- Joined
- Mar 27, 2013
- Messages
- 22,448
- Reaction score
- 14,748
First, if this has been discussed already, I'm sorry for the rehash, but I didn't see it.
I went to the OROC club meeting last Thursday, and while there, one of the members told us of his adventures with a 2 stage rocket that went over 100K feet there. Unfortunately, I don't know what his name was, and I didn't hear what the name of the rocket was.
Obviously the flight went well, and we got to watch the video of the prep and the onboard video of the flight. The only problem they had was with recovery. Apparently, there were guys camped somewhere near BALLS, and when the rocket landed on the far side of them they were found by the recovery crew. The recovery crew was following the GPS info from the rocket (Kate equipped) but didn't have any topo maps of the area, and these guys (armed with pistols on their hips) did. The recovery chatted with the campers, and got a look at their topo maps, then set out to find the rocket. Apparently seeing an opportunity for profit, the campers used guile, the recovery crews GPS data, and their off road vehicles, managed to get to the rocket unseen by the recovery crew. The pirates then found the rocket, and returned with it to the BALLS launch site, looking for a reward.
Since the full crew had gone out on recovery, nobody who could claim ownership was present at the launch site. The pirates only then returned the rocket without compensation after some tense moments when they realized that the owners were not going to be back for several hours, as they were still out in the field looking for the rocket. The recovery crew eventually found tracks all around the recovery area, and eventually figured out that it had been found, and taken by someone before they could.
The take away... If you're launching at BALLS or some other high altitude event, make sure your team has a topo map to figure out your recovery area, and don't trust the guys you might bump into out there. They may be nice, and appear to be helpful, but they may have other agendas.
Also, our speaker told us about how dehydrated got while he was out there looking in vain for the rocket. When he got back to where he could get something to drink he said that he downed 8 Gatoraids and took several hours to recover from it. I didn't get a chance to tell him this, but it is possible to die from drowning (water intoxication) in such a situation (I remember watching some account of men who stumbled out of Death Valley after being lost there for some time, only to have one member (William Robinson*) die from drinking too much water when they found it).
Pointy Side Up!
Jim
*I know... I know...
[video=youtube;OWwOJlOI1nU]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OWwOJlOI1nU[/video]
I went to the OROC club meeting last Thursday, and while there, one of the members told us of his adventures with a 2 stage rocket that went over 100K feet there. Unfortunately, I don't know what his name was, and I didn't hear what the name of the rocket was.
Obviously the flight went well, and we got to watch the video of the prep and the onboard video of the flight. The only problem they had was with recovery. Apparently, there were guys camped somewhere near BALLS, and when the rocket landed on the far side of them they were found by the recovery crew. The recovery crew was following the GPS info from the rocket (Kate equipped) but didn't have any topo maps of the area, and these guys (armed with pistols on their hips) did. The recovery chatted with the campers, and got a look at their topo maps, then set out to find the rocket. Apparently seeing an opportunity for profit, the campers used guile, the recovery crews GPS data, and their off road vehicles, managed to get to the rocket unseen by the recovery crew. The pirates then found the rocket, and returned with it to the BALLS launch site, looking for a reward.
Since the full crew had gone out on recovery, nobody who could claim ownership was present at the launch site. The pirates only then returned the rocket without compensation after some tense moments when they realized that the owners were not going to be back for several hours, as they were still out in the field looking for the rocket. The recovery crew eventually found tracks all around the recovery area, and eventually figured out that it had been found, and taken by someone before they could.
The take away... If you're launching at BALLS or some other high altitude event, make sure your team has a topo map to figure out your recovery area, and don't trust the guys you might bump into out there. They may be nice, and appear to be helpful, but they may have other agendas.
Also, our speaker told us about how dehydrated got while he was out there looking in vain for the rocket. When he got back to where he could get something to drink he said that he downed 8 Gatoraids and took several hours to recover from it. I didn't get a chance to tell him this, but it is possible to die from drowning (water intoxication) in such a situation (I remember watching some account of men who stumbled out of Death Valley after being lost there for some time, only to have one member (William Robinson*) die from drinking too much water when they found it).
Pointy Side Up!
Jim
*I know... I know...
[video=youtube;OWwOJlOI1nU]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OWwOJlOI1nU[/video]
Last edited: