Safety Comes First - 2012/12
Dave Gee [email protected]
Columnist upset about field closure
I don't pretend to be an impartial journalist. When news arrived that members of the Channel Islands Condors model club were being kicked off their flying field, you can bet that I was biased in their favor. I think that it is terrible to close their airfield after approximately three decades.
As of press time, the new landowner claimed that models posed a fire hazard as a way to make the land available for other uses. The outfit that opposes our safe, fun, educational, and sporting hobby is California State University, Channel Islands (CSUCI).
The RC club organized an in-person protest to accompany an AMA-backed email campaign. The members brought models and signs to the campus on student registration day and handed information pamphlets to everyone they met. The demonstration was highly organized, with polite and friendly protestors making a fine impression as representatives of our harmless and beneficial sport.
My favorite moment was when air support arrived. A full-scale airplane towed a banner through the sky over the campus, letting everyone know what the landlords were doing.
Are model aircraft a fire hazard to the open land around a flying field? No. The record shows that our models are extremely safe, especially when compared to other land uses and activities. CSUCI officials highlighted two incidents out of more than 800,000 safe flights from Condor Field to portray the modelers as unsafe and unwelcome.
Lawrence Tougas was at the demonstration in his official capacity as AMA District X vice president. He and I discussed the relative hazards of gas versus electric power systems. We realized that our opinions regarding the fire danger issue are formed by the nature of our personal experiences.
My own perceptions are colored by the emails I get from readers, full of disastrous stories. Accidents and fires are rare in RC flying, but I read and hear so many anecdotes that I tend to focus on the few problems rather than the majority of trouble-free, safe recreation.
Lawrence is an experienced RC flier and has seen many things throughout the years, including the development of electric power into the standard for most of our aircraft. He said that the two power systems have different things to watch for, and any fire danger the electric aircraft possess is more likely to come after a crash rather than during fueling, as with gas-powered models.
Are electric models more dangerous than gas models? Do they represent a greater fire hazard than wet-fueled aircraft? I don't think so. Large battery packs hold plenty of energy, but the hazard is not any less manageable than the gas tank of an internal-combustion model.
Lawrence and I agreed that whatever fire hazard is present in a model aircraft can be held to a minimum by careful planning, such as using redundant RC components for larger models. In case of trouble, an airplane that remains controlled will land on the runway.
Geography could have a lot to do with it. We seem to have dry brush most of the year in California, and people are highly aware of ignition sources. Some parts of the country don't need to worry about such things—at least in certain seasons. A particular field might have a greater or lesser fire danger in the surrounding land. A club with a runway next to desert sand or a body of water doesn't have to worry much about brush fires. If potential danger from models can get a field closed, then we should look at some other options to get new fields opened.
Finding New Fields
Tony Stillman arranged for an AMA booth at the recent League of California Cities convention in San Diego. A pair of intrepid local Flying Aces Club members, George Mansfield and John Hutchison, volunteered to work with me and make contacts with government officials. The plan is to put them in contact with clubs in their area and see if underutilized city facilities can be transformed into flying sites. Tony says this tactic has worked well, but it was the first try in the Golden State.
The booth was done "on the cheap," with only local AMA members. No AMA staff from Muncie, Indiana, attended.
I flew an RC airplane and helicopter in the booth to attract an audience. It worked. Great! The models drew people and we ended with a stack of filled-out interest forms. Maybe there will be a few new model airfields as a result.
George and John made great ambassadors. They devoted their talents for two days of preparation, booth work, and cleanup. Because they are both FF pilots, they didn't notice how bad I was on the sticks. The models were a Vapor airplane and a Blade helicopter. Both are lightweight and harmless.
I enjoyed flying those models, and heartily recommend them. My trusty ParkZone Vapor has traveled across the country with me and is a joy to fly. The Blade heli is a pico. It's perfect for small indoor spaces, although a convention booth is pushing it. Both aircraft are so lightweight and low-powered that I can't imagine them hurting anyone.
Larger, electric models are a different matter. I displayed a park flyer in the booth, but left the battery at home, to be safe. I wouldn't have wanted that model's motor to turn on in a crowd. That much power can cause trouble if you're not expecting the propeller to run.
Mad Propellers
In a recent discussion about electric-powered models and propeller strikes, I neglected to mention the most basic precaution for avoiding injury from sudden motor startups: remove the propeller when you are not flying! Working on an electric model is safer when the propeller is off the table. This is obvious, but I forgot it and many readers reminded me.
The first was Bob Constance, who followed up on that wise suggestion with another warning. Bob uses the rubber-band trick on his transmitter, keeping the throttle lever down where it should be until he is ready for takeoff.
The rubber band rubbed against the trim tab once, and his model left the ground with full right-rudder trim! He said that 40 years of practice aided him in getting the aircraft down in one piece, but that didn't help him avoid the excitement in the first place. You can bet that he added trim check to his preflight inspection list.
Bob also had an incident in which his airplane attempted to fly in his workshop during radio programming. The electric motor went to full throttle, but the workbench was not a long enough runway, so the model ended up on the floor with a broken propeller and a bent motor shaft. Bob says it was a valuable lesson for him. There were no injuries, but he gained some knowledge.
Russ Stanton also reminded me about removing the propeller, and added his own story, which kept him (but not me) in stitches.
"I've only been in RC for five or six years. I was programming the ESC on my Leader 480. With no warning, the motor..."
[Article text truncated—original OCR ended mid-sentence.]
Transcribed from original scans by AI. Minor OCR errors may remain.
