Thoughts toward safe use of Estes brand model rockets for Tech and Truth in April 2017
John's e-mail is johnenge@earthlink.net
7:20 PM when there is still light
April may have green vegetation for lower burnability; July would be another story; Hobbytown tells me model rockets are OK in Austin even when there is a burn ban because model rockets are not fireworks
Austin Area Rocketry Group aarg.org may be able to advise
reference: model rocketeers launch regularly from the playing field at Murchison Middle School in N. Austin
If Tech and Truth does launches, we would put two observers on Alley May Drive for the first launch to look and listen, to get an idea of what it is like for neighbors
Pushbutton switches in AND logic for these authorizations: launch commander, clear-to-north on Bilbrook, clear-to-south on Bilbrook, wind observer, site-clear officer, Alley May Drive observer
Estes rockets re-use the body with replacement engines. Expenditure would be with church funding. Firing is from a battery some distance away.
The sound is not a bang, it is a whoosh
Probably not use parachute on nose cone, that blows the landing point further when there is wind. We would recover and re-use the rocket body.
Might do trial launch on a Saturday, when a train is passing
http://www.estesrockets.com/rockets/kits/001225-alphar with a smaller engine $15, some assembly, skill level 1, see the video but that is surely with a bigger engine Launch set $35 http://www.estesrockets.com/rockets/launch-sets 001593 - 1/2A6-2 Engines three for $10.29