The speculation on this accident has been focused on blunt force trauma to
the head or face. Another possibility is a severe cut from the fins to the
head or neck. I've witnessed balsa wood fins leaving deep groves in wheel
fenders from near miss lawn dart model rockets. A thin plywood or fiber
glass fin would be equivalent to a knife blade. Something to think about.
Krell
In a message dated 11/19/2015 11:59:24 A.M. Pacific Standard Time,
sworkeld@xxxxxxxxx writes:
Mark L,
The original poster did not omit a story link. My original post (below)
included a link to a story in the LA Times. And, there are plenty more links
available through _news.google.com_ (http://news.google.com/) on the same
event.
_News.Google.com - story links - Boy Scout leader killed by Rocket_
(https://www.google.com/search?hl=en&gl=us&tbm=nws&authuser=0&q="boy+scouts"+rocket
+killed&oq="boy+scouts"+rocket+killed&gs_l=news-cc.3..43j43i53.2080.7648.0.7
864.26.15.0.11.0.0.346.1558.12j2j0j1.15.0...0.0...1ac.1.BnyQvIK1_JQ)
The point of the original post was to ask if anyone on aRocket knew more
about the situation than the news articles, as arocket tends to be much
better informed on rocket activities than the general public. The purpose was
also to find out what actually happened so it could be prevented in the
future, as model rockets (and water rockets) are widely used with families and
kids around.
I disagree that speculation is not useful in trying to understand
accidents. I believe the speculation offered has been informative and has
helped
bring to light potential dangers with seemingly innocuous model rockets and
water rockets that are not always obvious to people. Additionally, when the
SpaceX flight broke up back in June, speculation on arocket included a post
from Henry that essentially pinpointed the problem less than a day after
the accident and he was working with very little data (see Henry's post on
29 June 2015 at 9:36 AM, "[AR] Re: looks like a bad day"). Also, the NTSB
consistently uses speculation to try to understand accidents when complete
data isn't available. When full hard data isn't available, we can either
ignore the accident or try to understand it and prevent it from happening
again
with the information we have. Just my two cents, but I think it's better
speculate and do what we can to prevent repeats, than it is to ignore a
problem unless and until a full set of hard data is available, if ever.
FWIW,
Thom
---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Thom Vincent <_sworkeld@gmail.com_ (mailto:sworkeld@xxxxxxxxx) >
Date: Tue, Nov 17, 2015 at 6:17 PM
Subject: Boy Scout leader killed by model rocket
To: _arocket@freelists.org_ (mailto:arocket@xxxxxxxxxxxxx)
Does anyone know about this? The news articles are not very informative.
http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-man-killed-homemade-rocket-20151
116-story.html
I'm trying to figure out how a model rocket can kill somebody by simply
flying in to their face. I'm sure an HPR could kill someone, but I am assuming
the Boy Scouts would only be launching Estes type rockets made of
cardboard and balsa wood. I can see maybe loosing an eye or getting burns, but
not
seeing an Estes rocket as life threatening.
Any info on this? Any ideas?
Thanks,
Thom
---------------------------------------------
On Thu, Nov 19, 2015 at 7:43 AM, Redacted sender monsieurboo for DMARC
<_dmarc-noreply@freelists.org_ (mailto:dmarc-noreply@xxxxxxxxxxxxx) > wrote:
Reading some of the speculation in the latest digest helps me understand
why the original poster omitted the story link. You won't catch me offering
personal theories or speculative musings on this tragic event in the
absence of additional hard data. Three years ago I was at a launch where an
"I"-motor rocket shed a fin and went horizontal 2 feet off the rail. There
was a five-year-old boy sitting on a chair next to me and I had to jump right
in front of him to keep him from being hit head on by it. Left a bruise
like being nailed by a rubber bullet. The clear lesson is to expect the
unexpected, and speculation doesn't serve either to amplify or clarify that
lesson, so I'm not going to engage in it.
Regards,
Mark L.
