President's Perspective-2004/12

was a judge for the Don Lowe Masters at Triple
Tree Aerodrome in Greenville, South Carolina.
If you have never seen this facility, then you are
missing what might be the most beautiful
model-airplane flying site in the world. Pat
Hartness has created a model-airplane heaven,
and it’s a mecca for RC modelers.
In addition to the Don Lowe Masters, this
site hosts the Joe Nall Giant Scale Fly-In that is
becoming the largest model-airplane event in
the world. Every modeler should make at least
one sabbatical to this site in his or her lifetime.
Thanks to Pat and the whole gang for the
invitation to attend this event. It was excellent.
The two-month period was not all good. We
experienced a serious accident involving a
Giant Scale model in Ohio. It was a case where
a model failed to respond to the pilot, flew off,
and hit someone. It is unknown if the model
involved was equipped with a fail-safe device
or whether one would have prevented the
accident. The accident has resulted in much
discussion concerning the use of a fail-safe
system.
Such a mechanism can be set to retard the
throttle upon any loss of control. This is
appropriate in most—but not all—cases. The
cases in which such a device might not be
suitable make the idea complex.
One of the suggestions I’ve heard is to
mandate that all models have a fail-safe, which
would shut down the engine. While this might
sound logical—and it is most of the time—
there are times when this would be the
inappropriate action (in helicopters, for
example).
I suggest that we need more modelers to
understand how fail-safe technology works,
and to ensure that they have set their fail-safes
to a known condition. Roughly 90% of the
time this will include low throttle—if not
complete engine shutoff—but my guess is that
many modelers are unaware of how their failsafe
is set, or even if their RC system has such
VACATION IS OVER and I ought to get
back to writing! The idea of having one month
without officers’ columns in MA is great, but
eventually you need to pay the piper. Two
months have flown by since I wrote my last
column, and it seems like an eternity since
some of these events took place.
The National Aeronautic Association
(NAA) search committee found a replacement
for Don Koranda who had announced his
resignation as president in April. Don has
served on the AMA Executive Council (EC),
and his wisdom has been an asset.
I served on NAA’s search committee, and
the organization is pleased to announce that
David Ivey will assume the position of
president. David comes to NAA with a wealth
of experience in association management, and
I expect that he will serve as the designated
NAA representative on the AMA EC.
On September 11, 2004, the third anniversary
of the airborne attacks on our country, I had
the pleasure of attending the dedication of the
John A. Oganowski Model Flying Field in
Massachusetts. Home of the 495th R/C
Squadron, this beautiful facility has been
dedicated to the pilot of American Airlines
Flight 11 which hit the World Trade Center on
that fateful day three years ago.
Captain Oganowski was a local aviator
whose work in conservation made this
dedication very fitting because this site is part
of the conservation plans for the area. Meeting
his family and being a part of this dedication
gave new meaning to me of the events of
September 11. I was proud to participate in the
ceremony.
The dedication was attended by a number
of dignitaries from the area, and most stayed
for the picnic and flying. This is a beautiful
facility and this club is among the more
vibrant I have had the pleasure of visiting. The
members have a real sparkplug in their
president, Ron Quattrochi, who presided over
the ceremony. They are a great bunch of
people.
The occasion brought to mind the thought
that dedicating a flying field to a local hero
may be a good move for a club, and it could be
an important element in retaining that flying
site. Politically, it would be much more
difficult to shut down a facility that was named
after someone important. A formal dedication
in a ceremony involving the political powers in
the area is something a number of clubs might
consider.
On the subject of beautiful flying facilities, I
Dave Brown AMA president
President’s Perspective
December 2004 5
Sure is an interesting
theory ...
a device.
Do yourself a favor and learn as much as
you can to understand any such system your
radio employs and set it appropriately. I
expect that in the future, some events will
require that your model be equipped with a
fail-safe system, and that it be set to cut the
engine at least to low throttle. The
International Miniature Aircraft Association is
considering such a rule, and I was told that
something similar would be implemented for
the Joe Nall Giant Scale Fly-In.
Will AMA institute such a rule? I don’t
know, but I would favor an approach based
upon requiring that a modeler prove that he
has set his fail-safe in a manner which he has
decided is best for the particular type of model
and the site where he is flying. I believe this is
more of an education problem than one to be
solved through rules.
I continue to be appalled by the number of
“body-parts-into-propeller” incidents that are
reported. A careful study of those incidents
has made me realize that a significant number
are not occurring when the model is being
started but well after the engine is running.
While some are the result of reaching
through the propeller to remove the battery
clip and some occur while adjusting the
needle valve, the ones that seem to cause the
most significant injuries seem to happen when
the model is being moved with the engine
running. Be careful around running propellers!
I’m not sure if the number and severity of
injuries is actually increasing, but it seems that
way. Why would this be true? Larger engines
and stronger and sharper propellers are
obviously a part of the problem, but one idea
that I heard nearly knocked me off my feet.
One “old-timer” said that starters were part of
the problem.
What did he say? Yes, he said starters.
The theory was that in the old days when
model engines were started almost exclusively
by “flipping” the propeller, we all were
rapped occasionally, but the result was only a
sore finger with an occasional deep cut.
In those days, we received a regular
reminder if we got careless, and this made us
much more wary of the propeller. Today the
use of starters has eliminated that reminder,
and the loss of those reminders results in more
full-throttle incidents.
Sure is an interesting theory ...
Back next month. MA
SINCE 1936
Dave Brown
AMA president
[email protected]
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