I had a "pad tipped over after the fuse was lit" incident, around 1972. It was a shabby old Estes tripod with a rusty loose adjustment screw. My Alpha flew into the chain-link fence surrounding an in-use tennis court. I remember the cone splitting neatly, not quite in even halves.

I remember realizing at the time that I'd probably better get a working electrical controller together.

* * *
Data Point: The comedy-drama "Bye Bye Lenin" is set in East Germany just before and after the fall of the wall. Worth seeing. The narrator / main character has a big home-made model rocket. He recalls launching it as a kid in a flashback (to celebrate the first East German cosmonaut), and later launches it again . . . I won't give away the occasion.

In both cases, he uses a fuse for ignition.

__________________
NAR #27085 - Oregon Rocketry - SAM