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Originally Posted by ghrocketman
I did this many years ago in a family farm field by myself.
No risk whatsoever.
Never a member of NAR or TRA....WAYYYYYY too many rules.
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*Nods* That's how my father--and later I--did it, with no one else around. Also:
The rocket that caused that fatality wasn't even a model rocket (although it used model rocket motors), because it had a PVC pipe body tube! (A model rocket is legally defined as being made of "only lightweight, non-metal parts for the nose, body, and fins of my rocket.") The *lack* of that is what caused the person's death, because PVC pipe isn't frangible (it doesn't absorb impact energy by crumpling, as paper or thin plastic body tubes [and the impact energy-dissipating "crush zones" in car bodies] do). Plus, if a PVC pipe-bodied rocket suffered a CATO, its body could be shattered by the motor's--or motors'--CATO(es), creating potentially deadly--or blinding/maiming--shrapnel (metal shrapnel is more massive per given volume of material, of course, but PVC shrapnel can kill, blind, or maim just as easily, if it's projected outward rapidly enough), and:
Being a Fire Chief (on the Miami Fire Department; he became a new model rocketeer in his *forties*, back in the 1960s!), my father was very safety-conscious, and he didn't--due to his rank and experience--have a "know-it-all"/"It can't happen to me because I'm an expert" attitude. He lit off fireworks (the best kinds, that fly and explode!) at our house, using a punk affixed to a long stick, and he wore his face-and-head-protecting riot helmet when he did that; he always had water available to extinguish any flames, too. Concerning model rocketry:
Whenever we flew model rockets at the old, abandoned Tamiami Airport (now Tamiami Park, adjoining the FIU--Florida International University--campus), he taught all six of us kids to observe--and exceed--the requirements of the NAR Safety Code when flying in such places, because other people were in the vicinity (flying their model rockets, model airplanes, or kites, playing Frisbee, etc., or just being observers or bystanders), but:
When a venerable old rocket, like his orange-and-white (masked and painted, using a paint sprayer bottle and a compressor) Estes Big Bertha, became too old, floppy, or threadbare to keep flying without taking "heroic" measures at the workbench (and if it had too few usable or serviceable parts to make it worth cannibalizing for the spare parts box), it got to make a spectacular final flight--away from anyone else, or any property, who/that could be harmed. Neither of us ever did this more than a handful of times, because--happily--most old, worn-out rockets *do* have enough usable or serviceable parts to justify cannibalizing them for spare parts. As well:
When such worn-out rockets are "flight-disposed of" away from anyone or anything that could be harmed or damaged (it was easy to ensure that we weren't in harm's way), the NAR Safety Code is irrelevant in such circumstances--just as the laws prohibiting public nudity are irrelevant if one walks around naked in an empty and/or view-obscuring location, especially on a Moonless night. (I mention the public nudity example because a late friend of mine actually did that. He paid a kid on an adjacent block to keep shooting out--with a BB gun--the streetlight that illuminated his large, hedge-and-fence-obscured lot. He did this because he loved showering outside on his front walk, in the warm, refreshing summer night rains. Since no one could see him, it didn't matter that he was breaking the public nudity law.)