The denver blast gets even worse..........

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"The man who lived in the home was retired and was believed to be home at the time of the explosion. His wife was in Denver. And investigators are fairly sure of what caused the blast. "The history with him is he did experimenting with model rocketry, and some material involved with that are some of the same materials you might make explosives with," says McMorran." See this is WHY I rant when people throw around terms like model rocketry,amateur rocketry,sport rocketry and consumer rocketry.... The guy that blew him selfup, if he was making his own homemade rocket motors, he was doing Ameteur Rocketry NOT Model Rocketry. If he was creating Mortar shells etc for fireworks he was doing Pyrotechnics NOT Model Rockets.... Our National Orgs need to contact this Sgt. Rick McMorran of the El Paso County Sheriff's Office, and inform him that this was not Model Rocketry and he needs to retract his previous statements and or clarify his statements....

I wonder if he determined the word to use was "model rocketry" since the ATF is onsite.....I would not doubt it....another supposedly Model rocket explosive event statistic for the ATF to use against us....

shockie B(

Reply to
shockwaveriderz
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"And investigators say the man had even been cited for fourth degree arson, after one of his model rockets started a grass fire."

Do we know for sure it was a model rocket and not some form of fireworks? like a sky rocket?

I consider this to be just another example of the ATF's attempt to demonize model rocketry with dis and misinformation....

shockie B)

Reply to
shockwaveriderz

I doubt people are going to look at Estes or Aerotech stuff (for example) in the hobby store and think "Isn't that what that guy in Colorado blew himself up with?", and I don't think the way the local sheriff worded his comments is going to change that.

Do you genuinely think that people are going to start associating a home pyrotechnics manufacturing accident (which seems to be what really happened) with consumer rocket products just because some Colorado sheriff isn't up to speed with respect to the fine distinctions of terminology we use within the hobby?

-dave w

Reply to
David Weinshenker

I think this will make it into the BATFE's database as a model rocketry related explosive event......and yes I expect people to associate model rocketry with explosives if the powers that be continue to use one with the other......you tell a lie long enough and loud enough and pretty soon people will start believing it......

This guy may have been using the BP from Estes model rockets as the basis of his fuel for his amateur rocketry motors....

shocked B)

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Reply to
shockwaveriderz

I doubt he would have been using estes motors for BP, as he was a member of a pyro org.

He likly had been pressing BP for his skyrockets he is known for and had like 49.99 pounds of it laying about his fireplace.

Sometime ago, he had been using estes motors to propell his Pyro balls in the air to make skyrocket effects.

Google can tell you abit about him if you look hard.

Reply to
AlMax

Reply to
Mfreptiles

Dave W. wrote:

Reply to
RayDunakin

Call Estes.

Speak to Mary Roberts or Barry Tunick and tell them the situation and see if they can get a retraction or correction or apology on the air.

And now for an editorial reply.....

Reply to
Fred Shecter

Or soccer moms, the scourges of model rocketry.

Reply to
Gene Costanza

I remember one time at LUNAR, the park dep't screwed up and scheduled us opposite a major soccer tournament in the adjacent fields... the soccer moms were all freaked out by the rockets, even though we tried to pull the recoveries in on top of us instead of in the soccer fields (normally the best spot to aim for) - I think a few of the kids kept slipping over to watch the rockets between games (to the consternation of their coaches I suppose).

There was one ambulance arrival - _that_ never happens for the launches in general but evidently someone managed to bung himself up playing soccer... go figure.

-dave w

Reply to
David Weinshenker

People like Schumer could get hold of this stuff and have a very biased media field day with it. It won't single handedly do the hobby in, but it will be another brick in the wall the likes of Schumer and the ATF are building.

Reply to
Tim

That's a minor detail that every headline hunting news organization will choose to ignore. They will link terrorism and rockets to score as big as they can.

Reply to
Tim

Gene C. replied:

They're pretty much covered by the attributes I listed.

Reply to
RayDunakin

I doubt they can drag "The Terrorists" into this one... nobody _intentionally_ suicide-bombs his own basement workshop.

I'd say it's a darwin award story... the basement is _not_ the place to handle substantial quantities of energetic pyro mixtures: there's nowhere to go if trouble starts. (I've heard that proper pyro shops are at ground level, with styrofoam walls... if your mix starts to flare, you wanna be able to leap through the wall like a cartoon character; the door would take too long!)

-dave w

Reply to
David Weinshenker

It's easy. They will say that model rocketry gives any potential terrorist the ingredients to make a bomb. Never mind that any garden center can provide ammonium nitrate and any convience store can provide diesel to make a much more massive bomb.

It's all about ratings and money, truth be damned.

Reply to
Tim

I absolutely do because I hear it regularly from the dread UAV driving moron soccer moms around Plano/Allen TX. Most people's attention span has been reduced to sound bite level nowadays and they hear "model rocket" and "explosion" and THAT IS ALL THEY HEAR! They don't rationally look at it or research it, they hear the above and in their shallow brains the instant connection is made. See it all the time.

And any organization that refers to model rockets when no recovery mechanism is present should be sued immediately, just to try to get their attention.

Reply to
a0002604

Fred: I emailed Mary Roberts and also the Cosrocs Colorado NAR section is on top of this from what I understand.

shockie B)

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Reply to
shockwaveriderz

MR assures me that EI is on top of this matter..... shockie B)

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Reply to
shockwaveriderz

Yes, COSROCS is doing our utmost for damage control. This is a very unfortunate situation, both in terms of the loss of life and the reported link to "model rocketry" by the media.

COSROCS taped an interview with one local television station on Thursday, which aired Friday evening. In the session, we stressed hobby rocketry's excellent safety record due to strict adherence to the MR safety code, and how no commercial hobby rocketry products could have caused any kind of explosion, and certainly nothing of this magnitude. We even lit a small piece of white lightning propellant to demonstrate that it burns, rather than explodes.

We've also contacted the local newspaper, and had a nice exchange with the author who wrote an article on the incident that was printed on Friday.

Still, we're looking to do more. I'm seriously thinking of trying to assemble a press conference. Maybe we'll just send out a mass PR package and invitation to a club launch activity, so the media can come out and see what real hobby rocketry is all about.

I could use a bit of help... I've seen a few interesting tidbits of info in the RMR threads, and would like more info, and links to sources if possible, on such claims as:

- This guy was a PGI member

- He used model rocket motors to boost his fireworks shells

- He was developing new propellants for use in model rockets (a statement made in a local newscast) In general, any solid and credible links to details about what this guy was or was not doing with regards to rocketry.

On a slightly more personal note, this gentleman lived less than five miles from me. The Black Forest is a rural bedroom community to the northeast of Colorado Springs, mostly five acre lots. My commute goes right through the Hodgen and Thompson intersection that's been mentioned in a few reports. The column of smoke was a most sobering sight. Quite a few friends and co-workers know of my rocketry involvement and Black Forest residency, prompting a number of calls that night and the next day - "Was that you guys?? Is Dave OK??" So for the record, No it wasn't me! :-)

But seriously, play safe! No hobby is worth losing your life for.

Regards,

Dave Virga COSROCS President Black Forest, CO

** Remove the "S P A M" trap for direct replies **

shockwaveriderz wrote:

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Dave V.

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