Safety Comes First - 2011/06
A step in the wrong direction
I sometimes joke about how 3-D pilots fly "flat models," but Jim Riggle makes them the hard way. He told me about an adventure he had in the comfort of his workshop.
"I had my 25% Wedell‑Williams on the shop floor, in a place where I usually don't park an airplane. After I'd set a charger, I turned around and tripped on the airplane. Stepped right in the middle of the fuselage.
"The damage to the airplane was minor compared to mine. I fell and hit my elbow against the workbench, dislocating my shoulder on the way down."
Along with considerable physical pain, Jim says that the hospital bill was much more than the cost of the airplane. He did us a favor by sharing the story, so keep trip hazards in mind the next time you look for a spot to set a model down!
Sometimes a small workshop produces big aircraft, and it gets tough to manage them in a limited space. I told my wife, Sweet Diedra, that this story was justification for keeping my airplanes in the living room, but she said that they have to stay in the workshop and if I need one stepped on, she'll be happy to do the job.
A good friend of mine, name withheld, is one of the most cheerful, unassuming, yet amazingly knowledgeable fellows you could ever meet. He approached me with an offer to photograph his hand for publication.
He reads this column and noticed that the injury stories seem to end with complete physical recovery and "no loss of movement or sensation." That is good news, but this gentleman had an encounter with high‑speed machinery some 65 years ago and he did not end up fully healed and restored.
The accident left him with a lifelong reminder of a moment's inattention. This man has enjoyed a long, adventurous, and fulfilling life, but there have been times when he found himself limited by that old wound.
My friend is an exceptionally skilled craftsman and produces magnificent static and flying models, but he says that his injury prevents him from building lightweight indoor aircraft. "Anything under 5 grams is out," he told me, which is possibly the only thing that lets me have a chance at our club's indoor meets.
This was not a model airplane accident, but the injuries are similar to a bad propeller strike. The point is that not every story has a nice, neat, happy ending. Please treat our powerful engines, motors, and airscrews with the utmost respect and care!
The cover date of this magazine speaks of springtime, but here is a chilly wintertime story for you. It comes from Mark Proper.
"I've been flying RC for over 20 years and giant scale for 10 of those. At the risk of public humiliation, I'd like to share something that happened to me the other day. My big new gas‑powered Yak was ready for a maiden flight. When it's cold here in the Great Lakes, the only places to fly are frozen lakes and ponds.
"Upon arrival at the frozen flying site, I put the truck in the ditch. As any anxious pilot would, I didn't let that stop me. I called AAA and immediately unloaded the plane, hauled it over to the ice, and got it all ready to go.
"Just when I'm ready to start the engine, the AAA guy shows up to tow me out. I had to stop what I was doing and talk with him. At this point I am distracted.
"For the last two years I've been flying a 30% electric but today I'm flying a gassie and forgot to bring a tether. I improvised a tether from a tow strap and a steel stake and was good to go. Hurry, not much daylight left!
"Now, this is where it gets interesting. I was kneeling in front of the plane flipping the prop. I adjusted the choke and I reached up to flip it again but hesitated.
"I thought, 'Ya know, I probably shouldn't be kneeling in front of this plane with my face in front of this propeller.' So I got up and flipped it once more from a standing position and it fired right up.
"Good thing I did stand up because unfortunately, the engine immediately went to a high throttle. Yes, my throttle stick was all the way down, and the channel wasn't reversed. For a split second I stood there stunned. Then the tether stake that I hammered into the frozen ground gave just a little bit and the tether ring slipped up and off of the icy metal stake.
"The tail of the model went up and the plane began rolling toward me. As I tried to get out of the way, the prop hit the snow and ice and exploded. All of this happened in the blink of an eye of course.
"Pieces of propeller went everywhere. One piece hit me hard in the back of the thigh, but luckily I was wearing heavy overalls over my jeans. Luckily no pieces hit me in the face, probably because I was running for the hills.
"After the commotion stopped I checked the plane and nothing else was damaged. I wasn't injured, except for my ego. I was very lucky!
"I was anxious to fly, in a hurry, distracted, and using makeshift equipment while flying alone. The consequences could have been much worse."
Mark's story is a classic close call from which we can all learn. He is an unselfish guy to send it in for publication, but he knows that the only good that can come of an incident is if it can serve as a warning to other ice fliers.
If you have a run‑in with misfortune, please consider mailing or emailing me the facts. Your fellow pilots will thank you for sparing them a hard lesson.
I also welcome messages from readers who have suggestions or complaints. There were exactly two gripes from the recent story about an AMA member who wrote to a helicopter expert asking about getting a large, powerful machine that could autonomously carry a payload to a distant destination.
The questions didn't sound like what a hobbyist might ask, and a bit of Internet research turned up only a vague website under the fellow's name. I agreed that the situation was probably benign but that follow‑up by the proper authorities was warranted.
In these post‑September 11 times, we sometimes see things in a different light. Are caution and vigilance wrong in this day and age? I don't think so.
A pair of readers came down on me for this opinion, but I'm sticking with it. Imagine how you'd feel if you had been one of the flight trainers who taught terrorists to fly airliners.
In the helicopter‑question case, it turned out that the intent of the new AMA member was apparently to use autonomous RC helicopters for commercial aerial photography work. There are strict laws regarding Unmanned Aerial Vehicle operation, and AMA guidelines don't cover it.
One writer claimed that I had insulted the AMA member by "calling him a terrorist," and that I had "just proved AMA is what it is." I will admit that AMA is what it is, and I don't deny it ... whatever that means.
He also suggested that I "should take time out to watch some RC YouTube videos and see where the hobby is and what people are doing with RC models today." I do that regularly, and although most of the videos are great fun, a few are worrisome to anyone who cares about the future of this sport. Some people show things being done with models that put the rest of us in a bad light, which is my point exactly.
The other correspondent saw it from a legal and political angle, and wrote that I "continue to destroy our wonderful hobby" and had "most likely ruined a person's life without a second thought" by agreeing that the matter should be reported. I assure you that I thought more than twice about the situation, and I studied those emails many times before making up my mind.
When asked how he would have handled a similar technical inquiry, this person wrote: "What would I have done? Nothing. From a legal standpoint of view I have no 'duty' to do anything."
Wow! My response was that personally—and as a citizen—I feel more responsibility than that toward my fellow beings, and I will protect and defend them when it is within my power. In this case I happened to know enough about model aviation to recognize at least the possibility of trouble.
In the end, my concerns were somewhat validated because the fellow's plans were to violate federal law and possibly endanger full‑scale aircraft. This was much less scary than the worst case, of course, but isn't it better to help prevent trouble than to read about it later?
I was amused that the second writer's guess about my political views was completely wrong. In my opinion, partisan politics is irrelevant to our hobby. I do not expect my friends to agree with my politics, only that they enjoy miniature flying machines as much as I do.
Lastly and "leastly," I've included a photograph of my indoor rubber‑powered Curtiss Pusher, built to commemorate the centennial of naval aviation. I constructed a replica of the bow section of the cruiser Birmingham so that a nervous photo image of Eugene Ely could pilot this model off of a tabletop at the 2011 AMA Expo.
I launched the thing at full power directly into the crowd, but the danger was minimal because of the pusher propeller and a fully loaded weight of only 12 grams. It circled and bumped a curtain, breaking the canard.
A close call? Nah.
Later, with more rubber and a less‑crowded flying site, it did 40 seconds.
Michael Ramsey, who until recently was my boss at MA, snapped the picture and caught my friend, Don Buthman, in the background, looking astounded to see one of my models actually flying.
Sources
- Dave Gee, Box 7081, Van Nuys, CA 91409
Transcribed from original scans by AI. Minor OCR errors may remain.
