Interesting high lights of the NAR BoD Meeting and ...

Sort of true. Prior to the safety study that expanded model rockets from

453g to 1500g NFPA and other regs limited the hobby to F motors. But in the mid 80s, the NAR did the study to look into expanding the hobby beyong the original boundaries. Once the study was done, and the results showed no increased risk, LMR and G motors were accepted by NFPA and the NAR. NAR had certified G motors when TRA was still getting organized.

Absolutely not true. AT demoed an RMS motor at NARAM in 1990 when they first came out. This may even have been prior to the LDRS demos. By the next year, when RMS motors were actually certified, they were flown at NARAM-33. NAR never had the special RMS certification process TRA did. You could fly RMS up to whatever level you were certified for from day 1.

See #1 above.

OK, NAR screwed the pooch on this from the early 80s until 1990. In 1987 they finally allowed members to do HPR outside of NAR events. But by 1991 NAR had adopted HPR and has endorsed it ever since.

Only for safety code violations. Or for not paying their bills. Not for political reasons.

That's before my time as an active member. But I doubt they'd certify them today :-)

Korey Kline for flying a rocket full of gasoline to enhance the flame.

Jerry Irvine for assorted bounced checks.

You shouldn't have to wait. When I set up hybrids (as I do for local launches and did for NSL '04) I make sure to have pads dedicated to hybrids and, if possible, physically separated from "conventional" pads. I will also defer my place in the launch queue to make sure I'm not perceived as being a bottleneck. Of course our launches are so friendly I often offer to defer but am allowed to continue anyway. Also, as with any misfire, if I have a problem I go to the back of the queue.

Ever watch someone try to use a copperhead? ;-) Used properly they work pretty well. But they have a reputation for being unreliable.

At a resent launch I know there were several people flying APCP (and even BP) who had multiple igniter problems (spits, chuffs, no fire). Nobody seemed upset at them after the 2nd or 3rd attempt. It happens.

NAR works the same way. members elect trustees, they vote for officers. I can verify that Trip Barber was VERY pleased that Bunny was re-elected to the BOT :-)

Not when compared to the pain in the rear of getting a LEUP and storage in your rented apartment...

For challenging Bruce Kelly.

Because Chuck Rogers flew a rocket to twice the altitude that he claimed it would reach.

On the Discovery Channel special there was a G-Wiz that blew in the user's face because he hooked up the battery backward. A physical disconnect would have prevented this, wouldn't it have? As Rick said, its cheap insurance.

What happened? Which Bruce?

I agree. But the BATFE looks like a bigger pain...

I don't remember which ones they are but some people have reported that some altimiters have a tendency to fire charges when power is applied. Maybe it was a malfunctioning altimiter but either way shunting should help. ALso some altimiters will blow the charge verytime when the power is connected backwards. Sorry for being somewhat vague. This is from memory. A lot of the information I received was on the TRA list when doing research for an article I wrote on shunting. It was written right after the LDRS accident that someone mentioned.

That's political. They were picking on poor Jerry. 8-)

Just out of curiosity, what happens when you pull the shunt?

According to Chris Eilbeck :

True. The question is, did they factor it into the design?

I've done enough electronics to have seen this sort of thing. It's something you need to test and potentially make corrections to.

In fact, we had a premature HP launch at LDRS24 due to this sort of problem on one of the launch controllers. Connecting the battery to the launch system triggered an H, while the rocketeer was quite close. After that, any work on the battery required that all of the rockets be disconnected.

According to Starlord :

It's busy ;-)

Large floppy rocket made out of styrofoam cups.

Same sort of thing as the 40' long rocket someone flew on an (IIRC) I (they were going for the longest amateur rocket ever flown).

The styrofoam rocket flew better and recovered in one piece.

The HP version didn't.

[One comment was the possible concern about the guy holding the foam cup rocket "being too close". Um, he looked like he made the US minimum distance (15'). Not ours.]

That, I don't know. In the case of the G-Wiz I don't know if the immediate fire current is sustained or if it burns out the FET, or what. I would HOPE that the controller signals an error condition about the polarity.

In the case of an accidental arming of a timer or a power transient at power-on, the shunt/disconnect will minimize the odds of being connected at the same instant as the pulse.

Regardless, hopefully safety procedures will be followed that you assume the charges will blow when you pull the shunts and you do it in such a way as to minimize the risk of injury (i.e. not sitting on a ladder with your face up against the access port).

In the case of the G-wiz wouldn't it be wise to add a diode to the pyro channel to prevent this? Or a reverse polarity alarm, perhaps part of the safe switch (i.e. when in safe mode, anything over the all-fire voltage/current sounds a loud buzzer). The diode would be trivial to retrofit, wouldn't it?

Correct.

The I/J/K fill stems are easy to insert. The Ms are much trickier even if you have done it a few times.

I was mostly responding to the person who said Hypertek hybrids are easy. They are more work than any reload I have used. The equipment with the nitrous tank is a pian to haul out.

I still like them anyhow.

Brian Elfert

Taped to the grain. I'm not suprised the igniter wire may have moved with everything that happened to that motor.

Brian Elfert