A Few Seconds to Live-or Die
BEFORE I BEGIN, let me make it perfectly clear that this accident was my fault. I feel that I am as cautious as one can be and I know this accident can happen to anyone. All of us, no matter how careful, do have moments of carelessness and that's when we get caught. Every modeler I know treats model fuel like a can of water. Fellow modelers, we are carrying a possible bomb and all of us need to be made aware of this. This particular Tuesday afternoon, I was ready to go to the lake and test run two boats. My wife was fixing an early supper and I told her that I would load the van to be ready to go. That day, I had been breaking in an engine and had my can of fuel along with the 12-volt battery and starter sitting by the garage door.
"Hot Stuff" Saved my Day: It's Really Strong"
Dear Bill: I recently entered the realm of Quarter Scale by building a Puma with Super Hustler engine by E.W.H. The model is built 95% with Hot Stuff and while flying it one day, I had a control linkage failure to the elevator. At the time, the model was about two hundred feet in the air so I immediately cut the throttle and kept the wings level until it hit the ground. This twenty six pound bird really hit the ground hard, bounced and cart wheeled. I fully expected the model to be severely damaged, if not totally irrepairable. When I got to it I was amazed to find that the only damage was a broken prop, bent right gear and Super Monokote split on the top of the right wing. While repairing the Monokote damage I carefully inspected the wing but found no major structural damage. There was a slight wing tip damage to the balsa where the right wing hit the ground and cartwheeled and there were three wing ribs loosened where they join the aluminum spar. Hot Stuff quickly repaired this and after about two hours of Monokote repairs, the model was ready to fly again. I can't tell you how pleased I am to know how strong Hot Stuff really is. If you learn how to use Hot Stuff properly, you don't really need anything else.
