Author: Dave Gee
Edition: Model Aviation - 2010/10
Page Numbers: 97,98
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Safety Comes First - 2010/10

A workshop propeller cruelty story

By Dave Gee | [email protected]

I've never actually met Jim Rose, although we've been friends for many years. Thanks to the Internet, many of us have flying buddies with whom we've never flown.

Jim e-mailed me recently with bad news. Despite considerable experience with model airplanes, he earned a place in this column with a painful and messy propeller accident. He wrote:

"I had just finished all the necessary modifications to accommodate the E-flite Power 90 motor in a Hangar 9 Pulse 60. It needed some final adjustments on the control surfaces before I took it to the flying field, and I had been using a standard flight pack to run the radio while tinkering. That allows me to use all the functions without ever having the motor start. Unfortunately I didn't think ahead, so when I installed the regular Li-Poly battery in its place, the transmitter was on and the controls came to life.

"I was seated with the plane at a handy height in its work stand. When I accidentally advanced the throttle, that 90 woke up and the whole stand came after me. The APC 16 x 8E prop sliced into my hand before I could get out of the way.

"At that point, blood was flying all over the shop and I was cussing at myself for being so dumb. I have been using gas engines in model planes since 1946 and have never ever had any damage to my hands. A quick look confirmed that I was seriously injured.

"I managed to get everything shut down in the shop, even unplugging the Li-Poly in the plane and turned off the transmitter. Calmly walked downstairs into the house, washed it all up, and yelled for my wife to come drive me to the emergency room."

Jim spent four hours at the doctor's office and got 14 stitches. He said he was typing with his one undamaged digit.

The photo you see is only one of a series, taken during the medical phase of this adventure. They get gory and awful! Who takes photos at times like this? I doubt that I would have had Jim's presence of mind to remain calm during such a chaotic and painful event. Blood and screaming go together like... oh, never mind.

Jim Rose's courage and poise don't end there, because he followed up by sending the whole story to me in hopes that some other reader would avoid a similar mess. It is selfless of him to accept dubious fame in this column, just to help his fellow hobbyists. If you have a story that might save someone from disaster, please send it to me via e-mail or the U.S. Postal Service. You can choose anonymity or notoriety.

Propeller strikes are much too common in our hobby, and we have no excuse for getting hurt that way. Everyone knows not to put hands into propellers, right?

The cartoon you see was drawn by Emily McPeek, a talented young art student who offered to illustrate the situation in her own style, and her style is good! Emily is that rarest of rare people: a worse pilot than I am—at least until I put her on my Vapor's transmitter. She is a quick learner and soon became as good with RC sticks as she is with her drawing pencils.

Jim Newman asked an interesting question. He was leafing through old model magazines and saw the phrase "a scale prop fitted for display, hence the reason for no AMA safety nut." Jim skipped the obvious joke about how I am the current AMA Safety Nut and wanted to know what happened to all the hoopla about using rounded propeller nuts. He said,

"I remember the fuss that resulted from a requirement for a minimum radius for the 'sharp end' of all models. Now rounded prop nuts are fairly rare, and I see spear-like noses on some RC sailplanes that likely would penetrate the armor of an Abrams tank."

This was all before my time, but my best guess is that eventually it was learned that propeller nuts were not as great a cause of injuries as the propeller itself, and the impact of a rounded-nut model was not much different from the old type. The old propeller-nut requirement still lives on in some AMA competition categories.

It is a good idea to use a rounded nut on any high-powered model, in case there is some incident where it could make a difference. If I were going to be hit by a model (shudder!), I'd at least like it to have as blunt a nose as possible.

Our aircraft don’t go fast enough for such extreme streamlining to make an aerodynamic difference. It is style, and styles can change.

Johnny Wickham e-mailed about a not-so-stylish moment he had when a drunk driver hit his vehicle and caused an awful crash. Johnny’s Jeep flipped over several times before coming to rest. His message had to do with securing our cargo when traveling.

He wrote that tools and equipment from his Jeep were scattered for hundreds of yards, with a pair of pliers embedded in a pole. It was not only because of the speed of the vehicles at impact; the spinning motion of the flipping vehicle turned even small items into flying hazards.

Johnny urges us to consider what could happen in such a crash and to make sure that things are properly secured. Getting hit by a drunk driver is bad enough without being pummeled by your own stuff during the accident. Keep toolboxes and heavy cargo buckled down, and avoid leaving loose items in the passenger area when possible.

I'm considered something of a "loose item" at AMA Safety Committee meetings. This group of hardworking people consults and advises the AMA Executive Council on matters related to safe operation of our flying machines.

Much of this work is done via e-mail, so that the distance between members’ homes is not a factor. The committee represents literally hundreds of years of modeling experience, despite my own disruptive influence.

Committee Chairman Jim Rice tries to differentiate between issues that affect thousands of AMA members and something that is one person's pet peeve. This results in a responsive system in which decisions can be made quickly when needed.

An e-mail went around the group before the AMA Nats. The issue had to do with electric-powered CL models that have timer systems installed. They shut off the motors long enough for the pilot to get to the center of the circle and pick up the handles.

This is a clever idea and is great for most flying, but a busy event such as the Nats might not be the best place to have an unattended model sitting with a timer ticking while the pilot walked away from it. Maybe there wouldn't be a problem, but there was a chance that somehow an airplane could start and begin its flight without a pilot on the handle.

After consulting some experienced people, it was decided that, at least at the Nats, a helper should be required to hold the airplane until the pilot was ready to fly. Yes, it was a bit of overkill, but consider the risk if the flier were delayed or tripped or distracted, and a model zoomed away into the pits.

I felt good about "erring on the side of caution" in this instance, while at the same time researching one of those great timers for my own use.

The thought of a model airplane heading for a crowd came to mind a few days later when I was at Universal Studios Hollywood, a famous and popular tourist attraction. In addition to a back lot tour and amusement park rides, there is an amazing live show based on the movie Waterworld. If you tend to catch fire, this is the place to hang out because they keep the audience wetted down.

At one point in the show, a nearly life-size aircraft explodes through a wall of scenery and crash lands a few feet from the screaming crowd. It's spectacular, and sadly similar to the way most of my RC flights end.

I got a close look at the airplane after the show. It is a semiscale OV-10 Bronco on sturdy floats, with fake wing guns added. It has flashing lights and pyrotechnics too, as if anyone could fail to notice an airplane being flung through fire and smoke and splashing into the water.

It is launched at the bleachers, and there are no tethers or guidance, but the setup is carefully designed to protect both people and the expensive model. The world's largest FF catapult-glider seaplane flies six times a day at the show.

Snapping the picture involved some sacrifice on my part because a split second after the photo was taken I was deluged by the splashdown wave. My ever-supportive wife, Sweet Diedra, said that they probably would have to cancel the next show because my clothes had absorbed most of the water from the lake.

If you visit or live near Los Angeles, I highly recommend a trip to Universal Studios. Take a towel.

Sources

Dave Gee Box 7081 Van Nuys, CA 91409

Transcribed from original scans by AI. Minor OCR errors may remain.