Safety Comes First
ODORLESS CyA GLUE: Allergic reactions to the fumes that are emitted when cyanoacrylate (CyA) glue cures have been the subject of a number of my previous Safety columns. Modelers who have developed a sensitivity to these fumes have adopted various solutions to the problem, and these have ranged from use of a respirator (uncomfortable), to increasing ventilation in the workshop (not very practical in winter), to discontinuing use of these products (unacceptable to many). Well, it seems that Bob and Bill Hunter of Satellite City, Inc. may have hit on the ultimate solution for those of you who have previously suffered discomforting allergic reactions.
Safety Comes First
SOME of you missed reading "Safety Comes First" in the last two issues, and you have my apology. After 11 years of trying to make this an interesting column, I reached burnout and needed a break. However, your letters continue to arrive in my mailbox, so here is another attempt to save you from your own worst enemy-yourselves! If you think you may have read some of the following accounts in my previous Safety columns, you're probably correct. The accidents are similar, but the people who were the victims are different. I hate to say it, but if we could eliminate propellers from model airplanes my mail from readers would probably cease.
Safety Comes First
WHITE KNUCKLE airline passengers are those who fly under a great deal of stressful worry about their safety-they grip the armrests so hard their knuckles turn white. This relates to me in the following way: When Pan Am Flight #103 disintegrated over Lockerbie, Scotland in December 1988, I was visiting relatives in England. So it was with some trepidation that I boarded my return flight to the U.S. on another Pam Am flight (also a 747). No, I am not a nervous air traveller, but on this flight I did spend some time wondering what is a passenger's first sensation when a bomb explodes in the luggage compartment.
Safety Comes First
ERRORS of judgement: Henry Farrar, editor of the LIDS Flyer, the newsletter of the Long Island Drone Society, recently sent me a copy of a page from the November 11, 1931 issue of the British magazine, The Aeroplane. The page contained an article titled "Errors of Judgement." Since many model airplane crashes are the result of pilot error, I thought it appropriate to open this month's column with some extracts from that article. I would give a credit to its original author; however, no name was given.
Safety Comes First
CYANOACRYLATE GLUE. This month's Safety column is a reprint of the one which appeared in the October 1985 issue of Model Aviation and was entirely devoted to the possible health hazard presented by the use of CyA glue. In the eight years that I've been writing this column, I have never previously "recycled" an entire column. The reason I'm doing it now is because of the many letters I received from modelers who asked for copies of that October '85 column when I mentioned in my January 1988 column that such were available upon request. To those of you who have been readers since before October 1985, I apologize for this repeat. However, I think the following material is sufficiently important to new AMA members (and those others who may not have seen it previously) to justify this rerun. Here we go:
