rrTV-PHOTO   New HD TV
HOME   rrTV-PHOTO   GALLERIES   MY GALLERY   HELP-FAQ
myHOME PM pmRR MEMBERS 448 ONLINE 28 EVENTS SEARCH REGISTER  START HERE
 
1 page4809 viewsPOST REPLY
Advantage Hobby . Revolution Models . CarbonXtreme

.
.
Safety - RC Helis are not toys > avoidable accident
 
 
superstallion
Senior Heliman
Location: Jamaica, New York

most people who is not into this hobby don't realize how dangerous it could be, they think its just a toy. Saturday I had some good practice hovering with my heli. The heli feels good, my confident is increasing, and im hovering at around 10ft, at the end of the day I decide to take out the elevator servo which was a tower hobbies high torque servo which I initially bought for my monster truck, I switch that with a futaba s3003 that I paid $10 at the lhs. It was bulk and new thats why it was cheap. Sunday I decide to do some more practicing in my backyard I cant remember if I check all control movement, I usually do before I take it up. My girl was standing watching me with my 1yr+ niece she was standing in my neighbor yard I guess she felt safe behind the 4ft fence after a few minutes of insisting that she stand between the two house just in case parts go flying she reluctantly comply. I went back to my heli without checking control like I usually do I raise it up, like 2" off the ground the heli started backing up toward me, so I slowly try to correct and all I heard was BLAPPPP. I turn my head to protect my face and bring the heli to idle. I turn back around to see one of the main blade land on the road, that blade went over my neighbor's yard and landed in the middle of the street, my heli was a bunch of twisted metal with the os32 idling quietly like if all is well. I was very happy to know that all the damage was confine to the heli and not to any property or person. First the heli was not trim after I put in the s3003, second the servo was reverse, so when I try to make it go forward the blade actually came back more and strike the boom almost entirely off.
with all that damage a crash kit, double link, and rebuild the boom support was all that's needed. She now admit that she see how dangerous it could be. She thinks this hobby is taking all my money and the worst part is I still dont know how to fly. She warned me several time that I will loose her over this hobby and buying four gal of heli fuel at bruckner for 11.99 a gal was a deal I could pass up. well thats my sad story.
04-02-2002 Over year old.
 
 
YSRRider
Key Veteran
Location: Ingleside/Fox Lake, IL

SMOOTH MOVE!!!!
04-02-2002 Over year old.
 
 
The_Dave
Veteran
Location: Las Vegas, Nevada

I believe YSRRider covered it.



Mark McAlpine - 2005 - We will never forget.
04-02-2002 Over year old.
HOMEPAGE  
 
 
YSRRider
Key Veteran
Location: Ingleside/Fox Lake, IL

indeed
04-02-2002 Over year old.
 
 
YSRRider
Key Veteran
Location: Ingleside/Fox Lake, IL

a long night of drinkin' will do that to ya!



opps, forgot, with this hobby, there is no room for beer!
04-02-2002 Over year old.
 
 
MitchD
Senior Heliman
Location: Antioch TN USA

Safety first!



Click on the picture below to see what could have happened!

This is a public service announcement from "Outlaw Heli":
04-02-2002 Over year old.
HOMEPAGE  
 
 
MitchD
Senior Heliman
Location: Antioch TN USA

Something to really consider.......

