Most hair-raising flight you ever witnessed?

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LW Bercini

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Ok, so this is not the most politically correct topic. But admit it, most of us can say we've seen some less than optimal flights in our day.

What would you say was the most hair-raising, duck-and-cover flight you have ever witessed first hand?

Mine was many years ago at a NARAM. They were having international team tryouts and one of the events on the docket was F R/C rocket glider. I'm pretty sure I remember the competitor's name, but I won't mention it here. His entry used an FSI black powder F7 motor with a 9 second burn. He probably lost control of the flight as soon as it left the launch rail. He tried valiantly to regain control, but consistently over compensated. As a result, this thing was all over the sky, and too damn close to the ground way too often. It was this thrashing roller coaster ride that had us all hitting the dirt.

And that was before we had high power motors. These days I'm sure people are witness to out of control antics with a lot more thrust.

Anybody else care to share a story of their personal experience with one of these "flights"?
 
The one's that really get me are the "whistling death" encounters...big rockets coming in ballistic from high altitude where everyone has lost visual on them. A 4" bird missed our awning last year at a major event by no more than 6 feet. Had no warning...all in the span of about a second "wheeee"...then "crash"! Pretty rare from what I have seen, but they do make ya shiver :y:
 
The one's that really get me are the "whistling death" encounters...big rockets coming in ballistic from high altitude where everyone has lost visual on them. A 4" bird missed our awning last year at a major event by no more than 6 feet. Had no warning...all in the span of about a second "wheeee"...then "crash"! Pretty rare from what I have seen, but they do make ya shiver :y:
I'm with jpummil, here. High altitude ballistics make me nervous. I've seen a few land amongst the cars and canopies and it tightens me right up.
 
A "K" motor that went about 100ft up then I guess a forward closer failure, blew the rocket in half, with the still burning motor coming back at the flight line!
It did about 4 curliy q's over everyone and my truck then landed in the middle of the parking lot.
That made my wife bite a hole in her lawn chair seat cover. :duck:
 
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Two years ago at Freedom Launch. Huge version of the Explorer Aquarius went haywire. One of the smaller cluster motors cato'd through the top, the rocket turned sideways, and THEN the central L motor lit. Scary power dive into the field. That one rattled my cage a bit.
 
Many years ago, before METRA moved to Pine Island, they used to launch at this small field off of Rt. 94 near Vernon, NJ. It was on the side of a hill, and my son was running down the hill to recover the rocket I had just launched, which had landed. As he ran down the hill, someone's rocket was coming in ballistic right in front of him. I was yelling at him to stop, but he was running as fast as he could and unaware of the other rocket. No more than 50 feet off the deck and not very far in front of him the eject charge finally went off with a Bang, which really got his attention. We were both rattled after that.
 
Las Vegas Turkey Shoot I had the privilege of being a "beta tester" for the brand new I435 from Aerotech, got it right from Gary Rosenfeld :) Wellll, it went up 20 feet and cracked the nozzle, giving it massive vectored thrust. It flipped horizontal and did a flat loop then did a horizontal flight straight at a bunch of guys flying RC planes. It impacted the El Dorado dry lakebed right before them, ending up about 50 feet away. I got it on video tape somewhere. Very shortly afterwords Aerotech came out with the new 38mm aft enclosure with a larger opening for the new larger nozzles needed for the motor. Drilling the old small diameter nozzles out big enough made the walls too thin and they cracked, proven the very next day when my brother's rocket had the same thing happen to it. Aerotech replaced the motors that day with I195 BJ, also new. I blew one of them up infront of the Boise Astronomical Society during a static display...I'm sure they were ALL impressed :p Ahhh, prototypes ;)
 
Mid-West Power 2011 larger then life Phoenix Missile went unstable and for a split second was pointed directly at me on a "N" or "O" motor. I own a 500mm lens now so the pictures would be much better today. These are highly cropped and the big Phoenix was a safe distance away.
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Right at you!

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OAMC launch 2010 I was walking out in the field recovering one of my own rockets when this hit the ground 7' behind me. It was a pretty windy day and it was far from the flight line so if they called "heads up" I never heard it. I did hear the rocket thump the ground that close to me.
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The NARAM at Cincinnati a few years ago where a big sparky motor torched off a major grass fire was a pretty hairy situation.

I don't remember that the flight itself was that nail-biting but the aftermath definitely was.

:y::y:
 
An "M" liftoff, followed by a helicopter buzz (low and fast) over the launch area moments later. No one heard it until it was over the area.

Greg
 
The Phoenix was the hairiest flight I ever witnessed. I was hoping it would clear the loop and start to go up straight. Luckily, the motor bounded off the field away from the flightline. The motor was an O. The O case flew later on two other flights.

I saw a research K at a small launch, in another tail heavy rocket go up, do two loops, come down slap the ground, flip, then tear off at a 45 degee angle away from the group of small gathered fliers. The electronics deployed and when the rocket was found, there were no fins on the rocket. They all broke off! Another victim of a tail heavy situation. Kurt


Mid-West Power 2011 larger then life Phoenix Missile went unstable and for a split second was pointed directly at me on a "N" or "O" motor. I own a 500mm lens now so the pictures would be much better today. These are highly cropped and the big Phoenix was a safe distance away.
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Right at you!

