Posted: 5/24/2006 8:46:44 PM EDT
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Anyone remember launching model rockets as kids? ....and the engines?  My 6 year old son and I were launching rockets this afternoon. I was loading an engine into a rocket and was in the process of hooking up the igniter wires to the battery connection. I briefly thought to myself "Did I unhook the battery". I thought I did and went ahead and hooked up the wires to the igniter. WHOOOOOOOOOSH!!!!! Unfortunately, my thumb was in the way of the bad part of the now-ignited engine. The good part is that when you go into the emergency room with a blackened hand, you get to go straight to the head of the line and bypass all of the other people who are there with the sniffles. |
Looked worse than it actually was. Just some blistering. My Jamacian doc told me "We have a saying in my country. Whatever side you slept on last night, sleep on that side tonight". That means you were lucky. Oh, another good part about having a blackened hand is that the desk nurse filled out all of my paperwork for me. I didn't tell her that I write with my other hand - I was too busy trying to convince my son that model rocketry doesn't normally entail a trip to the ER. ....Six years spent convincing my son that I'm a genius, just to blow it all in one afternoon. 
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It was already hooked up from a previous launch. I neglected to unhook them. |
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Heh... that sort of sucks. I remember back when I did model rocketry with my dad. We'd go with my friend and every single time, EVERY SINGLE TIME he went to hook up the igniter, when he clipped the last wire, we'd both make the "Pssshhhhooooo" noise and he'd jump a mile. It never got old. He just couldn't not be afraid of it. He was jumpy as hell every time he went to hook it up. We used one of those silly boxes with the safeties and shit at first... then, we realized it was much cheaper to just use two long lamp-cord or speaker-wires attached to allagator clips and a little 9v battery. We stopped doing model rockets when we moved to Ohio because damn near every single one of them was smashed in the move. |
Today was "home-built" day. The rocket was made out of PVC. I can auger that thing into a brick wall, dust it off and be ready for launch again. |
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My brother had the bright idea to put the rocket on the ground with just the wires attached and light it off without telling us. We all dove behind convenient lawn furniture (concealment, not cover!). His shirt had an entrance and exit hole, but he was strangely untouched.
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The sooner the better. Now you've got an extra set of eyes to tell you you might burn/cut/electrocute/disembowel yourself. |
Son to his friends, "My dumbass dad near burned his finger off today! I almost split his beer when he started yelling!" My dad had the cool idea of launching my rocket in the dark. I found the thing a month later in the woods. One fin missing.  ETA: You do realize thats why those battery pack/button things come with the arming pin. Like a spam can opener that you insert into the pack? 
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May I be first to post IBTDA ?  Burns hurt , scars last a lifetime 
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