[NSRCA-discussion] Stupid accident

[AtwoodDon at aol.com]

Mark, sorry to hear of the damage to your plane.  Thankfully you  weren't 
'damaged'.  I understand fully when you mention your routine.   I think we 
all have our routines for our planes.  I know I have an assembly  sequence 
that is very important and when someone interrupts me while I am  assembling my 
plane, I usually just stop, finish the conversation and answer,  then start 
over from the beginning of the sequence just to make sure I didn't  miss 
anything.  I have noticed recently that a few of the people I  fly/compete 
with will actually tell someone to 'wait a minute' while they are  finishing 
putting their plane together, then talk or answer questions.
 
Keith, your comment on letting the neck strap dangle around the engine is  
right on.  I just cringe when I see someone doing that.  
 
Don
 
 
In a message dated 8/22/2009 1:57:16 P.M. Pacific Daylight Time,  
tkeithblack at gmail.com writes:

Mark, that's a bummer, but as I was reading I was fearing you were going  
to say you reached out to grab it and got something cut off. I've heard of  
this happening numerous times, even on this list. I'm so glad that neither 
you  nor anyone else got hurt.
 
Regarding the strap hooked to the TX, I did this when I was new to the  
hobby and one time doing the same as you had a plane with an OS 72FS  charge 
straight at me at full throttle while I was on my knees in front of it  after 
starting it. Remarkably I was able to reach over the spinning prop and  
catch the plane by the fuse before it hit me. I vowed right then and there I  
would never leave the strap on the TX again.
 
The other thing that I find scary is when people start their planes with  
the strap hanging down from their neck. That's a perfect opportunity for the  
strap to get caught by the prop and yank the running motor and pilots  
neck/face together.
 
Glad you weren't hurt, sorry about the damage to the plane.
 
Keith Black


On Sat, Aug 22, 2009 at 1:45 PM, Atwood, Mark <_atwoodm at paragon-inc.com_ 
(mailto:atwoodm at paragon-inc.com) >  wrote:


 
Hey All, 
Had a bad morning this morning because I got careless, and because I  
altered my normal habits. I normally have my neck strap tucked into my shirt  
starting the airplane, but this morning I simply clipped it onto the Tx  while 
it was sitting on the ground.   Started my primary Black  Magic, had it 
sitting on idle, picked up my Tx and somehow turned the Tx  funny such that the 
strap bumped the throttle…enough to make the plane jump  forward startling 
me.  In the split second that I moved to catch it,  the strap moved the 
throttle higher and before I could recover it, it  slammed the wing into the 
table next to me hard enough to snap the entire  fuselage into two pieces.   
I was very fortunate that no one was injured and that no other equipment  
was damaged, but I was crushed to watch (in slow motion of course) such  
catastrophic damage occur to the plane.  They’re just not meant for  that type 
of abrupt side load. 
Anyhow, just wanted to throw out the warning.  I’ve picked up my tx  1000 
times without incident, but seldom do I have the strap attached.   Just not 
my routine. But one odd movement can make things go VERY wrong,  VERY fast.  
Be careful, be methodical, and don’t change your  habits. 
Mark 
PS, probably repairable over the winter.  Fuse is in 2 pieces with a  lot 
of damage, and the wing that hit is pretty messed up.  It’ll be a  project 
for sure.   


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