On the Fly Late-breaking news from Headquarters
Festival of Flight 2003 to Include RC Event
More than 500,000 people are expected at the 11-day Festival of Flight—celebrating the 100th anniversary of the Wright brothers' first flight—to be held May 16–26 in Fayetteville, North Carolina.
Festival highlights include:
- Three air shows; two will include the U.S. Air Force (USAF) Thunderbirds.
- NASA exhibits, including astronaut training devices, a wind tunnel, and a live hookup to the International Space Station.
- Several current USAF aircraft on static display.
- Educational seminars for 5,000 high-school students and 500 teachers, conducted by NASA and the USAF.
When students move from class to class, one of the stops will be the Hangar 9 Alpha "Learn to Fly" Radio Control (RC) field. This gives students—and other festival-goers—a chance to control an Alpha trainer in flight with the help of a buddy box and a flight instructor. Lessons are sponsored by Horizon Hobby and coordinated by local RC enthusiast and AMA member Howard Hooper.
Several local clubs will provide flight instructors, but additional help is needed. If you plan to attend the festival and would like to volunteer a few hours as an instructor, contact Howard via the Festival of Flight website: www.festivalofflight.org (see the "Gift Shop" section), by email at [email protected], or by phone at (910) 235-9234.
Visit the Festival of Flight website for more information.
Safety Alert!
Propeller and needle-valve safety
Extreme caution must be exercised when adjusting needle-valve settings on engines because of their close proximity to the propeller. Adjustments should be performed from behind the model to avoid reaching around a spinning propeller, unless it is impossible to do so.
This recommendation appears in the 2003 Membership Manual under "Safety Recommendations" (page 5, second column) in the section "The following constitute good general safety practices."
Incident report
An adult male was injured while starting his model's engine. He reached over the spinning propeller to disconnect the glow-plug starter clip, and the propeller struck his right hand. Injuries included severe lacerations to several fingers and the thumb, a broken bone, and more than a dozen stitches. The member has temporarily lost use of his hand and has been unable to work.
Approximately 80% of all medical claims under the Academy's Accident, Death and Dismemberment policy are propeller injuries.
— Carl Maroney Special Services Director
Transcribed from original scans by AI. Minor OCR errors may remain.