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OAMC launch 2010 I was walking out in the field recovering one of my own rockets when this hit the ground 7' behind me. It was a pretty windy day and it was far from the flight line so if they called "heads up" I never heard it. I did hear the rocket thump the ground that close to me.
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I show people this video a lot and it will have scared me to death. Cudos for the video guy and his balls of steel:[video=youtube_share;bfcud62ct6M]https://youtu.be/bfcud62ct6M[/video]
 
He'll hate me for mentioning this, but for me it was Chan Stevens' Excelsior Little Joe at a Quark regional. It was lined up on the pad next to my BSG Laser Torpedo clone and left the pad at a 45 degree angle with only about half of the motors in the cluster burning. It lofted across the field under power, never getting more than 50' to 100' off the ground, then hit the ground under power. It had been a beautiful bird, and it took quite a hit. The only surviving picture of the liftoff is at the end of my review of the BSG Laser Torpedo. https://www.rocketreviews.com/estes-laser-torpedo-plan-by-bill-eichelberger.html
 
At BALLS around 1999. There was a manufacturer from the San Diego area with a huge rocket, ~12" x 20', with an experimental O motor. We helped him load ti on the pad so we were able to stay out at the away pads about 500' from the rocket when it was launched. The rocket got about 50' up and then exploded raining flaming 4" diameter grains everywhere. A friend video taped the launch and we were able to see that the thrust ring on the motor failed. As the motor went up inside the rocket each section of body tube between the centering rings would explode. Eventually the motor overpressurized and blew out both closures.

At ROCstock ~1999. The wind chnged directions between the time they set up the pads on Friday and the launch started on Saturday. I watched quite a few rockets head over the flight line. Eventually a 4" rocket came in ballistic from about 5000'. I saw it coming down about 25' in front of me. There was a guy staring up at it and I kept screaming at him to MOVE as it looked like it was going to nail him. The rocket hit an RV about 5' behind him and went through the roof and the cab over. The nose cone wound up sticking down about 18" into the driver's compartment.

At LDRS or ROCstock around 2000 there was a huge V2 (20-24" diameter) with a central M and 4 K outboards. The outboards didn't light at the same time. It bent the rail and then the rail broke. It flew over the crowd horizontally and crashed about 200' behind the flight line. I've got a couple pictures on my computer at home of the ignition and the initial turn.
 
At LDRS or ROCstock around 2000 there was a huge V2 (20-24" diameter) with a central M and 4 K outboards. The outboards didn't light at the same time. It bent the rail and then the rail broke. It flew over the crowd horizontally and crashed about 200' behind the flight line. I've got a couple pictures on my computer at home of the ignition and the initial turn.

If I am not mistaken, that was LDRS. It was mentioned in Modern HPR2 by Marc Canepa... :)
 
I show people this video a lot and it will have scared me to death. Cudos for the video guy and his balls of steel:[video=youtube_share;bfcud62ct6M]https://youtu.be/bfcud62ct6M[/video]

That was awesome! If you slow things down you can isolate an incredible image of the rocket just a few feet from impact. Very impressive.
 
This looks like another ROC launch to me.

I show people this video a lot and it will have scared me to death. Cudos for the video guy and his balls of steel:[video=youtube_share;bfcud62ct6M]https://youtu.be/bfcud62ct6M[/video]
 
I think you're right. My wife (fiance' at that time) came along and we stayed with my grandparents in Victorville. I only attended 2-3 launches at ROC and every one scared the crap out of me.

If I am not mistaken, that was LDRS. It was mentioned in Modern HPR2 by Marc Canepa... :)
 
Had a chap scratch build a Nike and didn't get the Cp/Cg thing right PLUS he used an underpowered motor. Two decades ago we really didn't have computer modeling and you had to use paper and pencil with a little math to get it right. Apparently he had none of those available to him. Came off the pad and headed right for the crowd. I 'could' have reached out a foot and a half from my head and caught the dang thing as it headed over my shoulder, but I had been so conditioned to 'not catch a model rocket' I only thought about it briefly. It was a clean line drive to center. Unfortunately, he got so much grief from the powers that were, he left the sport. I probably woulda been yelled at too if I caught it. But I still wish I woulda, coulda, shoulda.
 
I show people this video a lot and it will have scared me to death. Cudos for the video guy and his balls of steel:[video=youtube_share;bfcud62ct6M]https://youtu.be/bfcud62ct6M[/video]

I wonder if the camera operator even saw it until it was down. I also like how the video cuts off just as you hear somebody start to say, "That would have KILLED somebo--"

Hairy!
 
Was this the V2 Crash you were talking about?:
[video=youtube_share;OEbHd78J0F0]https://youtu.be/OEbHd78J0F0[/video]
 
Mid-West Power 2011 larger then life Phoenix Missile went unstable and for a split second was pointed directly at me on a "N" or "O" motor. I own a 500mm lens now so the pictures would be much better today. These are highly cropped and the big Phoenix was a safe distance away.

Yeah, this one.
[video=youtube_share;-LmbTicdmr4]https://youtu.be/-LmbTicdmr4[/video]
 
In reverse order:

3) Phoenix O at MWP11

2) Gizmo XL Drag Race at MWP? (~20 rockets a year or two ago; think the above ballistic recovery times 3 or 4 plus overcast skies)

1) But hands down #1 was the Contrail O motor CATO at LDRS 26 in Amarillo. It was so loud and the debris so widespread I don't think anyone on the field or flight line didn't duck. My son and I were loading his Jr L1 and I could feel the pressure wave from the explosion depress my chest.

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Mine is actually pretty mild it would have to be when there was a "N" motor that catoed sending pieces of fiberglass and electronics down on the flight line.
 
At one of the radical rocketeers launches someone's large (8"?) Rocket came in ballistic about 25' from where I was. Landed 5 ft from a pickup truvk. More recently someone's mini mag XL flying on a huge sparky came in ballistic- safely away in some fields, but terrifying nonetheless.

At the most recent launch someone flew an underpowered estés Amazon on a B4 and it weathercoked directly to the flight line at 50 ft. Started on a ballistic trajectory right towards the center of the flight line before deploying the chute at about 10 ft. A small rocket, but when it's aimed at your head, it gets you moving.

Nate
 
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