[NSRCA-discussion] Stupid accident

[Budd Engineering]

I've made performing a control surface "polarity check" part of my  
preflight checklist for the last 20 years or so.  I haven't caught  
anything yet, but I've seen enough over the last couple of decades to  
know that it'll payoff some day.  Besides, it only takes about 10  
seconds to do it (I do it every flight, not just the first flight of  
the day).

Jerry

Sent from my iPhone

On Aug 22, 2009, at 2:50 PM, Ronald Van Putte <vanputte at cox.net> wrote:

> My favorite "trick" is to neglect to attach the aileron servo  
> connections if I am disturbed while assembling the airplane.   
> Consequently, John Fuqua asks me to "wiggle the sticks" before  
> carrying the airplane out; it's saved my airplane twice already.
>
> Ron VP
>
> On Aug 22, 2009, at 4:44 PM, Jim Quinn wrote:
>
>> Wow! I saw these planes at Toledo and the Nats! I'm really sorry.  
>> They were/are beautiful trophy winners in Toledo. I agree with Don,  
>> make a routine and stick with it. A good budfdfy of mine recently  
>> had 9 stitches from a mini electric (smaller than a 1/2 glow) when  
>> his throttle went to high, he grabbed the wing and the plane spun  
>> around and struck his hand.
>>
>> Jim Quinn
>>
>>
>> From: "Atwood, Mark" <atwoodm at paragon-inc.com>
>> To: General pattern discussion <nsrca-discussion at lists.nsrca.org>
>> Sent: Saturday, August 22, 2009 2:45:03 PM
>> Subject: [NSRCA-discussion] Stupid accident
>>
>> 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 j 
>> ust not meant for that type of abrupt side load.
>>
>>
>> Anyhow, just wanted to throw out the warning.  I’ve picked up my t 
>> x 1000 times without incident, but seldom do I have the strap atta 
>> ched.  Just not my routine. But one odd movement can make things g 
>> o VERY wrong, VERY fast.  Be careful, be methodical, and don’t cha 
>> nge 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.
>>
>> _______________________________________________
>> NSRCA-discussion mailing list
>> NSRCA-discussion at lists.nsrca.org
>> http://lists.nsrca.org/mailman/listinfo/nsrca-discussion
>
> _______________________________________________
> NSRCA-discussion mailing list
> NSRCA-discussion at lists.nsrca.org
> http://lists.nsrca.org/mailman/listinfo/nsrca-discussion
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.nsrca.org/pipermail/nsrca-discussion/attachments/20090822/2ae251d9/attachment.html>