Some things to check and think about before you strap on some training gear.
1.get someone who knows RC helis to help you by checking your machine out to make sure everything is tight and correct,and to help you with that first flight.If theres no one around the corner, drive to where the heli guys fly and ask for help.
http://p-locate.rc-helipad.com/ easy help finder
2 batteries: are they charged? radio and receiver?using a battery tester that puts a load on the batteries at your rcvr,check em before you fly,no matter how long they charged the night before.Invest in a battery checker,they last long, may save your heli, and someones life.35 bucks is cheap insurance.
3 Radio. are the batteries charged?are the servos working properly?
Are the servos reversed where they shouldnt be???Did you set up your failsafe?throttle hold?? dont be afraid to ask for help on this it is important.
4 Range check: with your antenna in the non extended mode,place your heli about 75 feet away from you.have a friend stay near the heli
(engine off) and observe that the heli responds to all the commands you give it w your radio.If it doesnt you have a problem,dont fly till you fix it.Make sure no one is on your frequency,use a dsc cord or wait till you get the "pin"if you need to turn your radio on when others are flying.
4.5 Garbage in the Air 101
With the addition and change of frequency allocations as technology(cough) improves,the airwaves are "flooded" with all kinds of garbage signals these days.Most of the organized fields are assumeably safer from these "bastard",imaged, or harmonics of radio signals that can interfere with Model Aircraft frequencies.This is a good example of why not to fly in residential,or densely populated areas Guys that fly at the field will be able to tell you if there is a known "problem" channel.Channel 20 is very common.Finding out the hard way can be fatal and or expensive.If youre not sure ask someone that is.If theres a club safety officer,find out who it is and ask,its theyre duty to know this.If youre not sure go back to step 4 and range check again especially, if youre new to the field or are flying at one your not familiar with.

5 Tight and ready. are your mainblades and tail blades tight enough?
did you go thru the machine and check all your fasteners?
nuts/bolts/screws,if it says to use loctite in your assy manual,or your not sure use loctite.
Blades: unless your using prebuilt blades, follow the blade manufacturers instructions on how to build or finish blades.Use the reccommended adhesive to glue grips, and use the hardened bolts that came with your kit to bolt the blades to the grips.If you loose or bend blade bolts in a crash,or for whatever reason use hardened replacement bolts in the blade grips.
Wal Mart/Home Depot/Lowes etc do not sell these.Blades that come off in flight can kill or maim someone.It has happened,its ugly,and it can be prevented.
Parts coming off the rotorhead of a rc heli are travelling @ up to 300 mph( so I've been told) when they leave the machine ,If its not from the rotor head, its just as bad,you ought to see what happens when a loose muffler goes thru a set of mainblades,Its more than scary,nuff said.
6 Hovering/Flying too close to yourself:
Keeping all the above in mind,If something goes wrong,falls or flies off ,heli locks out and chases you,who will absorb the impact?
PLEASE keep your heli at least 25 feet away from yourself if you can.
I cant stress this enough.A Heli thats out of control or is throwing parts can kill you or someone/something else.
Crashes throw parts too,at 25 feet you have a good chance of not being injured.
With the machine 25 feet away, if you all of a sudden have a uncontrollable machine, you can run, if all else fails.This may sound funny but it may save your ass.
Any closer your just a bigger target.
7 Spectators: Almost everyone loves to watch RC Helis fly.
Let them watch from behind the flight line,keep an eye out for children and animals,they can sneak right up on you,or the heli.The end result can be fatal.

I put this basic, rough list together, after reading a post that refferred to an incident that could have been real ugly.It doesnt cover it all but some of the basics to being safe and enjoying the hobby.
You cant enjoy it if your hurt,or dead or someone else is......
Thanks!
Some things to check and think about before you strap on some training gear.
04-02-2002 Over year old.
HOMEPAGE  
 
 
kyoshokamper
Senior Heliman
Location: HOUSTON, TX, U.S.A.

I AGREE W/MITCH

couldn't have said it better myself mitch/and by the way novice flying w/out the help of an experienced pilot is forbidden at most ama sanctioned fields and truely against ama regulations in addition to being dangerous/by the sounds of some of these posts and my own field too many guys are winging it without experienced help!
04-02-2002 Over year old.
HOMEPAGE  
 
 
Dragon2115
Key Veteran
Location: New England

Although I agree, safety first, you might want to cut the guy some slack. How many people out there have done some kind of work on their heli and forgotten to check or tighten something? Just about everybody?

