Rocketry Planet

NEWBURY PARK, California USA — Tragedy struck Sunday afternoon taking the life of Thousand Oaks, California, resident Erik Gates, a friend of hobby rocketry, current director serving on the board of the Tripoli Rocketry Association and former director of the Rocketry Organization of California.

Gates rests amid the field crops while recovering his Porthos II project during this year's LDRS28, held in Potter, New York. Photo: Stu Barrett.

Gates, top row, third from the left, is flanked by brother Dirk on his right and Gary Rosenfield on his left, before the first flight of Porthos II at BlackRock XIII in October of 2001. Photo: GBRocketry.com.

Gates, shown on the right, is accompanied by brother Dirk before the first flight of their AQM-37C Jayhawk during LDRS20 at the Lucerne Dry Lake in California. Photo: GBRocketry.com.

Mythbusters' Jamie Hyneman, left, and Adam Savage, right, pose with Erik Gates. Photo: Verna DeArman.

According to newspaper reports on the accident, Gates, an electrical contractor, was walking on the roof at 2101 Corporate Center Drive in Newbury Park when he fell through a skylight. He was taken to Los Robles Hospital & Medical Center in Thousand Oaks where he died of injuries sustained in the fall.

Gates is best known for his appearances on the reality TV show Masterblasters, where he appeared as a member of the Roc-Aholics on the show entitled "The Blasters of Oz" in 2005 as well as various appearances on the TV series Mythbusters, where he appeared in four episodes from 2003 to 2005. As a tribute, Dan Tapster, Executive Producer for Mythbusters, has communicated that the show's season premier set to air on December 28th on the Discovery Channel will be dedicated to Gates.

An electrical contractor by trade, Gates owned and operated Gateco Electric, providing electrical contracting services around the southern portion of California. Beside his avid appetite for amateur rocketry, Gates also enjoyed skydiving and B.A.S.E. jumping, having completed in excess of 600 jumps.

Within hobby rocketry, Gates was unparalleled in his projects as well as his enthusiasm for the sport, where he often combined talents with brother Dirk in building some of the largest and most successful rockets seen anywhere in the hobby. All across the world, having never met Gates, people in the hobby instantly recognize his Porthos II project, measuring nearly a foot in diameter and standing almost 20 feet tall, propelled by a 150mm diameter central motor and six 98mm diameter outer motors. Almost as many recognize his brilliant red full scale AQM-37C Jayhawk project, a 14 foot behemoth powered by two 98mm motors.

Everyone who met Gates remembers him for his friendly demeanor, engaging total strangers in warm conversation as if he had known them for years, always glad to offer assistance and advice. When it came to hobby rocketry, Gates was truly an ambassador.

Known to many as a mediator, Gates was someone who wanted to help patch riffs between friends and smooth over the ripples people experienced in life. If a dispute arose, Gates was the one to step in and try to make sense of the mayhem, reassembling some semblance of order. He understood that people sometimes came to be at odds with one another but that with a little coaching, he most often could help them come together and realize they were on the same team.

This skill was leveraged when Gates was elected to the Tripoli Rocketry Association's Board of Directors in 2007, and was used to reorganize several aspects of the organization's operations, primarily his involvement in rewriting the Tripoli Research Safety Code, the guidelines developed to cover the research and development, the experimental aspect, of the amateur rocketry hobby.

Last summer, Gates was seated as the interim chair of the Tripoli Contest and Records Committee, an arm of the organization that administers the official act of recording amateur altitude records for the organization's members. Gates' methodical nature was a welcome addition to the process, resulting in the seating of a number of recognizable names within the hobby on a multi-membered committee challenged to develop and establish reliable records policy.

Final services are set for:

Date: Saturday, December 26, 2009
Time: 2:00pm - 3:00pm
Location: Church of Jesus Christ of LDS
Street: 32165 Watergate Road
City/Town: Westlake Village, CA 91361

Gates is survived by his wife, Beth, two daughters, Jessica and Ashley, and son David. He was 47 years old.