President's Corner

Blood Sport?

     A new color is showing up much to frequently, at our field.  We have had a period of several weeks in a row of people loosing blood while trying to enjoy a day of flying.  Any of us that have been in this hobby for more than a few years, more than likely have the scars to prove it.  The cut of the No. 11 blade or the slice on the finger from the edges of a prop are pretty common occurrences.  Hopefully, one or two scars is enough to get are head out from the dark place and into the light.  Some learn from the mistakes more quickly than others and usually have fewer scars to validate the point.  Over the years we have all learned from our mistakes in regard to safety both building and flying our beloved models.  This in itself can lead to a secondary problem of apathetic behavior.  We let ourselves get careless and as time passes without incident, we get even more lax and careless in our field safety practices.  Then we once again find that are head has migrated to the dark place once again.  It’s a dangerous cycle, and if you will take the time for some personal reflection, I bet you can just about see exactly where you head is located within the cycle.

      The most recent accident at the field was pretty bad.  An emergency room visit with stitches to an upper arm and elbow was involved.  Barry has written an article about the incident and is in this newsletter.  Now, we can all do the what if discussion and see that this incident could have been so much worse.  Well, it was bad enough and we must be thankful that the injuries sustained were not more severe or even life threatening.  Folks this could have been very, very bad.

     Our hobby is rife with dangers, from mechanical and electronic malfunctions that “may” be out of our control to carelessness or improper techniques used in starting or tuning our engines.  We must be alert to all of the ‘what ifs’ and to all of the possible ways we can get hurt or hurt others at the field.  Preflight your aircraft before every flight.  Make sure the control linkages are secure and the servos are functioning correctly.  Check the undercarriage and the motor, are they secure.  Look at the spinner, has it moved, is it touching the prop?  This is a sure sign that the prop nut is not as tight as it should be.  Has the prop hit the grass or the runway in the recent past, is it now out of balance or damaged if it is then replace it.  Make yourself a preflight checklist and use it.  It could save you an airplane and it could save the rest of us some pain and sorrow.  If you are not able to carry a plane out to the runway with both hands then ask for some help, none of us setting around out there are to busy to give you a hand.  I have written several articles discussing safety and courtesy at the flying site.  I have not set at home and dreamed these points up, they come from quite a few years of experience in this hobby and I believe you will find them quite valid.   So guys, lets get our heads back up where they should be.  The view is much better.

      It may be time to look at our training program and our policy on allowing solo flight at our field.  Currently we really do not have a mechanism to with hold flying privileges from a member for lack of flying ability or experience.  It might be a good time to discuss setting in place a method of testing or exhibiting a certain level of proficiency before a person is granted full flight privileges.  This could be accomplished with a pool of selected members to act as overseers or flight examiners that would be authorized to present solo certification to members, especially new members.  I would like to hear some ideas on flight certification from our membership.  Give it some thought and let’s discuss it at the next meeting.

      Next time you are at the field, take some extra time during your flying and think about each little thing you do with the plane and motor and see if it is really safe or should your practices be changed for the better.  Practice some courtesy to your fellow flyers and pay attention to the other planes in the air.  If you are flying and get into to trouble or seem to be having a control problem, then yell it out, make us all aware so we can take any appropriate measures. 

Lets keep the red we see at the field to monocote or those JR shirts.

CYA at the meeting.

Dan Curtis

Members' Corner

Prognosis: Accident

Contributing Risk Factor: Beginner.  Only a few flights without buddy box.  Two landings from the south a few days before.

Contributing Risk Factor: Wind from the south, strong.

Contributing Risk Factor: Previous instructor not present.  Buddy box not used.

Contributing Risk Factor: Aircraft: Hobbico Nexstar.  This model does not fly like most trainers.  It doesn’t want to turn left and climbs toward the right in left turns.  It is difficult to control in other than level flight even with the stabilization system off.

Contributing Risk Factor?: Pressure (stress).  Was there a desire to get some flights in before it got crowded? (it was Saturday).

