No harm done, Cliff.
When I wrote that message, I didn't really state my feelings in the strongest
terms, and that might be why my meaning was lost. At that point, no one on the
chat had said this was a bad, dangerous design. Most of the emails sounded to
me like people thought the problem was due to not following the instructions. I
fly as a guest of the club, not a member at this point, so I didn't want to
come on too strong, shooting down the idea that user error was the problem or
possibly insulting whoever had provided the equipment by saying it was unsafe.
So I tried to make the point in a softer way. To be clear: It's an unsafe piece
of equipment, at least as it works now, and no amount of documentation can make
up for that.
See you at the launch, Cliff!
Eric
On Jul 7, 2015, at 10:39 AM, Cliff Sojourner wrote:
Dave - you are correct.
Eric, I apologize. I did not read your message carefully enough,
misinterpreted it. my fault.
I will make it up to you - reload of your choice next launch.
Glad all this blew over and no one got hurt.
Cliff
On 2015-07-06 13:23, David Weinshenker wrote:
Cliff Sojourner wrote:
Eric, shut up, go to Hell.Cliff - why are you cussing at Eric, who appears (by my reading) to have been
agreeing with what you just said (e.g., "we know that not everyone will read"
the manual, the design should "save the user from making mistakes", etc.)?
-dave w
There is no reasonable expectation for users to read a manual that isn't
at the pad and there isn't any reason to expect them to understand it in
107 degrees heat.
Launch control wiring has been the same for more than 60 years. Users do
not expect live wires. Ever.
This is a complete hazard and unacceptable risk to destroy the rocketry
community. Such a simple thing. Unnecessary.
I will protect my family and friends. My friends are the entire rocketry
community.
On July 6, 2015 11:41:16 AM MST, Eric Renger <ericrenger@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
It sounds like there is potential for user error.
RTFM is always a good policy, but as a person who used to write a
lot of M's, we know that not everyone will R T F'ing things.
Generally, the best policy is if the design will save the user from
making mistakes if at all possible, not the manual! In certain
situations, I used to tell developers, "You can't save this design
with documentation. You need to fix the design and save users from
themselves."
The danger I see is that if a person is unfamiliar with the design
and procedures, and they assume there is NO WAY it can light the
igniter unless someone is actually pushing the button (or an
equipment malfunction), then it could result in disaster. If the
design is such that after one launch, the system is not
automatically safe to hook up the next bird without removing leads
or some other steps to make it safe, there is a potential to forget.
Or there is a potential f or one group to leave the equipment unsafe
for the next group.
Of course, I'm saying all this without having ever seen this
equipment and not even a good familiarity with the usual club
equipment, and i don't know what kinds of procedures you had in
place. It just sounds like the system can accidentally be left in an
unsafe state.
Eric
