I was parked on the causeway at CCAFS for the night Falcon flight a
couple months ago, and I'm pretty sure we were less than three miles. By
my count, it was twelve seconds from engine light until roar. More like
two and a half.
On 2016-10-01 10:10, Henry Vanderbilt wrote:
Sounds like you were three miles away, allowing for the engines
starting a couple seconds before T=0. Three miles seems to be a
canonical USG-rules safety distance for spectating rocket launches -
they made us sit three miles away for the several DC-X flights I saw
(which very much seemed overkill for a rocket as small as DC-X, but
rules is rules, sigh.)
DC-X sounded roughly as loud as an old low-bypass turbojet 707 or
KC-135 takeoff at that distance, FWIW. Which makes sense because
installed thrust was in the same ballpark.
Henry
On 10/1/2016 9:58 AM, qbert@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx wrote:
On January 31,1971, I first saw, and then felt and heard the majesty of an
Saturn V launch from the VIP stands, the one and only time I've been to the
Cape with thanks to Alan Shepard who invited my father to watch the launch.
It was a dream come true for a 16 year old boy. I don't recall the actual
distance from the pad but the clock was past 13 seconds when the first
sounds hit us. It was louder by far than standing by the side of runway 13
at CFB 4Wing watching 2 sets of 2 CF 104's take off side by side on full
AB. I did have hearing protection but standing 100 ft away don't help
much.
Loud is not the word.
Robert
At 05:30 AM 10/1/2016, you wrote:
Henry Spencer wrote on 011016:
> Certainly the noise from the one shuttle launch I saw ... didn't
measure
up to the apocalyptic descriptions of what Saturn V launches were like.
Those who recall the ecstasy of F1s thundering away when 20 are
youngsters
aged ± 65-70 today...
Fortunately we have PCs & youtube now to play loud:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uhXfnFk3-UQ
jd