said he didn't know if I knew whose rocket it was, but it was down, and he was leaving it on the curb. I ran around the block and got it. Successful recovery!

It sucks that you had to be Dishonest about it. However that is commendable. I don't think I could have pulled that off.
 
If you really need to you can just put Razors on a Frisby and slice it down. Heck, nowadays you can get a Quadcopter with a Burning Laser and cut it down like that too. They make handheld Burning Lasers now. They are all the Rage with Survivalist Types. They could easily be mounted on a Quadrocopter. High Voltage be Damned!!!!

Uh oh, I just realized that by Posting that, one of you crazy Folks is likely going to Build it. Ohwell....

There is no need to use the quad copter with the laser. Just cut from the ground. But perhaps you could use sharp blades on your quad and cut it that way.


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What is it with rockets and power lines???*

Have you ever been to a launch at Argonia Kansas?
Fifty Bazillion empty acres of plowed dirt with one set of power lines running through them and yet, at every launch I have attended there, at least one big rocket gets hung up on them.
And don’t get me started on small open bodies of water. Those same fifty bazillion empty acres could have one pond the size of a bathtub and you can bet your last dollar one of my rockets will find the damn thing.



*Somebody should do a study to determine if perhaps the shroud lines of our parachutes build up a static electricity charge and are somehow drawn to any power lines like a magnet draws iron filings.
 
It's a cosmological fact, small bodies of water and power lines emit model rocket-attracting ion-emgrams that work like gravity. The pull is proportional to the time spent on painting the model, squared, times the time spent on making the custom parachute, cubed.

On a related note, I lost my Baby Bertha on an abandoned office building rooftop. Well, I thought of getting a ladder and risking life and limb and a possible trespassing citation, but then thought "nah, I'm 50!", and made a polite call to the building caretaker. He sent for his usual rental security guy...

I got Baby back the next day, zero harm, cost, or damage. Remember to be polite, and your rockets will return!
 
I got a rocket down using a flare and a long PVC pole to burn the shock cord. No lasers necessary.

What would have been preferable was a shotgun; there were some hunters earlier in the day.
 
Power Line Retrival - 'How-to'


I launched (and lost) my Executioner on an F39 the previous evening. Searched for hours on Saturday and resumed the search on Sunday.

Long story short, I received a phone call that 'Mall Security' had located my rocket, hanging over a power line behind the 'Gap' store....

This is how I got my rocket off of a Live Power Line.....:y:

This should be a Sticky......


[YOUTUBE]NNLyT0ImO7U[/YOUTUBE]

[YOUTUBE]QWfb_lwhklI[/YOUTUBE]

You didn't think I was going to get it down, did you?

I made one phone call to the Electric Company.

That was brilliant.
 
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