There are two types of people on this issue, those have have forgotten something which caused a crash, and those that will forget something that will cause a crash. If you say, "well, it's never going to happen to me", then you're only fooling yourself. Hell I've done it. I was working on my tail rotor and had lossened the set screws for the hub but found that the locktite had gotten in between the hub and the shaft locking it solid. I was able to find another way of doing what I wanted and things went fine until I was called away before I had finished the job. When I returned I checked what I thought was everything, including tugging and twisting on the tail rotor hub. Needless to say 3 minutes into the flight and during a slow flyby that locktite gave way and the hub almost departed the shaft. So after a failed attempt at a piroetting auto I was repairing my heli.

What Mitch said is excellent field proceedure and will catch probably 98% of problems before you take off. Btw Mitch that animation is excellent, may I use it on my web page? But things do happen and it at least looks like this guy was thinking to keep everybody away from it. Flying in his own backyard is a subject for debate but since I don't know what his particular situation and layout are I'll give him the benefit of the doubt. We all learn this hobby in many different ways and under many different conditions, jumping on someones back when they come forward and admit a mistake is wrong imho because it discourages others from doing the same for fear of being ridiculed. Who ends up losing? The guy that's out there lurking on boards like these that will never post a question but is trying to figure out how the hell to fly the contraption he just bought.

We all learn from mistakes, especially the mistakes of others hopefully. I forget who on the board said this but it's really appropriate, "learn from other people's mistakes, you won't live long enough to make them all yourself". If nobody comes forward to tell of their mistakes and mishaps because they'll be ridiculed for it, how will anyone else learn from them?
04-02-2002 Over year old.
HOMEPAGE  
 
 
321
Senior Heliman
Location: FL
04-02-2002 Over year old.
 
 
Steve Campbell
Elite Veteran
Location: Baton Rouge, LA

Mitch, did you ever work for stickdeath.com???

Steve
04-02-2002 Over year old.
 
 
Gbouten
Senior Heliman
Location: Alamogordo, New Mexico

I attempted to take my Rap 60 off the ground 3 times without the collective servo hooked up. I got it off the ground once and could figure out why it jumped off the ground when I gave it more throttle, then sank like a rock when I pulled the power back. At some point we all do stupid things.

Greg
04-02-2002 Over year old.
HOMEPAGE  
 
 


Location:

I have learned to check servo direction after servo replacement. A nasty hot start on my R60, lucky it was only a smoked clutch. I've flown planes for some time prior to helis and I've always caught reversed servos, I guess I was getting too lax in my pre flight inspections, NOT ANYMORE!!!!!.
04-02-2002 Over year old.
  WV   EDIT
 
 
Taipan
Key Veteran
Location: Sydney, Australia

Ditto, only my radio was in idle-up.
04-02-2002 Over year old.
 
 
Waldo
Veteran
Location: Middle of the corn patch (Iowa)

What scares me is the way most of these horror stories start with "While I was flying in my backyard near my neighbors house." I've made my share of stupid mistakes but to fly in your neighborhood around kid's is just not acceptable. If you don't want to join a club and get some help at least find an empty field (when I say empty field I don't mean empty lot with houses on both sides) and leave the kids and dog at home you don't need any distractions. I'm sorry if I sound harsh or arrogant it's just that when we do everything right things still go wrong, there are just to many things beyond our control.

[b]Bill[/b]
04-02-2002 Over year old.
 
 
jaws
Heliman
Location: New Carlisle, Ohio

Agreed

I have to agree with Waldo here. I am relatively new to all this but had an incident that scared me. It wasn't a backyard incident but in an open field and someone came up behind me. I didn't hear them or even knew they were there until I flew around myself and saw them. If I had messed up right then and there I might have hit them, their little boy or their car. That is why I immediately joined a flying club and haven't been back to that field.

We have enough headaches without all the added hassle of hitting neighbors and so forth. I know it is so tempting and convenient to use the backyard but with current legal trends - is it worth that much risk? I know this upsets some people when you say this. However, luckily no one was hurt in this case. Why not make the point that we shoud not be putting ourselves into these situations to begin with.

I just heard that the AMA had to pay out on a huge case of some sort. It is getting so we will not be able to afford the insurance to fly.

Just my two cents worth - not worth much more than that.

-jeff
04-02-2002 Over year old.
 
