Rocket vs. Biker

Canon PowerShot S90

ƒ/6.3

6 mm

1/500

This is the closest call I have ever seen in eight years of rocketry.

When the yellow two-stage rocket was coming in ballistic, the LCO announcer sounded out the “heads up” alarm across the playa. The fellow on the right was biking on the playa behind the flight line and slowed down to look up, and by an incredible stroke of freak alignment, the rocket struck the exposed portion of his rear wheel, as he was biking!

He described it as a silent event; he was perplexed to feel himself leaning backward as the rear end of the bike collapsed.

It was a borrowed bike, but wow, what a souvenir!

(P.S. and lest anyone conclude that this is a dangerous activity, please keep in mind that it’s much safer than golf =)

26 responses to “Rocket vs. Biker”

Steffe

Sep 19, 2011 at 4:47 pm

Must have come as a bit of a surprise…

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JS3 Josh

Sep 19, 2011 at 5:18 pm

how exactly is that much safer than golf? 🙂

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jurvetson

Sep 19, 2011 at 5:21 pm

Nobody dies doing rocketry. Lightning, errant balls, it’s crazy out there. Then do some statistical hand waiving…

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flytrue2

Sep 19, 2011 at 5:35 pm

If you know the rocket altitude at apogee, the surface area of the bicycle tire exposed aft of the seat and the surface area of the nose cone it would be relatively simple exercise to then calculate the probability of such an event. It’s going to be a vanishingly small number. Incredible, just incredible…

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angry shock

Sep 19, 2011 at 5:55 pm

wtf!

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CoryMarchand

Sep 19, 2011 at 5:56 pm

That wheel is destroyed!

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obskura

Sep 19, 2011 at 7:35 pm

Wow, close call!
Safer than golf – reminds me, a few years back a second-row politician suggested to exclude "extreme sports" from health cover to reduce costs (when questioned he defined extreme sports as sky diving, bungee jumping, paragliding, rock climbing, etc.). Looking at statistics, it turned out that all his "extreme sports" cause less than 1 percent of sports-related costs, and that in fact soccer (Europe) was the main culprit, followed by tennis and rollerblading… To a large extent it is because a lot more people are doing it though. Imagine half the population enjoying high-powered rocketry 😉
It rings true to me though – my personal experience is that I’m usually fine spending the day rock climbing or paragliding, and then twist my ankle crossing the road on the way home…
I also have two scars on my shin telling the same story – a small, barely visible one from canyoning (hit my leg on a sharp rock), and a much bigger one from gardening only a week after the canyoning… (tripped and scraped badly over a stone wall feature while dodging a sprinkler that went into my face…) 🙂 Accidents happen especially when you’re not paying attention – supposedly dangerous activities just remind you constantly to be careful.

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angry shock

Sep 19, 2011 at 8:15 pm

A bathtub is more dangerous than a swimming pool.

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rwoodworkr

Sep 19, 2011 at 8:34 pm

They all seem pretty happy. Even the rider.
I feel fairly safe on the golf course. It’s those around me that I fear for.

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solerena

Sep 19, 2011 at 8:46 pm

my kid wanted golf, so i have followed some… did not notice anything dangerous… rockets are not scary either… changing one’s life rapidly is a bit scary at times but manageable:) i am a risk-taker and risk is a part of life, some wisdom in managing it comes with experience.

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Kevin Baird

Sep 19, 2011 at 9:49 pm

Looks like that Kevlar band survived!

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Pieces of Eye

Sep 20, 2011 at 12:05 am

Statistically speaking the guy riding the bike is partly dead.

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caseybarker

Sep 20, 2011 at 1:49 am

As a native Floridian, I can say that folks die with morbid regularity on golf courses. Big, empty fields + holding metal sticks + daily thunderstorms. (Florida leads the world in "lightning strikes per land area." It also has more golf courses than any other state.)

AFAIK, only a couple of folks have ever died in the history of model and high-power rocketry, and they died trying to recover rockets from power lines. This, while in some sense "lucky" for its lack of actual injury, was a one-in-a-bazillion shot. Hmmm….

Assuming a 54mm tube, and guessing a 2 km ballistic return radius, I compute that the frontal area represents one 5.5-billionth of the return area. No idea the area occupied by the wheel, but you could scale it. Then again, this looks like almost a direct (not glancing) blow. That’s even less likely.

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solerena

Sep 20, 2011 at 1:58 am

This is something new to me… i lived in Florida and now i am a few min away from two golf courses… people die there… really? Ok, may be my kid will try some other sport. Golf seemed so relaxed and all the golf courses here are so beautiful… so i loved the environment and just being out… do not care much about the game itself… barely know it.

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caseybarker

Sep 20, 2011 at 3:04 am

Relax. 🙂 By "morbid regularity" I mean "statistical unlikelihood that makes the local news when it happens, but still happens more frequently than rocketry-related deaths." You’re more likely to die driving to the golf course than on it, and that probably won’t merit a mention in the newscast.

But if you’re out golfing and you see the thunderhead building, get off the course.

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solerena

Sep 20, 2011 at 3:26 am

LOL, personally i never thought that either rockets or golf were too scary…

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TomiTapio

Sep 20, 2011 at 8:45 am

Bicyclist, not biker. Now the wheel is rare modern art.

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DixonTJ

Sep 21, 2011 at 10:44 am

Yes, people die playing golf. Started playing when I was 8 and spent most of my summers on a local course playing & working. By the time I was 18 I had seen (in person) three deaths. Given, two were heart attacks, but one was a lightening strike. In addition, one emergency room trip from a ball careening off a tree and hitting a person in the temple.

I have been involved in high power rocketry for nearly 10 years now and have seen no injuries or deaths. Actually, I take that back, at LDRS30 two weeks ago, I ripped a bicep muscle lifting one of my larger rockets into the SUV.

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© Libyan Soup

Sep 21, 2011 at 2:57 pm

I know it had to land somewhere – anywhere….., but as caseybarker has already calculated I wont bother asking "what were the odds on that?"
That is nucking futs.

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JJ San

Sep 27, 2011 at 2:17 pm

Does "behind the flight line" mean "in the usually safe zone?"

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jurvetson

Sep 27, 2011 at 3:19 pm

That is directionally correct…. the pads are oriented relative to the flight line with bigger projects farther away, and distance gives a nice r^2 growth in the possible splash pattern.

[http://www.flickr.com/photos/obskura] – I like your argument that “supposedly dangerous activities just remind you constantly to be careful”. By reinforcing the heads-up policies with vigilance, and good signage, we will hopefully continue to have a better safety record than golf or gardening. =)

Definitely fewer trip and slip hazards out there…

[http://www.flickr.com/photos/libyan_soup] – yes, it’s a blast.

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Graeme’s Pixs

Oct 4, 2011 at 8:12 pm

wtf, buy a lotto ticket 🙂

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hesitant bell

May 29, 2012 at 6:57 pm

Everything is more fun than golf

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jurvetson

Jun 26, 2013 at 8:47 pm

some other ballistic moments… Clickable for more info…

The big birds take a big dig…

A photo page of my big V-2 coming in hot…

and the mid-sized one before that…

And a short video of one that came a foot from my car.

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Rocket vs. Biker

26 responses to “Rocket vs. Biker”

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