helicopter v/s bottle rocket

[engineer151515]

Pleeaaassseee...........
Report from May 26 but I didn't see it here. Thought you'd like to see. Was reported in our local news.

http://www.local6.com/news/9278233/detail.html


Woman Accused Of Firing Bottle Rockets At Sheriff's Helicopter
Homeowner Apparently Annoyed At Noise In Area
POSTED: 7:34 am EDT May 26, 2006
UPDATED: 1:26 pm EDT May 26, 2006

Authorities in Orange County, Fla., arrested a 44-year-old woman who was apparently angry at a sheriff's helicopter flying over her house and allegedly shot fireworks at the aircraft in an effort to get it to move, according to police.

Homeowner Emajorie Thompson allegedly ran out of her house with a bottle rocket launcher, investigators said. Police said Thompson then shot bottle rockets at the aircraft.

Sheriff's deputies were in an Orange County neighborhood near 36th Street searching for a car theft suspect late Thursday when they called for help from a sheriff's helicopter.

As the helicopter flew in the area, homeowner Emarjorie Thompson allegedly ran out of her house with a bottle rocket launcher, investigators said. Police said Thompson then shot bottle rockets at the aircraft.

"Deputies said 44-year-old Marjorie Thompson was likely annoyed by the sound of the helicopter when she fired the fireworks in the air," Local 6 reporter Samantha Knapp said.

The pilot of the helicopter, Mike Umbarger, said Chase Three's flight pattern was never in jeopardy, but launching the flammables into the air had the potential to spook anyone flying an aircraft in the area.

Deputies who were in the area said they saw light coming from a bottle rocket in the air and that helped lead them to the woman, Knapp said.

When they arrived at the house, officers allegedly caught the woman in the act of a second bottle rocket launch at the helicopter, according to the report.

Thompson is facing a felony charge of shooting or throwing a deadly missile into an aircraft.

Watch Local 6 News for more on this story.

 

[GTSteve03]

Thompson is facing a felony charge of shooting or throwing a deadly missile into an aircraft.

The pilot of the helicopter, Mike Umbarger, said Chase Three's flight pattern was never in jeopardy, but launching the flammables into the air had the potential to spook anyone flying an aircraft in the area.

What's wrong with this picture?

 

[220_Swift]

As the helicopter flew in the area, homeowner Emarjorie Thompson allegedly ran out of her house with a bottle rocket launcher, investigators said. Police said Thompson then shot bottle rockets at the aircraft.

Could that be a...........bottle? I gues bottle rocket launcher sounds better than coke bottle, pepsi bottle, etc.

 

[MechAg94]

How late were they searching and how long was this helicopter flying near her house?

They paint the story as if she ran outside as soon as the helicopter showed up.

 

[Stormin n]

Everybody knows...

Tinfoil and lead lined rooms are the best defence against helicopters

 

[DoubleTapDrew]

Thompson is facing a felony charge of shooting or throwing a deadly missile into an aircraft.

When did bottle rockets become classified as deadly missles? Does the BATF know about this? Apparently "into" also means "in the general direction of". Most bottle rockets I know of don't have the range to get up to helicopter altitudes.
Give me a break. It's not like she shouldered a stinger and locked onto the helicopter. :banghead:

 

[offthepaper]

"Thompson is facing a felony charge of shooting or throwing a deadly missile into an aircraft"
------------------------------
Huh?
If I was the cop, I'd be downright embarassed to write a BS report like that.
Last time I was in the Carolinas (south of the border) I bought a Sh!#load of "deadly missles" at the stand there. And what a bargain, where else can you buy 50 "deadly missles" for $1.50, and a launcher (complete with Mountain Dew) for another 75 cents.
No mention if they continued to search for / or caught the car thief while nailing the terrorist with the missle launcher.
Hell, from the way this story is written she may have to go to Gitmo for more interrogation.

 

[1 old 0311]

"Ran out of the house with a 'bottle rocket launcher." Ain't that a empty Bud bottle??????

Kevin

 

[BigFatKen]

For a 5000 pound helocopter to hover, it must push down 5000 pounds of air. I very much doubt a paper anything could push up through that.

 

[unspellable]

Bottle rocket

Off topic here, but how practical would it be to launch one of these things through a PVC tube to try and scare the deer out of my garden?

 

[unspellable]

rockets

This reminds me of my days as an instructor at a parachuting school. The kids were launching model rockets and out pilot used to joke that we were paying him to haul parachutists, not dodge SAMs.

 

[Sistema1927]

We had a Sheriff's helicopter shot down last year, but instead of a bottle rocket the shooter used a .30-06.

(Fortunately, neither occupant of the chopper was seriously injured.)

 

[Vern Humphrey]

I'm not a lawyer, but I think a pretty good case could be made that her actions never endangered the helicopter (as others have pointed out, shooting a pop-bottle rocket through the rotor wash is physically impossible.) Any fool would know that.

Therefore she had to have other motivation -- an act of protest against the noise and disruption of the helicopter. Shooting the rockets was an act of symbolic speech, and protected under the First Amendment.

