Safety Comes First
Dave Gee | [email protected]
"Thirty seconds over typo"
TYPOGRAPHICAL ERRORS are the bane of the publishing world. One little goof and I get waves of semi-humorous e-mail messages from friends reminding me that perfection is hard to achieve. Some MA readers save each issue, so any errors in this column can be rediscovered by future generations of modelers. Oh goody.
This gripe was prompted by the caption of a recent photograph of an indoor glider taken by Brian Furutani. It included the phrase "these models can fly for up to 30 minutes," which would be a long glider flight indeed. If the line had read "some indoor FF models can do 30 minutes," then all would be well. Thirty seconds is an exceptional glider duration at most indoor sites, but this particular tip-launch glider belongs to Stan Buddenbohm, who set a world record of 143 seconds under the 150-foot ceiling of a blimp hangar. Amazing! I can hardly wait until my next indoor glider contest attempt. Jokes will be made at my expense about how my model is not performing up to expectations, and how I need to squeeze that last 29 minutes and 40 seconds out of each flight. And for the record, the only time any model of mine stayed up for 30 minutes, it was caught on a rafter.
Also included in this column:
- Dave's favorite stooge
- Fail-safe as a throttle lock?
- A little scratch becomes a big problem
Stooges, winding, and a zero-defect mind-set
On the subject of perfection, there are some safety situations in our hobby that demand a zero-defect mind-set. Pilots who fly larger rubber FF models have to stretch the motors during winding to pack in maximum turns. Unless a trusting and adventuresome friend is available, some sort of mechanical "stooge" is used to hold the other end of the aircraft. These airplanes carry powerful hanks of rubber that often have metal hooks on the end to fit the winder. If something goes wrong, a great deal of energy can be released directly toward the pit crew.
I followed a fun thread about these stooges on an Internet chat site. Everyone has a favorite type. One fellow uses a clever wooden unit that slips over his partially rolled-down car window. There was discussion about how much force it would take to break the glass! Another flier mounts the stooge on his trailer hitch, which seems like a sturdier spot. More common are stooges that are secured to the ground by tent stakes or the pilot's foot. Most rubber models have a hollow rear peg of aluminum or steel through which a wire can be passed, and the stooge has vertical plates that hold both ends of the wire. No matter how wide or adjustable you make your stooge, it often seems that your new airplane won't quite fit.
Most of my models are smaller, so I can get away with a much more casual winding setup. For serious contest situations, I have a conventional table-clamp stooge with a torque meter. But the vast majority of my flying is for fun, so I use a very clever winder/stooge combination tool that my father custom-built. It holds the winder in place, and I pull the airplane away with my free hand while I wind it.
Fail-safe as a throttle lock?
This suffices to disarm the motor until I can disconnect the battery. Plus, it also prevents me from leaving my transmitter turned on.
This is a controversial way to do things, and it may bring more trouble than it saves. Everything depends on the failsafe operating properly. I'd like to hear from readers about this. Please use either my e-mail or snail-mail address.
George Schlanert had a piece of useful info on this subject. He wrote: "Hitec radios have a lock button. My wife and I have five Hitec Optic 6 radios which we have used for years with many aircraft. We use the lock switch and it has always been reliable but we don't rely on it."
I was not aware of that feature, but it is a great selling point for those radios.
A little scratch becomes a big problem
For the horror fans among you, this month I'll wrap up with a terrifying story from Skip Severance. I understand that he is fully recovered now, thank goodness!
"I was working on an airplane in my garage and accidentally drove a hobby knife blade into my hand. It didn't bleed much, so I cleaned it and put some triple antibiotic on it with a Band-Aid.
"It seemed like no big deal. It did go in deep and I could feel tingling in my fingers so I know I hit a nerve, but the feeling came back so I know I did not cut it.
"As a few days passed, I started to see redness so I went to the doctor. He said I had an infection and gave me some pills. What neither of us knew was the infection was bad and was deep inside the hand. By the time it came to the surface it was serious.
"I went to the emergency room when the pain set in. The plastic surgeon called a hand specialist and within hours I was in surgery.
"This was a serious, invasive surgery that required them to shut off the blood flow to my hand so they could open it up. They removed the infection but when they took the tourniquet off to get the blood flowing, that's when my life almost ended.
"The circulating blood took the toxins from the infection to my heart and everywhere else. My blood pressure dropped and my temperature soared, my lungs started filling with fluid, etc.
"The doctor said that 4 out of 10 people that get that kind of toxic shock don't make it. The Lord spared me and I made it to intensive care and stayed for two days before being released to come home.
"The picture you see was how my hand actually looked during recovery. They left it open so the infection wouldn't be trapped inside again. Surprisingly the pain was very minimal.
"This morning as I was reading the paper it was very strange going through the obituaries and thinking I could have been in there. Life is so precious and I thank God for him giving me a second chance.
"The moral of the story is don't leave blades lying around unprotected and don't wait too long to see the doctor."
Skip had to do a complicated routine of soaking the wound in chemicals several times each day, as well as taking powerful antibiotics, but eventually his hand healed completely. Many of us have had a "minor" injury similar to that, and after basic first aid we went on without a thought.
Skip was prudent to seek medical care when there were signs of complication, but even the doctor missed the true problem at first. I'm glad that this story has a happy ending and hope that some of us can avoid our own adventure by using good judgment when a "minor" injury occurs.
Sources
- Dave Gee
Box 7081 Van Nuys, CA 91409
- AMA Radio Control Large Model Aircraft Program: www.modelaircraft.org/files/520-a.pdf
Transcribed from original scans by AI. Minor OCR errors may remain.
