I've enjoyed the chat of this thread in ROC chat. I don't have any
answers. Sorry. But more than once as LCO I have scanned the range and
the sky and said over the PA, "Range is clear. Sky is clear. Going in
5... 4... 3... 2... 1..." and pushed the go button. Watched the rocket go
up and then saw the plane and the contrails and wondered where it was 6
seconds before when I scanned the sky and been very worried that I launched
when I shouldn't have.
A pair of thoughts. I wish more people would yell hold when there are
planes overhead that I missed. And learning that model rockets are clear
to fly when commercial airliners are overhead is nice to know. Thanks
Allen.
My hat is off to the board that always puts on such great launches.
See you all at ROCStock. I'll have the light-up viking helmet on again
Saturday night.
Thanks,
Mike
On Mon, May 28, 2018 at 8:32 PM, Richard Dierking <applerocketry@xxxxxxxxx>
wrote:
It’s good to hear Gregg’s and David EW’s comments. Maybe even David
Smith’s comments. :-)
Kurt, Allen, Mike, all understand me. I know that James has been in my
head and that must have been a scary experience. Anyway, these guys don’t
get too ruffled by what I say. Fortunately, they know my intentions
(because they are big guys) and the awkward way that I present myself at
times.
So, there will probably be spotters and vigilance and lots of teamwork at
ROCstock that’s about 11 days from now. You will all prove that I’m wrong,
and I will love every minute.
I measure the importance of things by not only the chances, but by the
consequences. When something happens, like a rocket coming down ballistic
in the spectator area. Please take the time to try and determine why and
prevent it. Not, “I didn’t hear it hit metal, is everyone OK?, now going
to the middle row.”
There will always be risk, but for some things there needs to be a
definitive solution, not just acceptance.
See you at ROCstock. Now I have to take extra beer money.
Richard Dierking
On May 28, 2018, at 6:59 PM, David Erbas-White <derbas@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
wrote:
On 5/28/2018 6:02 PM, Kurt Gugisberg wrote:
Does it count if I LCO on an inconsistent basis? <G>
I've always been a big one for making sure we don't launch if we see, or
hear, an aircraft flying over. It's not just the rules, it's that I don't
ever want to have to worry about someone in a low-flying plane being able
to take an iPhone shot off what looks like a rocket being fired at them
(even if it couldn't possibly have reached their altitude). There's too
much at stake (for the hobby) in my eyes than to treat it otherwise.
I'm probably considered a pain in the butt by some (okay, maybe more than
'some'), but if I hear a plane over the playa, and I see an LCO arming the
controllers, I'll start yelling 'HOLD' as loud as I can until we can
identify the aircraft and make CERTAIN that it's flying away from the
playa, or at an altitude that it can't POSSIBLY be able to take that 'bad
photo'. I know for a fact that some folks have gotten upset with me for
that shout-out, but at least 25% of the time it turns out that there IS an
aircraft in the area that we have to wait for, so I'm willing to put up
with the nasty looks the other 75% of the time...
Just last month (April launch) I was LCOing for a brief while, and at one
point I realized I had just launched a mid-power rocket as an aircraft went
overhead (I'd guess around 3000' AGL). There wasn't a chance of the rocket
hitting the plane, but there certainly WAS a chance of someone getting that
'bad photo', and I was upset with myself for not having seen the plane
beforehand. BTW, nobody commented on the plane until after I'd pushed the
button, either (I certainly would have appreciated it if someone HAD yelled
'HOLD' at me).
...and we haven't even talked about the flip side of the coin. I'm ticked
off at the pilots who choose to ignore the NOTAM that we call in for our
launches and either decide it doesn't apply to them, or they're too lazy to
check things out in the first place. We have, after all, been warning all
the pilots consistently for years about the launches -- yet we still get
more than our share of idiots who think it's 'cool' to see the rocket
launches up close from the air.
Now, do I think we need to have some sort of 'aircraft warning system' in
place other than our own eyes and ears? Nope. I just think we need to
apply the eyes/ears a little more conscientiously than we have been (and as
you'll note by my story from last month, I include myself in that...).
David Erbas-White
I, for one, would like to hear from everyone that LCOs on a consistent
basis as to how big an issue low flying aircraft has been for them.
Kurt
Sent from my iPhone
On May 28, 2018, at 2:31 PM, Allen Farrington <allen.farrington@xxxxxx>
wrote:
Richard, since you just brought this up yesterday on the chat, I’m not
sure if anyone on board has had time to think about it. I, for one, have
been building rockets for ROCStock!
Are you concerned about commercial traffic or private/GA aircraft?
Allen
--------------------------------------------------------------------
Allen H. Farrington
http://www.allenfarrington.org
818-653-2284
On May 28, 2018, at 10:21 AM, Richard Dierking <applerocketry@xxxxxxxxx>
wrote:
Thank you for the info James. I don’t think the ROC Board is interested
in this at the moment. I’m going to use the flightradar24 app that Andrew
suggested. It’s interesting just watching the air traffic.
And, no, I wouldn’t watch the screen during a whole launch. But, before I
launch a rocket of mine, yes, I would check the app first. And, I want to
learn more about what it has to offer.
Just check out air traffic around the Hawaiian Islands with the eruption
on Hawaii. Interesting stuff, but sorry, going OT.
Richard
On May 27, 2018, at 5:58 PM, James Dougherty <jafrado@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
I didn't spend the launch monitoring my screen at LDRS.
And ... I spotted 4 airliners in our area at LDRS (two UA, 2 AA), all at
FL30 above us.
Maybe you saw the ADSB setup that David brought to LDRS, similar but
better UI.
I keep mine under the table. I also modified the code to alert me when
something is within 4nm
of our launch site. I can give you the patch if you're interested.
On Sun, May 27, 2018 at 5:34 PM, David Smith <davew6dps@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Easy and cheap, and if you want to spend the entire launch sitting and
monitoring your screen.
ROCstock would be a great launch to test it.
See how much useful information you actually get and report back.
Dave Smith
On Sun, May 27, 2018, 5:11 PM James Dougherty <jafrado@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Easy, and cheap too.
RTL2832 - https://www.adafruit.com/product/1497
Dump1090 - https://github.com/antirez/dump1090
Linux laptop
