Cattle-killing rockets?

[Buckeye]

https://www.nar.org/message-from-the-president/
Once again, the NAR Prez offers scant details about an incident at a NAR launch. This time, an insurance payout was made to a farmer whose cattle "ended up expiring" from model rockets that "were not well-received." What the hell does that word salad mean? The flights were said to be "nominal" and "landed safely" which I assume to mean that the cows were not impaled by rockets on ballistic trajectories. Sorry, I am a city boy. How else can you kill a cow with a model rocket? Do they eat fiberglass, lithium batteries, or kevlar? Tripped over a rocket and broke a leg? Somebody left a gate open?

Considering that most clubs use farmland, more details, not fewer, would be helpful. Maybe the Tripoli President will let us know.

 

[rcktnut]

I agree, just tell us what the hell happened. How did they die? Otherwise I call Bull. The cows died from something other than the rockets, and the farmer is just blaming it on the rockets. Safety is always stressed but no details ever about what happened that could possibly prevent it from happening again. Were they left in the field and the cows ate them? Did they have heart attacks from them floating down close to them? Did they stampede over each other when the rockets came floating down?

 

[FredA]

An the NAR people think TRA is dangerous for doing Research......

 

[Neutronium95]

I've heard stories of cattle dying because they ate fiberglass insulation that people used for wadding. I wonder if this could be a case of that.

 

[terryg]

As I understand it, a rocket landing spooked the cattle resulting in them breaking thru fencing. This gave them acess to fresh alfalfa which is too rich a diet and caused their death.

 

[BEC]

I was going to say “stampede” but @terryg ‘s explanation makes sense — more so than just stampede on its own — in the context of what John Hochheimer wrote.

 

[Sparkyflyer14]

As I understand it, a rocket landing spooked the cattle resulting in them breaking thru fencing. This gave them acess to fresh alfalfa which is too rich a diet and caused their death.

That's a very reasonable explanation, but a much more exciting one is that the cows took the landed rockets as an act of soviet cow aggression, causing them to launch their own cowntermeasures evolving into the cow equivalent of the cold war, resulting in the cowpocalypse.

 

[cerving]

When I was in Jr High we used to fly at a regional park that bordered a cow pasture. If your rocket drifted into the pasture, recovery was at your own risk... either finding that your rocket landed in a cowpie, or finding some cow chewing on your rocket (yes, that happened). Either one of those occurrences meant that your rocket was gone.

 

[DocSeuss]

As I understand it, a rocket landing spooked the cattle resulting in them breaking thru fencing. This gave them acess to fresh alfalfa which is too rich a diet and caused their death.

So... poor fencing and a neighbor with alfalfa seem like bigger problems than rockets.

 

[Daddyisabar]

Pretty weak chain of causation but the neighbors have those rich, city slicker rocket dudes by the BALLS! Pay up or loose yer precious launch site. Make 'em pay! Open range rules!

 

[Buckeye]

As I understand it, a rocket landing spooked the cattle resulting in them breaking thru fencing. This gave them acess to fresh alfalfa which is too rich a diet and caused their death.

Thanks for that simple explanation. Mr. NAR President gives us tortured mincing of words, instead.

Pretty weak chain of causation but the neighbors have those rich, city slicker rocket dudes by the BALLS! Pay up or loose yer precious launch site. Make 'em pay! Open range rules!

Yep, NAR got taken for a ride on this one. Cause of death:

1. Cows are dumb and eat stuff that can kill them.
2. Poor fencing
3. Rocket lands in their midst. (I wonder if anybody actually saw the spooking/stampede event.)

 

[Rob Campbell]

https://www.nar.org/message-from-the-president/
Once again, the NAR Prez offers scant details about an incident at a NAR launch. This time, an insurance payout was made to a farmer whose cattle "ended up expiring" from model rockets that "were not well-received." What the hell does that word salad mean? The flights were said to be "nominal" and "landed safely" which I assume to mean that the cows were not impaled by rockets on ballistic trajectories. Sorry, I am a city boy. How else can you kill a cow with a model rocket? Do they eat fiberglass, lithium batteries, or kevlar? Tripped over a rocket and broke a leg? Somebody left a gate open?

Considering that most clubs use farmland, more details, not fewer, would be helpful. Maybe the Tripoli President will let us know.