 
MitchD
Senior Heliman
Location: Antioch TN USA

small addendum

Dragon yes you can,Steve,I've never seen stick death,although I've been close to it when I say the wrong thing to the ol lady,and she has a stick like object in her hand (happens all the time around here,especially when a new motor or gyro comes out,or when I have to hit the street for a while

After being in the hobby for a while,everyone will hear a story and or get to examine a "battle scar" that was caused by something thats usually preventable.
I want to let some of the entry level pilots have something to think about for themselves,as we think out about safety sometimes too late or after a mishap.
We all learn from our mistakes,I know I have,I'm not perfect,have had my share of "new guy" problems when I first started.What the guy from NY said was probably very common, but usually never hits the net or news unless it's very very ugly,or someone has the balls to pass on what they have learned w regard for educating others,without regard for any ridicule.I'm glad he shared his bad experience.It made me think.

There is no debate on safety,you either practice it the best you can,or think about it while a ambulance is enroute or a Dr. is pulling parts out of your ass.
I know guys that have been injured w helis, and when you hear the whole story it will make one more aware of what happens when something goes wrong.
I hope the little check list I put up keeps someone from being injured.

If anyone whos reading this, ever sees something that is no doubtedly dangerous,dont be shy,use some "tact" and very politely,(dont scream at him in front of a crowd), ask the pilot if he could go out a little bit further,or tell him you saw something drop, or fly off the machine,kids approaching/attacking from all sides etc etc.whatever.
What could only take a few seconds to address nicely may prevent a lifetime of misery,even if it is taken the wrong way.
Have fun,and come home in 1 piece!
04-02-2002 Over year old.
HOMEPAGE  
 
 
Waldo
Veteran
Location: Middle of the corn patch (Iowa)

Jaw's you are so right even the empty field is a poor choice, we really need to stick with the controled fields when ever it is possible. Some other things to keep in mind, law suits have a tendency to roll down hill, right down to the guy that put the shrink wrap on the box the helicopter came in. If enough bottom feeding Lawyers (not all Lawyers just the bottom feeders) catch on it could really ruin this hobby.

[b]Bill[/b]
04-02-2002 Over year old.
 
 
The Newtron
Senior Heliman
Location: Hot ASS Phoenix Az

Neck Strap DANGER!

Speaking of safety and points of interest. Please be advised to watch your neck straps. Be it Futaba, JR or any brand. I had a friend that landed his heli and walked over to it. He unclipped his radio from his neckstrap. However, when he bent down to stop the rotorblades from spinning. The radio clip hooked onto the spinning rotor. In a instant second the helicopter jumped up and sliced him up pretty good across his back and shoulders etc. Way too many stitches to count! He was airlifted to the hospital. He's OK now and still flying but who would have guessed that the neck strap would play a role in such a terrible accident.

Leave the radio hooked. Take off the entire strap still attached to the radio..

BiG Newt
12-17-2002 Over year old.
 
 
FinnDave
Elite Veteran
Location: Kouvola, Finland

Dragon:
Quote 
There are two types of people on this issue, those have have forgotten something which caused a crash, and those that will forget something that will cause a crash.


Isn't that EXACTLY why we should observe safety rules? So what the inevitable does happen, it is only the machine that suffers and not people or property?

I've had my share of crashes, including at least two I can put down to laziness in my maintanence schedules, but I can honestly say that no one has been put at risk from them (well, apart from one guy who laughed!)

There seems to be a common perception that safety and fun are opposites, not true, operating our toys safely is an obligation we must fulfil if we wish to able to enjoy them.

David S., Kouvola, Finland
12-17-2002 Over year old.
HOMEPAGE  
 
 
1 page4809 viewsPOST REPLY
Midland Helicopters . HeliProz . ZoomsHobbies

.
.
Safety - RC Helis are not toys > avoidable accident
  UPDATE SCREEN   PRINT TOPIC Advertisers 

Subscribe to This Topic

Tuesday, October 7 - 6:48 am - Copyright © 2000 - 2008 runryder.com | email | link to rr | runryder needs cookie