4Es

[luke strawwalker]

I know a few level one guys, and a couple of level two guys, that I would trust with my son's life. But I know more with the what I call the high power god syndrome. I would not trust them as far as I could throw them.

I have also found that the good high power guys are overly cautious come safety.

Andrew

Quite true... Agree completely.

I know some REALLY safe guys, and there are some guys that I don't want around me with and empty ball point pen tube... because they'll find a way to be dangerous with it...

Better drop this topic before I'm accused of painting with too broad a brush again and being a 'HPR-hater'.... LOL

Later! OL JR

[CarVac]

I was going to complain about the HPR hating, until I realized that no matter how safe the flyer acts, the accident rate is still not zero. I had a lake stake that was completely out of my control: the motor delay grain did not start burning and so I had no ejection. I do have a "risky" rocket, but I wrote a simulator for that from scratch to ensure that it had no way to reach the flight line under any circumstances. (It only goes 500 ft up so it can't go far across) It also has one deployment failure under its belt, though it was, as predicted, away from the flight line.

I am trying my best to make my level 2 triple or more redundant, but failure is always a possibility and with increased size the consequences also grow.

[luke strawwalker]

I was going to complain about the HPR hating, until I realized that no matter how safe the flyer acts, the accident rate is still not zero. I had a lake stake that was completely out of my control: the motor delay grain did not start burning and so I had no ejection. I do have a "risky" rocket, but I wrote a simulator for that from scratch to ensure that it had no way to reach the flight line under any circumstances. (It only goes 500 ft up so it can't go far across) It also has one deployment failure under its belt, though it was, as predicted, away from the flight line.

I am trying my best to make my level 2 triple or more redundant, but failure is always a possibility and with increased size the consequences also grow.

Glad to hear it!!! This is the sort of attitude we need more of... I love your last quote... "with increased size consequences grow"... absolutely true! If this sort of thinking was more prominent I wouldn't have much reason for disallowing HPR on my places. Sadly it's not, but who knows... maybe in time...

You probably know this, but it bears repeating in case you don't... realize that a rocket on a 45 degree ballistic trajectory will travel twice as far across the ground as it is capable of flying straight up at 90 degrees... IOW if the rocket is capable of achieving a 500 foot apogee on a "regular" flight, if it goes awry with the same motor power on a 45 degree trajectory, it is capable of travelling 1,000 feet downrange (or crossrange or uprange). SO hopefully your setback is more than 1000 feet in this case...

Take it easy and good luck with your project! OL JR

[CarVac]

If it is launched straight up, no combination of 20mph winds + one of the two motors igniting with a delay was predicted to send it more than about 200 feet from the pad. Plus, if the pad is able to, I aim the launch 15 degrees away from the flight line for a better view of the spinning flames and for reduced chance of tangle, as well as increased safety.