My source told me a rocketeer entered a pasture to retrieve a rocket and left the gate open. The cows got out and went into a field of green alfalfa. The cows ate the alfalfa and it created alcohol when it reacted with their stomach acid. A vet was called, but he wasn't able to save all the cattle.

 

[rfjustin]

So was the alfalfa infused bovine delicious, or not so much? Asking for a friend...

 

[Rschub]

At least they died happy.

 

[Buckeye]

My source told me a rocketeer entered a pasture to retrieve a rocket and left the gate open. The cows got out and went into a field of green alfalfa. The cows ate the alfalfa and it created alcohol when it reacted with their stomach acid. A vet was called, but he wasn't able to save all the cattle.

LOL, the plot thickens! An open gate sounds more plausible to me, but the cryptic statement says "the flights" were "not well-received by the cattle."

 

[Rob Campbell]

LOL, the plot thickens! An open gate sounds more plausible to me, but the cryptic statement says "the flights" were "not well-received by the cattle."

Maybe the cattle were spooked by the noise in addition to the alcohol poisoning?

 

[Rob Campbell]

At least they died happy.

And pre-marinated!

 

[FredA]

See - the word is out - the word salad from NAR just makes them look bad.
Is this our society today where you can't stand to speak the [simple] truth?

 

[lakeroadster]

 

[tsmith1315]

See - the word is out - the word salad from NAR just makes them look bad.
Is this our society today where you can't stand to speak the [simple] truth?

There is a positive. Some of us learned a great new term- “word salad”.

 

[Steve Shannon]

My source told me a rocketeer entered a pasture to retrieve a rocket and left the gate open. The cows got out and went into a field of green alfalfa. The cows ate the alfalfa and it created alcohol when it reacted with their stomach acid. A vet was called, but he wasn't able to save all the cattle.

Alfalfa can cause bloating, especially if cattle are hungry and suddenly gain access to a field of it. That can be bad, but gorging on green grass will kill cattle when it upsets their mineral intake. It’s called “grass tetany.”
All carbs turn to alcohol in a cow; the warmth given off by the fermentation process is what helps keep cattle from freezing to death in winter.

 

[Rschub]

Maybe people will stop criticizing the Dude Perfect guys now.....

 

[Buckeye]

There is a positive. Some of us learned a great new term- “word salad”.

Actually, you can thank VP Harris for that.

 

[tsmith1315]

Actually, you can thank VP Harris for that.

But I learned it from you!

 

[rfjustin]

See - the word is out - the word salad from NAR just makes them look bad.
Is this our society today where you can't stand to speak the [simple] truth?

My following opinion is based on my field of expertise (Insurance Underwriting and Risk Mitigation). Often times, whenever a claim and resulting settlement is finalized, a lot of folks tend to shy away from sharing details about the $. That makes perfect sense meaning the terms of the claim and settlement are not made, and should not be public knowledge.

I emphatically agree with @Buckeye here that a purposefully ambiguous message on what happened (and lead to the claim) is not helpful, nor does it allow for others to learn from others mistakes. Perhaps NAR needs to take notes from @BBrown regarding their publishing of details from the hotel J motor incident as a vehicle for learning.

This hobby is built on sharing and learning common interests. I'm not understanding what value is being created by burying the critical details.

My .02

 

[Antares JS]

Actually, you can thank VP Harris for that.

I learned that phrase sometime in the mid-2010's from people criticizing New Age nonsense, referring to how they frequently misuse words like "energy," "frequency," and "vibration."

 

[cerving]

Actually, you can thank VP Harris for that.

"Word salad" seems to come with the job. Spiro Agnew was probably the most adept salad maker ever... followed closely by Dan Quayle.

 

[James Duffy]

See - the word is out - the word salad from NAR just makes them look bad.
Is this our society today where you can't stand to speak the [simple] truth?

Insurance settlements are often accompanied by agreements that limit what the parties can say in public following the settlement. That is probably the case here.

 

[Rob Campbell]

"Word salad" seems to come with the job. Spiro Agnew was probably the most adept salad maker ever... followed closely by Dan Quayle.

Oh you nattering naybob of negativity!

 

[Rob Campbell]

I learned that phrase sometime in the mid-2010's from people criticizing New Age nonsense, referring to how they frequently misuse words like "energy," "frequency," and "vibration."

I learned the term from people criticizing flat Earthers. They say some of the craziest things to justify their delusions.