#11
|
||||
|
||||
I mentioned this in another thread earlier, but this is a good place to say it again. I now carry along with me one of those patio deck grill mats to set my launch pad on. It's heavy, so it doesn't blow around in a breeze. It is also designed to catch those burning embers from a grill and prevent them from burning through the deck wood. Using it as a ground protector under a pad seems to be a good additional piece of insurance.
__________________
Craig McGraw BARCLONE Rocketry -- http://barclone.rocketshoppe.com BARCLONE Blogsite -- http://barclone.wordpress.com BARCLONE Forum -- BARCLONE Forum BARs helping BARs SAM 0044 AMA 352635 |
#12
|
||||
|
||||
Take the photos you guys saw, supersize the fire, and think about doing that at least two or three times a week plus a half dozen times each weekend and you'll know what I did all summer in the "great drought of 2007".
Idiots seem to think that burn bans only apply to other people and that they are too smart to let a fire get away from them. Almost all of our grass and forest fires started out as "controlled" burns. We only had a handful that were truly accidental started by cigarettes, freight trains, etc. How large is that grill mat? That's a better solution than wetting an area down, because the summer heat/wind will dry it out pretty fast. |
#13
|
|||
|
|||
Quote:
Isn't that Roswell circa the 40's, I really knew a UFO landed, now, here's proof !!! |
#14
|
||||
|
||||
Quote:
They come in varying sizes, and I bought the largest I saw. It's about 24" x 36". It might be overkill in size, but I was actually looking for something larger. It was less than $20, IIRC, at Lowes. One clarification -- these are for use with GAS grills, not charcoal grills. In fact, on the back in very tiny print on a very tiny tag, it says "charcoal embers may melt mat". Look around, though, and there's probably one for charcoal grills. May be a little more expensive than this one. Given what comes out of our models at launch time, I don't think I really have that much to worry about hitting this mat. It's more to prevent anything from hitting the ground...
__________________
Craig McGraw BARCLONE Rocketry -- http://barclone.rocketshoppe.com BARCLONE Blogsite -- http://barclone.wordpress.com BARCLONE Forum -- BARCLONE Forum BARs helping BARs SAM 0044 AMA 352635 |
#15
|
||||
|
||||
Quote:
I don't think it's overkill. You've seen propellant grains fly every which way when they CATO, so the larger the better. |
#16
|
||||
|
||||
Quote:
It's mostly common sense, but when there's the stress of a brush fire, we're not always cool headed enough to think straight. After reading it, the part about where to be when fighting the fire is indelibly etched in my brain. Doug Quote:
|
#17
|
|||
|
|||
Old Fashioned Way!
I remember one August day when I live on 40 acres in Missouri and we started a small burn pile out by the garden. We walked away to do work eslewhere for a while and then the wind picked up. We soon discovered that about 1/2 acre of dry grass was fully ablaze . I was sent off running for two 5 gallon buckets of water and two burlap sacks. We beat out the fire with the wet burlap sacks which worked really well. We suffered some minor burns to ourselves though, mostly burnt arm hair. Looking back I cannot say that it was much fun though .
PS. If you have ever ran with two full 5 gallon buckets of water, by the time you get where you're going thay are only half full if you're lucky , JP James Pierson NAR# 77907 |
#18
|
||||
|
||||
Quote:
He echoed the things I've said. However, I think one thing should be clarified. He said to fight the fire from the burned side. If you are inside the burned area, you can still face the wind or have your back to it. Fight the fire from the burned side with the wind to your back, because that's the side that will travel the fastest. The upwind fire will be moving against the wind and travel much slower. |
#19
|
||||
|
||||
Someone just joined SoAR online, and this was in his comments:
"Haven't flown in 15 years, last weekend flew off a field behind Didn't hear anything about it on the news, so I guess it wasn't a biggie!
__________________
Roy nar12605 |
#20
|
||||
|
||||
Quote:
The key is to not get caught downwind in the tinder. Interestingly enough, this came up at lunch yesterday. I dine every Wednesday with the DARS lunch crew, and we were discussing fires. One of the guys pointed out that grass fires have been clocked at up to 800 yards per minute. That's 2400 feet or about 30 mph. I know for sure I can't do 30, so I wouldn't want to have to outrun one Doug Recalling an old Richard Widmark film about a forest fire with Frank Gorshin as the bad guy... |
Thread Tools | Search this Thread |
Display Modes | |
|
|