Safety Comes First
Author
Gary A. Shaw 5063 Benton Boulevard, Pace FL 32561
Without a doubt, flying RC is the hobby I enjoy most whenever I find an opportunity—or simply an excuse to get out of the house and do it. That's why I'm sitting here wondering why I've spent most of the last few days inside a garage fixing models for a friend who's obviously intent on keeping me in the salvage business.
Yep, you guessed it—the weather has been perfect, I had time to fly, and the models were ready to go, but no... I'm spending my free time gluing firewalls and gear blocks back in place while the last good days of summer slip quietly by. Go figure.
OK, yes, for lack of another reason, I wanted to hear how the models got wrecked, do a little laughing, and get some column material. Only thing I have to do now is convince myself that building is fun whenever I get glued to balsa.
Question: Why hasn't someone invented some thin non-stick gloves or something that prevents wood from sticking to you when you work with cyanoacrylate (CyA) glues? Answer: Because it's more fun to get laughs from watching me pull balsa off my fingers, right? As I said, I wouldn't be working on models for friends right now unless there were stories to pass on and lessons to learn.
Model Number One — Ultra Sport 60
The Ultra Sport 60 met its semi-demise after the retract switch was pulled for gear up and the onboard battery went dead. The modeler thought it odd because he had checked the onboard charge with a simulated battery load before flying. Post-mortem back at the garage revealed a dead cell pack that had been repeatedly fast-charged over several years.
- Moral:
- Hold the load/test button down for more than a few seconds and cycle your batteries several times each season.
- Consider replacing an aging pack occasionally—better safe than sorry. After all, which is cheaper: a new pack or a new model?
Model Number Two — .60-Size Trainer
This trainer met the top of a motor home during landing—essentially the airplane ran into a giant-size arresting gear (a luggage rack). The gear stayed on the top of the motor home for the drive home while the firewall acted like an ash tray. Sort of lucky it didn't go through a window and become part of someone's stew.
- Moral:
- Park vehicles behind pit areas and/or use a runway layout that doesn't place vehicles in the path of aircraft.
- No need to damage property or risk injury to those nearby.
Model Aviation on the Internet
In recent columns I’ve mentioned the power of the computer and how easy it is to access the Internet for endless modeling topics. Once you've installed software such as a dialer or an online service (Netscape, America Online, CompuServe, etc.), open a web search engine like Magellan, Yahoo, or Infoseek.
Type "Model Aviation" as the search parameter and wait a few seconds to see how many topics show up. I found about 42,000 responses. Too many? Refine the search to "Models"—I found about 15,000 responses. Still too many? Try just "RC"—I found about 1,200 responses, ranging from manufacturers to building articles and scanned pictures of R/C models available for download.
Need some new props? Go to Tower Hobbies' home page and place an order in minutes. Surf over to articles about fuels, glues, paints, fumes, crashes, etc., or download beautiful pictures scanned in by individuals and clubs from around the world.
I found a home page entitled "Crash R/C" (search parameter "Crash"). It contains several pages of crash stories organized by month. Having reviewed several months of text, the following story from Bud Hornsby seemed worth sharing.
Crash R/C: Bud Hornsby's Story
"I started in the hobby waaaay back in 1975. The plane was a Sig Kadet which took over three months to build (this was in the days where every little piece was blueprinted on balsa and had to be cut out and sanded to size).
"Finally, the big day came! It was Saturday and I loaded the ex-wife and kids into the car, along with the pristine Kadet, and headed for the nearest schoolyard where RC flying was allowed—a 45-minute drive. Everything went well; helpful RCers checked the CG, controls, and test-flew the bird. After adding a tad of downthrust to the engine and being instructed for a couple of hours (this was before buddy boxes), I did pretty well.
"Next day (Sunday), I couldn't wait to load the ex-wife and kids in the car again, and we shot over to the field after church. Nuts! Nobody flying! Weather was fine, but nobody showed up. Well, since we drove all the way over here, it would be a shame not to get in a little flying.
"Well (the rest of the story won't take long) I got everything ready, handed my watch to my ex-wife and told her to let me know when ten minutes was up. (Didn't want to run out of gas on my first flight, you see.) Takeoff at full throttle went rather well; the Kadet climbed out straight into the breeze. I gave a little left rudder and she banked nicely around (still climbing at full throttle) until she was heading back toward us. Since the left wing was low, I moved the stick the opposite way to correct it (moved it to the left).
"Oops! Now she's inverted with the nose dropping... still full throttle! Well, if the plane's dying, then of course I need to give it full up elevator! AGHHH! The inverted plane is now screaming toward the field in a vertical dive! Bending the stick, I realize she just might pull out about six inches above the grass in a screaming power loop!
"Sure enough, she skims the grass and starts back up. To my horror, I see the big plate-glass doors of the high school about 10 feet in front of the plane. The only choice I have is to push the plane into the ground. CRASH! CRATER! PIECES OF FLYING! I'm standing at the edge of the crater, looking at over three months' work totally destroyed—radio, engine, everything! My ex-wife walks over with my watch and says, 'You've still got nine minutes!'"
- Moral:
- Spend more time practicing with friends at the field and never fly alone.
- Use buddy boxes when learning, and consider computer simulators to practice indoors during bad weather.
As for the column this month, my ten minutes are up. Until next time—hope you can keep the wings level.
Transcribed from original scans by AI. Minor OCR errors may remain.