Contributing Risk Factor?:  Over confidence? The Nexstar is packaged with a flight simulator.  More than once I’ve experienced talked to a beginner who thinks he can fly a model aircraft because he has extensive simulator time.  It’s NOT THE SAME!!!  No matter how much time one spends on a simulator, the live experience has factors too numerous to count that the simulator cannot duplicate.  A simulator doesn’t have people in the area who can be struck and bleed.

Any one of the above risk factors is enough to cause an accident.  The scars I will have on my right arm are proof the combination of the first four of the above did.  The beginner took off toward the south.  The Nexstar jumped off the runway up and toward the right.  Combined with the wind and the Nexstar’s  turning characteristics, the beginner was now fighting a hard right turn over the parking area.  At this point we probably had a beginner who was very excited and was having some orientation difficulty.  The plane began to dive toward the shed at first, then toward what looked like an impact point between the shed and the 5 foot safety fence.  My models were sitting in this area.  I was standing at the first section of the safety fence facing the runway.  I turned slightly to observe the flight path.  When I saw the Nexstar may impact my models on the ground, I turned my head and body away toward the runway to avoid what I thought was a certain spray of parts and debris.  Instead, the beginner must have pulled some elevator at the very last second.  Now the model was headed full throttle toward me.  I felt a heavy blow to the elbow.  I was stunned.  He actually hit me!  The prop cut two 3 inch long gashes on either side of my elbow.  The wing then struck my arm just above the elbow and on my side at the belt line.  The needle valve punctured my arm about three inches down from the elbow.

Safety is everyone’s responsibility.  I have recently observed many violations of field policy and other safety concerns:

·         Last weekend, it was observed one member went out to the runway, plopped his model on the runway, with out any announcement, and took off while another model was on an obvious approach.

·         Same weekend, a glider was preparing for a landing but was still high, while a pattern plane was dead stick.  Both declared dead stick.  The glider pilot was insisting right of way, but he had plenty of time to make another small circle to allow the pattern plane to land.

·         Beginners need space.  I was standing by a beginner recently for support in case he got into trouble.  Another seasoned pilot came up beside us, less than 10 feet away and revved up his engine before take off.  If it had been necessary for me to give the beginner a command, he would not have heard it.  All of you know how important sound is.  We are constantly monitoring the sound of our own model during flight for any detectable changes.  If someone is beside you fiddling with their needle valve setting at high rpm, it is impossible to hear anything else.  Personally, I find long engine runs in the pit area distracting and unnerving.

·         Warmer weather has brought out many new beginners.  Not all of these beginners are being properly “supervised” until they master what would be considered a safe set of piloting skills.

·         There were unsupervised small children at the field recently on a crowded weekend.  In light of my recent accident, it made me very nervous to see these children without someone specifically designated to watch them while their parents were flying.

·         We are going to have mechanical or electronic failures.  There was a wing separation on a model last Monday evening due to poor assembly.  The pilot purchased it already assembled so he had no idea he was flying a time bomb.  The fuselage went full bore into the ground.  It would have easily gone through the roof of a car... or....

Editorial Comment 

Bert Turner was approached by a neighbor whose house we can see to the north of the field.  The gentleman came to the field and asked if it were possible to stop flying by 8 during the summer evenings.  He would like to be able to sit out on his porch and not here the planes.  As this seems to be a simple request, and as you may know keeping a flying field is facilitated by working with neighbors, I think that this should be inacted just as the "No Flying Before 9 AM" was instituted.  I looked long and hard for a new flying field before we decided to pave the runway.   It is a very laborious effort.  Others have also looked around for new space.  The situation is that to find a location as we have, we would have to locate further away from the current location.  I contacted several public officials for space and none were appropriate.  One turned out to be on an existing but closed landfill next to the NW sewage treatment plant.  Another was in the south part of town, and on land owned by City Utilities, but that was not available.  So, until a better idea can be presented, I think that meeting neighborhood needs will allow us to fly longer in terms of years.  

Hopefully this can be arranged.