I don’t want to jinx it, but

[brockrwood]

I have never had a rocket get stuck in power lines. Lost and couldn’t find? Yes. Lawn dart? Yes. Core sample? Yes. Stuck in a tree? Yes, but got it back.

The last thing I want is for a lovingly created model rocket I spent days making to just dangle, undamaged, but forever out of reach, on a power line. Especially if I have to see it frequently while driving, walking, etc.

 

[rfjustin]

I have never had a rocket get stuck in power lines. Lost and couldn’t find? Yes. Lawn dart? Yes. Core sample? Yes. Stuck in a tree? Yes, but got it back.

The last thing I want is for a lovingly created model rocket I spent days making to just dangle, undamaged, but forever out of reach, on a power line. Especially if I have to see it frequently while driving, walking, etc.

I've seen it dozens of times. Most of the time local power companies will get it out, often times free of charge.

 

[SolarYellow]

Lucerne Lake does have that set of lines running across the south edge. Wonder how many rockets have ended up in them over the decades?

 

[Tyeeking]

Had someone land in the power lines near our club field once. Started a small brush fire and knocked out the power to a pretty big area. The power company sent him a 5 figure bill. Don’t know how it ended up getting resolved.

Interestingly the power company said that the number one item that lands in power lines knocking out power other than trees is trampolines.

 

[Donnager]

Had someone land in the power lines near our club field once. Started a small brush fire and knocked out the power to a pretty big area. The power company sent him a 5 figure bill. Don’t know how it ended up getting resolved.

Interestingly the power company said that the number one item that lands in power lines knocking out power other than trees is trampolines.

In my old neighborhood, the conductors on the poles were approximately 2/3 of a squirrel length apart. Best measured using the burn marks on said squirrel.

Eventually, they were changed to 1.2 squirrel length spacing.

 

[Funkworks]

The last thing I want is for a lovingly created model rocket I spent days making to just dangle, undamaged, but forever out of reach, on a power line. Especially if I have to see it frequently while driving, walking, etc.

I don't think a power company would let anything dangling up there very long. They'll want to check it out themselves ASAP, so you'd just have to call them.

 

[brockrwood]

I don't think a power company would let anything dangling up there very long. They'll want to check it out themselves ASAP, so you'd just have to call them.

Do they get mad at you for getting something stuck on the power lines?

 

[rcktnut]

It has been a few years but around here if your rocket was worth less than $370.00 let it hang on the power line. That is what they charged for retrieval service.

 

[Funkworks]

Do they get mad at you for getting something stuck on the power lines?

The one time I've seen it, the owner called immediately, a cherry picker was on site a while later, and the rocket was back in the owner's hands on the same day. I assume he called the power company directly, but the more I think about, the more I think cops and firemen would be happy to relay the call.

 

[Blast it Tom!]

In my old neighborhood, the conductors on the poles were approximately 2/3 of a squirrel length apart. Best measured using the burn marks on said squirrel.

Eventually, they were changed to 1.2 squirrel length spacing.

Why?

 

[tsmith1315]

Interestingly the power company said that the number one item that lands in power lines knocking out power other than trees is trampolines.

A shear wind folded ours like a taco around a guy wire. Took our power pole right on over.

 

[Donnager]

Why? View attachment 586383

If it was 20% longer than a squirrel, it couldn't touch two conductors at the same time. If it was 2/3 the length, they could.
After this change, they had fewer fuse failures at transformers on poles.

I am paraphrasing using cute units though, I think it was a minimum clearance that reflected the dimensions of the local rodents.

 

[Blast it Tom!]

If it was 20% longer than a squirrel, it couldn't touch two conductors at the same time. If it was 2/3 the length, they could.
After this change, they had fewer fuse failures at transformers on poles.

I am paraphrasing using cute units though, I think it was a minimum clearance that reflected the dimensions of the local rodents.

Well, I was being a jerk, i.e it's fine to rid ourselves of squirrels via electrocution! What I'm really surprised to hear, though, is that in it's final seconds, a squirrel can carry enough short-circuit current to damage a pole-top transformer!

As to your units, that's grand! It belongs on the "Not another metric thread."! Units of measurement: Squirrels!

 

[Donnager]

Well, I was being a jerk, i.e it's fine to rid ourselves of squirrels via electrocution! What I'm really surprised to hear, though, is that in it's final seconds, a squirrel can carry enough short-circuit current to damage a pole-top transformer!

As to your units, that's grand! It belongs on the "Not another metric thread."! Units of measurement: Squirrels!

If nothing else, it gives reason to the metrics. No worries, I'll head to that thread.

I think, in that neighborhood, the power outages were in the spring when the squirrels would get excited resulted in some burnt fuses. The linemen changed the spec/repair to not just leave the fuse wires and connectors long where if cut poorly could result in a short. They (at least the linemen I talked to) made a concerted effort to bend them away from each other, or shorten them so they weren't too close, which, honestly should have been part of the installation. That subdivision was an unincorporated, self policing HOA at the time, so I'm sure some code practices were not followed to the letter.

There were fox squirrels that were large enough to defeat this, but not enough of them to change the utility practice.

I watched one gray squirrel short the transformer on the pole in my front yard, and it suddenly looked like a welding arc (for a very short time). I guess she was famous for a moment (went out in a blaze of glory)--And it took about 4 hours to get power back.

And the squirrel smelled like burned hair.

 

[techrat]

I had a smaller (29mm) LOC Magnum get stuck on a power line on its first-ever flight. As it was a Sunday and my launch site was 50 miles from my home, I never got the rocket back. Oh well. Not my first loss and certainly not my last. And this is why I don't buy super-expensive or vintage collector kits. Like I'm going to pay Estes $150 for a falcon9 and then have it hang up in a tree. Unless it's a 4" diameter kit, I try not to pay more than $75 for a rocket. And there are times when I'll scratch-build to avoid the cost of the kit. Now that I'm doing RMS motors as well, I worry more about losing the expensive aluminum case rather than the rocket itself.

 

[Fishhead]

I'm doing my share to soak up some of the jinx.

 

[Fishhead]

Can't forget this one.

 

[Blast it Tom!]

Yow, 4 rockets and a camera! That's tough!

 

[Tractionengines]

A squirrel took out out power at work a few years back. I got into work and only part of the building had power. The shop had called the standard "report an outage line" a few hours earlier, and told me the original estimate was for someone to be there within the next 30 minutes. I shut down some equipment, then called for a status updated since the original service time had passed. It was pushed it out 4-6 more hours.... So I took a walk outside and looked : dead squirrel on the ground, and 2 of the 3 pole top transformers had obvious issues. One was "Spraying an oil mist" up into the air.

I jumped in my car and drive to the local line shop only 3 miles away. A guy yelled at me as I walked thru a open gate. I told him we had called the 800 #, but there was a major issue, and I needed to talk to a manager.... 30 seconds later the site manager is in his pickup truck following me back. He took one look up, and was on the phone. A line truck was there 5 minutes later cutting our power feeds. The next morning we were good to go.

(The dispatch system had logged the call to a line shop almost an hour away. And they hadn't even assigned an inspector to come check out the issue.)

 

[Fishhead]

Yow, 4 rockets and a camera! That's tough!

Not as bad as it sounds. The Astron Drifter blew down after 6 months on the wire. I shored it up and flew it again, just to flip the bird to the wire demons. The DOM Argus II was gone the next morning when I stopped by after work. I cut the shock cord to the Centurion and got the rocket and camera back. Bought a new nose cone and it still flies today. The last one is still hanging there, showing less and less of its rocket heritage every time I pass by. Pretty much just a string at this point.