Safety Comes First
STRUCTURAL FAILURE: Airplanes, both full-scale and models, require that certain vital parts have sufficient strength to withstand the stresses that they will be subjected to during flight. Full-scale aircraft designers go through a lot of calculations, and conduct extensive testing to ensure that the end product will perform in the intended manner without falling apart in the air. But what about those who design model aircraft that are to be sold to the general public in the form of a kit? Do the companies that produce these kits do any calculations or perform any tests to determine the necessary size of a wing spar or thickness of a sheet-balsa stabilizer to prevent breakage during high-G maneuvers such as the corners of a square loop? I don't have an answer to this question, and even if kit manufacturers do satisfy themselves that their products have adequate strength, who is to say that you, the purchaser of the kit, are going to do a sufficiently good job in building the model to prevent it from falling apart in the air?
Safety Comes First
MANNERS and safety: In my opinion, polite flying is directly related to safe flying. This opinion was reinforced by an incident described in a recent letter from a Texas modeler, whose name and club I'm withholding to ensure I don't create bad feelings within the club. The members of this club are required to fly in accordance with the AMA Safety Code and to observe certain flying field rules. Some important rules require that pilots announce their intentions to other fliers, such as calling out, "Taking off," "Landing," and "Dead-stick" prior to executing these functions. If it is necessary for a flier to enter onto or cross the runway, this also must be announced and acknowledged by the other pilots. The letter writer stated that once in a while infractions do occur, and penalties may be assessed which could result in removal from the club. A particular incident was then described which I will relate in the letter writer's own words:
Safety Comes First
THE OTHER SIDE of the coin: If I write something in this column which results in my receiving letters which are all opposed to what I have said, then I must be doing something wrong. However, as a result of the discussion on transmitter power switches being inadvertently turned off which appeared in the April safety column, letters appear to be about equally divided on whether to blame the stupidity of such incidents on the pilot or on the person who designed the transmitter. Since I took the position that I felt it was not stupidity on the part of the pilot that caused such incidents, following is the other side of the coin expressed extremely well in a letter from Jefferson City, MO modeler William Stodgell:
Safety Comes First!
Dear John, It was with great interest that I read the May issue of MA. Since I am strictly a helicopter flier, I naturally went to Chesney's column first. Then I noticed that George Myers is now involved in choppers, so that was next. I hope you don't mind being in third place, but I read your column next. I really do feel, however, that safety should come first. Let's face it-a 12-pound helicopter with rotor tips moving at 175 mph could really "do a number" on someone if it was out of control. I have never had a serious accident with a helicopter, but I have witnessed some pretty spectacular crashes. I have a friend who required emergency room treatment to dig a lot of basswood splinters from behind the muscles of his arm, and quite a few stitches to close up the wound! So, I am aware of what a helicopter can do to the human body.
Safety Comes First!
THE DOPESHEET, newsletter of the Terre Haute, IN RC Club (editor, Don May) had the following to say in a column titled Safe Flying: "Obviously nobody will aim his five- or six-pound, 70 mph projectile at your head intentionally, but consider: a solder joint breaks, an elevator flutters and rips off, a servo motor hits a dead spot, or someone else turns on a transmitter without having the frequency pin; the best pilot in the world can do nothing before the inevitable happens. The only way to assure that the inevitable happens in a safe spot is to never allow the model to fly over innocent heads."