And to charge her violates her civil rights under color of authority.

 

[elric]

Off topic here, but how practical would it be to launch one of these things through a PVC tube to try and scare the deer out of my garden?

As a verteran of several bottle rocket wars a couple decades ago in Jr. high (stupid, but at least we always wore eye protection), it works quite well. Get a couple feet of 3/4" pvc and a 3/4" cap. Don't glue the cap on, the friction will hold it on quite well.

Just light the fuse and drop it in tail first from the muzzle like a muzzle loader. Don't try to sight down the tube, the rocket will throw sparks back into your eyes. Just hipshoot it. Plenty accurate for deer scaring, could probably even hit them fairly often from 50 feet or less after some practice.

After a few shots, all the smoke in the bottom of the pipe would sometimes smother the fuses of subsequent ones, seems the cheap paper fuses on the bottle rockets we had didn't supply their own oxygen, like that green cannon fuse stuff does. Anyway, this is why you leave the cap unglued, so you can take it off and air the tube out.

 

[ball3006]

A long time ago...

in a land called college.......we used old double barrel shotgun barrels as a bottle rocket launcher. We would fire one barrel and if it missed, we would use the ole Kentucky windage for the second shot. Worked pretty well.....chris3

 

[Dave R]

Off topic here, but how practical would it be to launch one of these things through a PVC tube to try and scare the deer out of my garden?

Like elric, I'm the veteran of many firecracker wars.

Our tactics were a little different, though. We used the PVC pipe like a bazooka, open at both ends. That way, the smoke never put out a fuse. Took a team of two, though--a loader and an aimer. The aimer wore eye protection, of course. And you have to keep the pipe more or less horizontal, to avoid having the rocket fall out the back and shoot you in the foot....

Maybe elric's tactics are better, unless you need a high rate of fire.

Should certainly help your deer problem.

Back on topic--many cities have ordinances against shooting flying fireworks in city limits. If so, she's guilty of that. I doubt she put the chopper in any danger.

 

[Manedwolf]

As a verteran of several bottle rocket wars a couple decades ago in Jr. high (stupid, but at least we always wore eye protection), it works quite well. Get a couple feet of 3/4" pvc and a 3/4" cap. Don't glue the cap on, the friction will hold it on quite well.

Just light the fuse and drop it in tail first from the muzzle like a muzzle loader. Don't try to sight down the tube, the rocket will throw sparks back into your eyes. Just hipshoot it. Plenty accurate for deer scaring, could probably even hit them fairly often from 50 feet or less after some practice.

Now I'm recalling the "thoomp!" sound they made when they went out of the pipe.

BTW, launching them at an arc into water was fun. Muffled thump beneath the surface.

The larger rockets were more fun, though. Well...except for the one that'd gone through a neighbor's patio screen and blew up in a torpedo geyser in their pool.

 

[sarhog]

shooting a pop-bottle rocket through the rotor wash is physically impossible.) Any fool would know that.

Not so fast. I can tell you with absolute certainty that a bottle rocket (the decent ones that come 6 to a pack) will not only go through rotor wash, but will pass through the rotor arc and keep going.

 

[72Rover]

PVC artillery

For scaring deer, why not use that other marvel of PVC firearms, a potato cannon? Multi-tasker here, scare the raiders AND plant the taters!

 

[Marnoot]

For a 5000 pound helocopter to hover, it must push down 5000 pounds of air. I very much doubt a paper anything could push up through that.

This would be correct if the helicopter acheived lift by blowing air a la a fan. But helicopters achieve lift by the same means as an airplane, that is the Bernoulli principle. The rotors on the helicopter are just wings that rotate very quickly to get the air flowing over them. The downdraft from a helicopter is a byproduct of wing movement, rather than the means of thrust.

 

[M2 Carbine]

I was flying low up one of the inlets off the Chesapeake Bay and a duck hunter tracked me with his shot gun.
When I left the area he was in the water.

When I landed I told the maintenance officer if a call came in from a very mad wet duck hunter wanting to do something about a Army helicopter chasing him out of his boat, tell him that I was hoping he would call so I can send the Feds to talk to him about pointing a gun at a Army helicopter.

He never called.

 

[Leanwolf]

Perhaps Emajorie didn't like it that the helicopter was interrupting the "American Idol" program???????

L.W.

 

[goon]

FYI - you can launch bottle rockets at stuff using a peice of pipe.
Some relatives of mine (I love genetics) were in a "war" with a neighbor when one of them lit his shirt sleeve on fire with a bottle rocket.
Seems they really are dangerous after all.

 

[Limeyfellow]

It wasn't that long ago an illegal immigrant at the border took down a helecopter with a rock he threw at it, so I guess the firework could cause them to throw the book at the woman. I put it down to people in Florida being rather odd people.

 

[grimjaw]

facing a felony charge

. . . does not mean "convicted of." They can charge her until the cows come home. There's evidence to warrant the charge, but doesn't mean it will stand in court.

Roman candles, now for that she'd be getting the chair.

jmm