Tuesday, November 9, 2010

Lesson learned: Inspect thoroughly then comment

At Plaster Blaster 2010 this last weekend I was asked to inspect the connections in a friend's electronics bay. I immediately noticed that the stripped portion of the e-match wires were too long and likely to short out. I requested the fix then didn't dig much deeper due to other distractions. In seeing that high-level issue I had failed to notice that the e-matches on both altimeters were connected to the wrong positions. Luckily the rocket managed to save itself after failing to eject the main 'chute at apogee and landed safely and without issue. From now on, whenever I'm asked to inspect a prepped rocket, I'll record all my comments with pen and paper then submit the sum total as a group to prevent this error. Duh!!!

1 comment:

Doug Vannier said...

NASA calls mistakes "Early Attempts at Success'