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<DIV>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.</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>Keith, your comment on letting the neck strap dangle around the engine is
right on. I just cringe when I see someone doing that. </DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>Don</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>
<DIV>In a message dated 8/22/2009 1:57:16 P.M. Pacific Daylight Time,
tkeithblack@gmail.com writes:</DIV>
<BLOCKQUOTE
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<DIV>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.</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>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.</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>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.</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>Glad you weren't hurt, sorry about the damage to the plane.</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>Keith Black<BR><BR></DIV>
<DIV class=gmail_quote>On Sat, Aug 22, 2009 at 1:45 PM, Atwood, Mark <SPAN
dir=ltr><<A title=mailto:atwoodm@paragon-inc.com
href="mailto:atwoodm@paragon-inc.com">atwoodm@paragon-inc.com</A>></SPAN>
wrote:<BR>
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<DIV lang=EN-US vlink="purple" link="blue">
<DIV>
<P>Hey All,</P>
<P> </P>
<P>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. </P>
<P> </P>
<P>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.</P>
<P> </P>
<P>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.</P>
<P> </P><FONT color=#888888>
<P>Mark</P></FONT>
<P>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.
</P></DIV></DIV><BR>_______________________________________________<BR>NSRCA-discussion
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