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Model Forum / General / Rockets / April 2006"Badly burned rocket hobbyist dies"
This was in today's Sacramento Bee (April 21). Anyone know anything more about this? Antelope is a suburb northeast of Sacramento, California. *********************************** Badly burned rocket hobbyist dies By Elizabeth Hume -- Bee Staff Writer Published 2:15 am PDT Friday, April 21, 2006 SACRAMENTO - A man severely burned while building small rockets in his Antelope garage earlier this month died Wednesday night in UC Davis Medical Center, authorities said. Robert Wayne Compton, 62, was in his garage on Grey Livery Way when the fire started about 7:30 p.m. April 9. The fire was quickly put out, but Compton was severely burned, Sacramento Metro Fire District officials said. Compton was transported to the Medical Center with burns over more than 30 percent of his body. An investigation indicated Compton was distilling hydrogen peroxide just before the blaze, district spokesman Engineer Christian Pebbles said. ************************** David Takemoto-Weerts NAR #80818 L1 Davis, CA dltakemotowee...@ucdavis.edu wrote: > This was in today's Sacramento Bee (April 21). Anyone know anything > more about this? Antelope is a suburb northeast of Sacramento, [quoted text clipped - 24 lines] > NAR #80818 L1 > Davis, CA OMFG ... I know/knew this guy ... I remember him at one time being a Arocket regular. That H202 scares the hell out of me :( Ted Novak TRA#5512 IEAS#75 > This was in today's Sacramento Bee (April 21). Anyone know anything > more about this? Antelope is a suburb northeast of Sacramento, [quoted text clipped - 24 lines] > NAR #80818 L1 > Davis, CA Found on the Arocketry.net site. Robert Compton was the president of the Sacramento L5 Society. "Robert Compton's static test of his hydrogen peroxide rocket motor" http://www.ad6uy.com/sac-l5/motor-test.html > Found on the Arocketry.net site. Robert Compton was the president of > the Sacramento L5 Society. > > "Robert Compton's static test of his hydrogen peroxide rocket motor" > > http://www.ad6uy.com/sac-l5/motor-test.html Ok I am NOT going to pull a Jerry Irvine and speak badly about a guy who is recently deceased (ala Jim Turner). I will however suggest that NO ONE, NO ONE ever work with H2O2, O2, or H2 or any caustic chemicals and expect a rain suit to protect you: http://www.sdc.org/~ad6uy/fill.jpg The picture does appear to have someone wearing a face visor ... but I don't think the rain suit would help much. Another NO NO!!! - His hands are exposed ... oh dear ... When working with such things, you need a face and head protector, and special coverings that keep the liquids from eating through to your flesh ... and a resperator for breathing is important also ... I love the REAL ROCKET SCIENCE that is being undertaken in this photo! Just wish it were done is a safer manner. >>Found on the Arocketry.net site. Robert Compton was the president of >>the Sacramento L5 Society. [quoted text clipped - 21 lines] > I love the REAL ROCKET SCIENCE that is being undertaken in this photo! > Just wish it were done is a safer manner. Lunar, Good suggestions. I was wondering why said intrepid builder type was wearing something that could _melt_ with any half way hot flame... Bob > Lunar, > > Good suggestions. I was wondering why said intrepid builder type was > wearing something that could _melt_ with any half way hot flame... > > Bob Just wondering......the rubber suit protects against caustic burns.......would nomex protect against the chems AND the fire? Was he figuring on only caustic protection and no chance of fire? Pity to hear of the calamity..... Chuck >> Lunar, >> [quoted text clipped - 9 lines] > > Chuck I suspect Nomex would not be any good in such an oxidizing environment. (conc. H2O2)  SignatureJim Yanik jyanik at kua.net Check out the testing done by Armadillo Aerospace on the effects of Hydrogen Peroxide. http://media.armadilloaerospace.com/misc/MaterialTest.mpg We did our own test to find out what would happen if there was a peroxide spill on various types of clothing. Wear cotton. Leather is, uh, "exciting". SignatureWilliam Richardson ENC USNR Ret. TRA 8703 L2 Do not laugh at the difficulties of others as you may soon have difficulties of your own. >> Found on the Arocketry.net site. Robert Compton was the president of >> the Sacramento L5 Society. [quoted text clipped - 21 lines] > I love the REAL ROCKET SCIENCE that is being undertaken in this photo! > Just wish it were done is a safer manner. > Check out the testing done by Armadillo Aerospace on the effects of Hydrogen > Peroxide. [quoted text clipped - 8 lines] > as you may soon have difficulties of your > own. Fantastic video Bill ... thank you. The more I study what is going on in the L^5 pics and vids ... the more I am SCARED! Ok first off, why are they firing motors with the exhaust pointing down ... what if the steaks they have driven into the ground give way and the motor and test stand take flight? 