Bob
Remove "kins" from address to reply.
There's the rub - while the commercial might indeed be funny from a strictly comedic standpoint, the sport rocketry community is really ticked off at things like this because they have enough misconception and crap to deal with as it is. The whole rocket community is in an uproar over increased legislation, and the technically illiterate antagonists who trumpet the dangers of sport rocketry love to see this sort of thing on the airwaves. The rocketry associations have so far dumped 400K into a lawsuit against the ATF regarding the classification of sport rocket propellants, and the fight goes on. That's a lot of cash for a niche market.
To put it into perspective for those that don't see the problem with this ad, imagine that the ad instead portrayed someone flying an R/C model into a car or house and having it subsequently burst into flames. Especially imagine this occured at the same time that the feds are taking a good hard look at model aircraft as potential terrorist devices.. which happens to be the case. Or at the same time that an accidental injury or death caused by a model aircraft hit the news.
My day job is designing and building motors for the sport rocket market, so I deal with this crap on a continual basis. People who are affected by and quagmired in situations of public misconception are very, very sensitive to media exposure like the Yahoo ad, regardless of the intentions.
Mike D.
The Saturn(?) ad that has the stuff bumping into it's dent resistant side panels is an example of this stuff. A 1 second ad shot showing a plane smacking into a car (lucky for us - no flames or explosions) doesn't seem too bad until it happens to show up in a court case...
FredD
Mike has made a strong point here... altho the commercial was funny to those who "know better" ( e.g. "normal" model rockets cant do what the commercial show) (( I laughed my butt off when I saw it)) BUT given the fact that there are only maybe by now 8000 members in Tripoli rocketry Assn. ummm lets be conservative and say 4500 active( no idea how many are in NAR) they general populace who have seen this commercial ( and lets be conservative once again) who actually thought about the repercussions of such an action ( 20%???) are the ones who will raise a stink and pressure the legislators into action to quell the hobby in fear of their own ignorance of the hobby...
yessss anything that flies and is no longer in control of either expected physics or a person in control of the radio can be a hazard...
but how much of a hazard is it???? In rocketry ( lets say LDRS) the infamous words are repeated over and over again ( by Moose Laviegne sorry for the spelling Moose) " KEEP YOUR EYE ON THE ROCKET!!!"
some 500 odd plus people look skyward to ensure their own safety when the count down hits 1...
Given that the fields rockets are flown in are EXPANSIVE!!!! We have FAA clearances, FAA windows for those "extreme" versions, and we go to some lengths that aircraft flyiers wont go to...
when was the last time you drove 30 hours just to go to Black Rock Desert or some dry lake bed in nevada to fly an airplane???
Lets reverse the situation and use a popular RC plane ( hmmm Sig Kadet Sr.??) that banks to a hard left and plows into a SUV sending it into a ball of flames and a shower of sparks...
its not going to happen yall know it wont... maybe some fender damage and some "oooohhhss and ouuuuches" from the group and an oh Sh@T from the flier and an OH F$%K from the vehicle owner....
I have seen both worlds of RC and Rocketry gone "wrong"
my truck got nailed by an "Airmadillo" with some minor quarter panel dents and have seen a mobile Camper get impailed by a 3" X 60" J powered rocket... altho the Camper suffered more.... was pretty awesome tho... but still We are cognizant( spelling) of the hazards that can happen... that why we go to "extremes" in most cases to avoid real catastrophic events....
the question that remains is how do WE let the general populace know that the commercials that they see as a "spoof" isnt indicative of what really goes on in our world????
That WE are safety concious, mostly well planned, regulated by our own intellegence, and recognize the hazards that our hobby can produce if carelessness occurs???
TRA is bogged down by rules and regulations ( and those of us who are Lvl 2 and long time members are "recognized" by the FBI...) just give it time and I suppose any hobby that can be made into some "terrorist threat tactic" will be monitored...
uhoh Im rambling...
think about it...
Scot Dingman a.k.a. BunnyKiller
TRA 539 Lvl 2 RC boats/planes
2 million volt Tesla Coils and 25+watt lasersIm not a threat.... but dont ring my doorbell ;) its hooked up to the T Coil above the door...
MAGNETS ARE... magnetic field black holes
M Dennett wrote:
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