Safety Comes First
Dave Gee | [email protected]
It takes an unbalanced mind to fly a model without a CG
IT'S AN OUTRAGE! The situation is so far out of bounds that some readers might not believe it could exist. You can't blame them. I, too, was skeptical at first.
A small group of rogue modelers is building and flying model aircraft that do not have CGs. No CGs at all. This is bad and they must be stopped.
These mavericks, who oppose nature with their scofflaw aircraft, claim that the weight savings and increased performance are worth the risk of flying without CGs in their models.
So far, there have been no documented injuries as a result of this practice, but it is only a matter of time. Modelers who consider themselves beyond the laws of nature are a threat to the rest of us. Those laws were voted in for a reason, and openly disobeying them is bad for our hobby.
Modelers are famous for wild experimental flying machines. I love odd-looking models, which is good because the ones I build tend to turn out that way.
Still, there are certain rules of physics that we must know and obey if we want our models to fly safely and well. Knowing where to install the CG is a basic modeling skill.
Since the earliest days of aeromodeling, designers knew that a good set of plans should feature that little checkered-circle symbol to remind the builder that a CG was needed and indicate where to place it. The CG is a time-tested safety feature for every model, from the smallest indoor helicopter to the largest Giant Scale airplane.
No properly supervised flying site would allow a model that lacks a CG. Try to bring an aircraft or helicopter such as that onto the field at Muncie, Indiana. Our AMA Executive Council members would not fly such an aircraft. I bet that MA editor Michael Ramsey has never even seen one.
Please help me stamp out this small but insidious movement. Insist that a CG be included with each model aircraft you purchase.
When you construct your next prizewinner, make sure to install a CG. Many pilots put it at the balance point of the model; serious builders will mark the CG on each individual component for safety’s sake.
In January I had a great time at the 2010 AMA Expo. For once, the weather in Ontario lived up to California's sunny reputation. I greeted old friends and met new ones, while seeing all the latest neato hobby stuff. Bruce Sund was in the Common Sense RC booth, showing off a new line of handy, fireproof-fabric containers for battery charging. There are three sizes of Lipo Safe bags available. The picture shows the smallest one. If a battery decides to make trouble, these bags will keep it contained. Bruce said that the entire line has been tested with ignited battery packs. The hardest part was to get batteries to ignite, since the cells and chargers available to us these days are so good. That is great news, but please continue to charge your Li-Poly battery packs in a fireproof container. Li-Poly batteries are becoming popular and commonplace, but incidents of burning battery packs have declined greatly. I have a sneaking suspicion that a fair percentage of early accidents were caused by using Ni-Cd chargers with the wrong type of battery, despite accounts where the embarrassed victim or perpetrator says otherwise. Human nature can be a formidable opponent.
My next stop at the AMA Expo was the Du-Bro booth, where Ed Bojan was demonstrating a keen new gadget. The E/Z Bender forms music wire with astounding ease and precision.
Wire is used in almost all model aircraft, so wire-bending tools are standard in our workshops. This one leaves them all in the dust.
Ed showed me how light-gauge wire could be made into landing gear, propeller shafts, and wing mounts in seconds, without puncturing the fingers of the person holding the pliers. (I am usually that person.)
By skipping the pliers completely and using this simple-looking tool, I'll be able to form all the wire parts I need without wearing bandages afterward. I bought one for myself and another one for my father. A heavier-duty version is in the works for the big-airplane fliers who use thicker wire.
On the next AMA Expo aisle was Dwayne Yates and his Pure-Tech Products booth. He showed me a line of clever retaining straps for onboard battery packs, fuel tanks, and radio receivers. These lightweight straps stick to the model but easily release their cargo when needed.
Quickly being able to remove and install the battery is great because it lessens the temptation to charge it in the model. These straps, with their trimmed edges and bright colors, look sharp when installed.
Compared to last year's AMA Expo, I noticed many improvements and additions. The Headquarters crew from Muncie, Indiana, was overworked, but they had things humming.
Lora Knowlton is extremely competent and a pleasure to work with. I even saw her in a moment of quiet, without people pestering her for decisions. She told me it wouldn't last long, and she was right.