2nd should the motor detonate, is it did in the pics from another test, what is to stop parts from flying about? Shouldn't they have sandbags surrounding the test area and have the test area semi-sunken into the earth for greater protection? They should have layed the motor down horizontal and had it pushing against a load cell rated for their expected thrust profile. I watched one video of their motor test where the videographer was hiding behind a car door ... OMG! Lets see, motor explodes, I am behind a car door, motor part hits door, shatters glass ... now I have hundreds of parts flying in my face ... The yellow rain suit has been discussed ... Ok I am not trying to 'knit pick', but these experiments had DEATH writen all over them from the beginning. The article says he was trying to distill H2O2 in his garage ... WTF was he thinking? Or maybe NOT thinking! I think that instead of just letting this blow away, the hobby (Amateur) should investigate this and present a report so that other people don't do these sorts of things in their garages ... ... I mean if I had known he was doing this stuff, I would have told him to stop and get a safety checklist made, and proper equipment. When I used to work with military aircraft, we would sometimes service the O2 systems on vehicles. They would wheel out a big chiller, and a guy would suit up from head to tow in THICK nomex and other fabrics, thick gloves, and full head/face visor, ground himself and the O2 chiller ... and even then the job was dangerous ... > The article says he was trying to distill H2O2 in his garage ... WTF > was he thinking? Or maybe NOT thinking! A year or two ago in Houston, a NASA engineer who was designing an amateur H2O2 motor was fueling the motor in his backyard for a test (!!!) when it exploded. It killed him and damaged 3 homes. Dave >>The article says he was trying to distill H2O2 in his garage ... WTF >>was he thinking? Or maybe NOT thinking! [quoted text clipped - 4 lines] > > Dave The video was interesting. I recall back int he 70's before he was basically banned from US race tracks, Slammin' Sammy Miller's H2O2 Vanishing Point rocket car was doing 300 mph in an eight mile......He went on to England http://www.draglist.com/stories/SOD%20Mar%202002/SOD-030702.htm where he played with his rocket motor for quite some time before IIRC he was killed trying to fight an oil well fire. I noted the fueling requirements........quite a distance, but thinking back, if he had gone out of control it could have be a catastrophe in those old pseudo safety days of racing. Chuck >>> The article says he was trying to distill H2O2 in his garage ... WTF >>> was he thinking? Or maybe NOT thinking! [quoted text clipped - 18 lines] > > Chuck I thought that cotton was verboten, when it came to H2O2. I thought that coth products caught fire. Bob > I watched one video of their motor test where the videographer was > hiding behind a car door ... OMG! Lets see, motor explodes, I am > behind a car door, motor part hits door, shatters glass ... now I have > hundreds of parts flying in my face ... That's actually the one scenario in which hiding behind the car door is OK: automotive safety glass can't shatter dangerously. Shrapnel punching through a couple of layers of very thin sheet metal is the bigger problem -- a car door is quite thick, giving a sense of security. Unfortunately, almost all of that thickness is air, so it doesn't do a whole lot of good. SignatureJoseph J. Pfeiffer, Jr., Ph.D. Phone -- (505) 646-1605 Department of Computer Science FAX -- (505) 646-1002 New Mexico State University http://www.cs.nmsu.edu/~pfeiffer > > I watched one video of their motor test where the videographer was > > hiding behind a car door ... OMG! Lets see, motor explodes, I am [quoted text clipped - 11 lines] > Department of Computer Science FAX -- (505) 646-1002 > New Mexico State University http://www.cs.nmsu.edu/~pfeiffer Thanks. So then all thoe OLD photos of rocket tests back in the 1930s are the way to go? i.e. sandbags surrounding the engine and test stands ... and even then there is NO guarantee of complete safety! Werner von Braun almost lost his life early in his rocketery experiments ... he had a fellow rocketeer die in his arms when rocket shrapnel hit his friend in the neck and severed his artery ... even the professionals die from time to time ... tought call. On one had, we love to see people get involved ... on the other hand, we hate to see them die needlessly ... I guess in the end, the happy medium is MODEL ROCKETRY. |
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