mark01

one thing i would like to point out to those how read this .and paul would agree .that the packing bay and the test area was very close  together, and most of the  day a very noisey area to be around.with QA doing test ,from bird scarers to thunder flashes . the women how used to work in the packing bay were used to the noise . though some times a bit loader than normal.and the QA were professional in everything they did ,we just got a bigger bang than we expected!!!

no problem ,i have some great memorys and some funny ones to .

Up past  the military packing was the test sight , and to one side was an area with banked sides with a shed to one side for the QA to stand in and in this area was a 45 gallon drum with the lid taken off and

turned up side down so the QA could test small items ie port fires ect, and over time its rusted and a small hole had opened up .a QA that you know very well paul .and i will not say his name .was in this area,

testing finished products from the production line,and i was with him waiting for results. well he was testing i think was maroon tubes ,so just to see what would happen he put the tube into the 45 gallon drum via the rusty

hole connected the electric fuse up, and pressed the button.there was a very loud thud,the drum launched sky wards followed by the electric fuse wire .the windows in the packing were nearly blown out ,let alone the girls in side

that were busy working. and it made windows in the field rattle ,i got  out of the area very quickly followed by the QA .we walked past the military packing bay with our heads low only to see, one of the directors and manager with others 

walking round by the storage bays doing an inspection. standing there looking up at the test sight pointing fingers.if a hole had appeared i would have jumped in it.

 though outright bladey dangerous  no one got hurt .

sorry paul for bring back memories . like you i have seen things that are bloody horrific at astra .and i remember this incident well .and being a member of the fire crew ,and when them fire bells rang (and they did) you didnt know what you was going to face .what made it worse for me ,my wife work at astra as well.

no matter what you did to ensure the safety ,making sure that the licences were heard to ,you followed every rule to the book , it could still turn round and bit you

the workforce at astra were some of the best peaple i have worked with , and when things like this happen , there was always someone to help

i can still see it now ,a young Qa standing in front of a what once was a nice clean bay, with a new and very expensive custom made press ,witch now looked like a missile strike.and you didnt have a scratch on you.

but i take my hat off to you ,all lot of peaple would not of stepped back into a bay after that.

astra was a firework factory at the end of the day ,military was the new kids on the block,we had to use what was avalible to us .yes we did get some things wrong ,but 90% of the time we got it right.and our production sheets got the dimond stamp from the Qa. i could go into some great fails and some very funny ones ,

THE PHOSPHOURS PLANT,  and the production of float smoke and flame (FSF) this gave me nightmares , i tryed keeping away from the plant itself ,once i was in there that was it for the day , i could not go back on to the field,  i would check on the women first thing in the morning before they went down into part of the phosphours assembley line. all other contact was made in the tunnel between the phosphours fill assemble and the main assembly block.but the plant itself, i could guarantee i would get down to the QA office and i would hear the fire bells and 99% of the time it was the plant and as a member of the fire team you got back as quick as you could .  i like to say no one ever ran if you saw some one running you rang the fire bells .you didnt need to be told you rang them bells .it was the drying stage of the proses which was a problem no one permited into this part of the plant whilst this was in progress , first thing you new it was alight smoke every were ,the lads that worked in the plant would then put on the sprinkler system .a complete nightmare.

thankyou paul

you have picked up two souvenirs ,the baton round ,i had the pleasure of working on this line , as i recall there was not a lot to assemble .it a shame  would of been nice if you had come

across the black cartridge case . you said also the aluminum rocket case , could it of been a case from a mini rocket (jet rocket ?)