I can respect that... and I agree... WAY too much overbuilding going on. Most guys don't even try to build things "just strong enough"; they have the attitude that it SHOULD be an anti-tank round and capable of falling 10,000 feet and lawn darting with little/no damage. I read about some guys flying up north somewhere at some sort of meet and their rocket went awry and lawn darted, and they went out looking for it to recover the expensive cases and electronics if possible, and the rest of the rocket as well if possible. After searching in the direction it came down, crossing over into a farm field where a guy on a tractor was working, they asked him and he pointed to where it "went in", and they finally found the spot in the road ditch between the field and roadway... it had come in ballistic from about 10,000 feet or something and had BURIED itself about six feet deep into the moist soil... they spent the next day digging it out, dug down about five feet and managed to recover the rocket, MOSTLY INTACT, but decided not to bother trying to dig out the nosecone since they were already hanging by their ankles down the hole trying to get the e-bay back.
I just cringe when I read stories like that... if it had hit someone they'd have been a DEAD DUCK instantaneously... no question about it. Yet time and time and time again, I read guys laughingly recalling some "near miss" or other where a rocket came in ballistic and hit the rear tire of a dirt bike that was being ridden at the time and demolished the tire and rim, or where a rocket ignited and zipped between a guy and his girlfriend who'd pulled up on a four wheeler to watch while it was lowered from the launch rail for repairs, flying between them and burning then both, or club leaders relenting to a bunch of SLI yahoos who drove out to get in their qualification flight, and in violation of club/landowner rules, were allowed to use a sparky motor (after being warned REPEATEDLY by their advisor and club people that sparkies weren't allowed and a poor choice) and managed to burn off dozens of acres of grazing land and nearly burned down a half-million dollar ripe, dry standing wheat crop across the fence that was about ready to harvest... and I could go on...
Anyway, when I was a member of NAR I realized that I wasn't getting ANYTHING but 6 magazines a year for my $60 bucks... I fly off my own farms (which I allow a "local" NAR club to fly off of as well, LPR/MPR only) and I don't need the insurance, I don't compete and have no interest in competition, and I STEADFASTLY REFUSE to get ANY kind of "certification" for a HOBBY *LEISURE* activity, PERIOD, nor would I spend the kind of money most guys do on HPR flying.
Besides, I've seen what REAL talented guys like John Pursley can do with just "model rocket" (2 G's and below) power... using ultra-lightweight but strong construction methods...
That, IMHO, is WAY more interesting that some bubba-yahoo type launching some big anti-tank round on a gigantic super-expensive rocket motor...
Later! OL J R
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