Preflight Checks
Don Brooks emphasizes the importance of thorough preflight checks for model aircraft to prevent crashes and damage. He shares a near-miss experience with a friend's Spitfire due to reversed ailerons and highlights common oversights, urging pilots to use a checklist for successful flights.
Determining Static Thrust - 2008/02
Is your model’s power plant
giving you all it’s got?I HANDED THE electric-powered GWS
Zero to Ken Marler, a long-time modeler,
and pushed the throttle to full. The motor
wound up instantly and Ken tilted the
Zero’s nose up at an angle to get an idea
of the thrust that was being produced.
Safety in Model Flight Operations Part 2 - 2006/05
IN THE THIRD article of this safety
series, which was published last month, I
wrote about the risks of model flight
operations in terms of where we fly and
what we fly. In this article—the conclusion
of this portion of “From the Ground Up”—
I will cover how we fly safely.
Safety in Model Flight Operations Part 1 - 2006/03
AT THE END of last month’s “From the
Ground Up” installment we had the model
at the taxiway with its engine at idle.
Leave it there for the time being; I’m
going to discuss model flight operations in
terms of where we fly and what we fly to
reduce the level of risk.
Flight-Preparation Safety - 2006/03
LAST MONTH, in the first article of this
safety series, I wrote about shop safety
and the five levels of defense we must
practice to keep ourselves and others free
from injury during model construction:
proper attitude, prechecks, backup,
isolation, and barriers. I’ll refer to those in
this month’s discussion of model-aircraft
flight-preparation safety and flying-field
etiquette.
