Incident at BALLS...

Some chatter over on FB that someone was injured out at BALLS. Apparently a motor ignited prematurely and he received 2nd and 3rd degree burns over about 10% of his body and was airlifted out.

Praying for a swift and full recovery.

Be Safe Out There!

How about a link?

afaik its still all just from conversations on the Tripoli FB group.

Is he on the forum?

Wishing the best and hoping for a speedy recovery with zero complications. Would definitely be good to understand how the premature ignition occurred and if there's some tweaks to safety we need to make.

Ignited in a truck. That's all the details I know other than what's been posted.

Hard to imagine how an engine ignited in a vehicle?
It would be nice to know the details so we all can make changes if need be.
Wishing a quick and full recovery!

People need to relax a little. There are a few issues here. First, if there is an injury there are issues- insurance investigation issues, and you are talking about health information of another. Neither of these are best discussed publicly. There also is likely people looking into this closely from the BOD etc. let them handle this, and I am sure that if something needs to be dealt with they will do so.

What size motor are we talking about here?

markkoelsch said:

People need to relax a little. There are a few issues here. First, if there is an injury there are issues- insurance investigation issues, and you are talking about health information of another. Neither of these are best discussed publicly. There also is likely people looking into this closely from the BOD etc. let them handle this, and I am sure that if something needs to be dealt with they will do so.

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Agreed.

An update from Steve Shannon has been posted on the Tripoli member forum.

Worsaer said:

An update from Steve Shannon has been posted on the Tripoli member forum.

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For those of us that can't access the forum, how is he doing?

From TRA forum:
"The flyer returned to Black Rock yesterday .... "

Thank you, that is great news!!

I am glad to hear the rocketeer is back at Black Rock. When root causes are established, I would love to get a basic summary of facts and root causes. I don't want to blame anyone, just want to learn how to be better and hopefully prevent that kind of thing in my own life. Thanks!

boatgeek said:

I am glad to hear the rocketeer is back at Black Rock. When root causes are established, I would love to get a basic summary of facts and root causes. I don't want to blame anyone, just want to learn how to be better and hopefully prevent that kind of thing in my own life. Thanks!

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This was taken from Tripoli's FB page:

Steve Shannon

13 hrs
There were two very serious incidents at BALLS. Both could have been very much worse. I will confine my description of these incidents to the Tripoli Forum and even then I will greatly limit what I say. That’s for two reasons. First, we are still investigating and analyzing exactly what happened. Second, gossiping and speculating (even though that’s what drives Facebook in many ways) are a total waste of time and energy.

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To sum up the first incident, it appears that static electricity caused by passing a parachute harness through the sustainer airframe was discharged into the forward closure which had head end ignition using copper thermite which is extremely sensitive to static electricity. The copper thermite ignited the motor which flew forward out of his hands, burning him in the exhaust. Damage to the case allowed the forward bulkhead to be ejected. A piece of the moonburner grain burned in the pickup box but the main portion was snuffed when the forward bulkhead was ejected.
A spray-on bed liner may have added to the static.

Thanks Steve. I'm looking forward to whatever advise our national organizations will recommend to mitigate the chances of this happening again.

Peartree said:

Thanks Steve. I'm looking forward to whatever advise our national organizations will recommend to mitigate the chances of this happening again.

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Me too! [emoji298]️

Probably the best thing is to avoid copper thermite. There are lots of posts by people here including Crazy Jim, Kip Daugirdas, and Jim Jarvis which describe reliable high altitude ignition without resorting to copper thermite.
It’s simply not necessary.

Let's see:
Head in igniter, pre installed with electronics installed and probably hooked up, circuitry sensitive to transient static electric charge.
Transported in a vehicle with a bed liner.
Thermite igniter installed, high sensitivity to static electric voltage. etc.

What could possibly go wrong? Sounds like a teachable moment..
Prayers for a speedy recovery...