AMA Marketing Director Jeff Nance deserves special mention for his work promoting the Expo on local TV. Last year's indoor flight demonstration for the cameras was a last-minute deal, but this time was way different.
Jeff had arranged for appropriate RC and FF aircraft, with skilled pilots and a wide variety of models, to entice viewers to attend the Expo. Most important of all, he diplomatically handled the TV crew's requests for aerial stunts and told them what was okay and what was too dangerous to attempt. Bravo!
Jeff handled tremendous pressure and only goofed once, by letting me participate in the flight display. Every time the camera panned across the formation of state-of-the-art, high-performance 3-D aircraft doing their thing, into the frame came the little Old-Timer-style cabin model that I was (almost) controlling. The expert young aerobatics pilots tolerated me with good humor but wisely ducked under a table when I tried a landing—just like my pals at the local field.
Public demonstrations of model aircraft are great fun and terrific exposure for our hobby, but it takes good judgment and restraint to do things safely. There can be heavy pressure to exceed limits in the name of showbiz.
No matter how skilled a pilot is, how nice the model is, and how up-to-date the radio system might be, our craft are not 100% reliable. We should take a page from full-scale aviation and plan our demonstrations with a pessimistic outlook, always assuming the worst. Nonmodelers will be amazed regardless. They will never know that we wisely planned for a problem that did not occur.
Bravo to the whole AMA crew!
When I got home from the show, I read an e-mail from Bill Logue, which made a great point. He wrote that we should "preflight more than just the aircraft," by inspecting our vehicles before a trip to the field.
He made a long drive to a DC Maxecuters' indoor session in his trusty but seldom-driven car. It was not so trusty that time, because during the trip he was signaled by other drivers that his taillights were completely out.
Bill continued with great caution until reaching a safe location. He wrote that he still has not found the electrical problem that allows the headlights to work but not the taillights. A simple "preflight" inspection before the trip would have saved much trouble.
At my workplace we have installed two big parabolic mirrors high on the exit gate so drivers can see their own vehicle lights in the front and back. It is surprising how often we find bad bulbs. It is much cheaper to get this information from a mirror or a friend than from a law enforcement officer with a ticket book.
Another e-mail arrived that was not so welcome. It was yet another spam message, allegedly from an overseas RC toy factory. The company apparently "harvested" my e-mail address from a Web site and decided that I was a toy wholesaler.
You never know what these spammers are after. They will use any ploy to get you to open a message and attachments which could be packed with malware and other bad stuff. Your computer and your personal information are targets for these scammers, so beware.
I get loads of legitimate catalogs and sales notices from hobby companies with which I am signed up, and I spend plenty of money online with these aboveboard dealers. An unsolicited spam message is another thing.
In this case, I decided to open a dialogue with these Internet shysters and answered their message with a request to cease spamming me and refrain from using stolen e-mail addresses. (I might have also called them "worthless, dishonorable, smelly, lizard-lipped parasite spammers.")
They responded "no no we are the rc factory not spammers," which lacked credibility since I had in fact received spam from them.
They wanted to sell me a lot of counterfeit RC toys wholesale (prepaid by wire transfer), and it didn't matter how many people they annoyed with boatloads of spam e-mail. Don't get fooled by scams such as this.
I continued our correspondence with friendly greetings and these words: "I curse you so that evil fish will come to live in your reservoir and spit flames into your pottery. Your pumpkins will all be lopsided with foul destinies. Bad luck will dog your cartilage. Blue vermin will infest your sock drawer in a left-handed manner."
Yeah, I really sent that. Didn't hear back from them, either. Perhaps they decided that I wasn't such a hot business prospect.
If nobody did business with spammers, this threat would wither away. Meanwhile, watch yourself and don't get caught in their schemes.
Sources:
- Dave Gee
Box 7081 Van Nuys CA 91409
- Common Sense RC
(866) 405-8811 http://commonsenserc.com
- Pure-Tech
(760) 207-0547 http://puretechproducts.com
- Du-Bro
(800) 848-9411 www.dubro.com
Transcribed from original scans by AI. Minor OCR errors may remain.
