SAFETY COMES FIRST
This mystery airplane even has its own Hollywood movie! Take a guess and win digital plans for the Parachute Plane. The author’s email is at the beginning of the column.
DANGER!
TIGHT PANTS
AT THE FIELD!
By Dave Gee | safetycolumn@cs.com
SKILLED CONTROL LINE (CL) PILOT
Steve Sobel sent this close-call report, but it has nothing to do with fashion.
“I brought my new Brodak Vector 40 ARF to the CL field for a first flight. It was a grassy surface and, alas, I hadn’t cut quite enough clearance in the wheel pants. As soon as the airplane was released, the inboard wheel snagged. The airplane made a sharp left turn on the ground and headed across the circle. I worried that if it got airborne, it would be torn apart when it reached full-line length. Finally, the propeller got snagged, which stopped the engine. The airplane never left the ground.
“The happy ending is no damage to me or the airplane, but the lines were ruined. There was another set of lines, as well as an X-Acto knife in the toolbox, so I cleared the opening in the wheel pants, found a better takeoff spot, and the airplane flew beautifully.”
Even full-scale aircraft have trouble on grass fields. That’s why World War I airplanes had canvas covers on their snag-prone spoked wheels. If you’re not flying on a hard runway, make sure that your wheel fairings have plenty of clearance.
And now, dear readers, we move from close calls to incident reports. Watch out; this could get messy.
Finger Slice One: The Roar of the Crowd
Frank Hibbard is no newcomer to modeling, but once upon a time, he got caught by a momentary distraction and paid the price.
“It was in the mid ’70s. (Yes, I am a seasoned old geezer by now!) I was at a local park, preparing my CL Ringmaster Imperial for flight. The lines were out, the airplane was secured, and I was about to start the SuperTigre .35.
“As in many such situations, a group of kids had formed to watch. After making sure they were at a safe distance, I fired up the engine. The impromptu audience all let out a whoop at the noise. As I reached to tune the needle valve, I was distracted by the commotion and inadvertently ran my left index finger through the propeller arc! The engine lugged down and I could tell I needed immediate medical attention!
“I grabbed my utility rag (which I always kept in my pocket) and threw it into the prop, killing the engine, then wrapped it tightly around my badly damaged finger. My wife and I grabbed up everything and threw it into the back of my station wagon and headed to the nearest emergency facility.
“After careful stitching and bandaging, I was sent home to contemplate the near disaster. My finger healed slowly, but it did heal, and to this day, it is a little stiff and sensitive but fully functional. Lesson learned: Don’t let a ‘spontaneous ovation’ distract you from the task at hand.”
Finger Slice Two: Pusher Predicament
This is an anonymous report from a safety-conscious but inexperienced RC pilot.
New Postal Contest
“I was at the club field with the goal of trying to get my Skyfly 2 into the air. I am a beginner. The grass was wet and long, so I planned on a hand launch and should have gotten some help. I had the airplane poised in my right hand and throttled up. The airplane slipped a little in my hand and moved forward.
“The Skyfly 2 has a high-mounted pusher motor and the airplane had moved forward to the point that my finger was in the propeller path. Well, the airplane did not go up and my finger got wounded by the propeller. The situation was compounded by the fact that I was on blood thinners and also did not have a first-aid kit. Lots of learning in a short time!
“I’ve upgraded in several ways since that incident. In addition to being better equipped for medical situations and making sure that I have experienced helpers close by, my model now has larger wheels so that it can take off without a hand launch. That keeps the propeller far from my fingers!”
Pod-pusher models are notoriously tricky to hand launch, and this situation was compounded by not having guidance during flight training with a new model. Good instruction is vital for a new modeler to become an experienced pilot.
I repeat: Self-teaching is a poor way to learn to fly RC. You’ll have more fun, have fewer crashes, and learn better habits if you accept guidance from an experienced instructor. Ask any safe, skilled pilot how they started out and the answer will usually be, “I had a great teacher.”
New Postal Contest
The Secret Sky Squadron has announced a new Sky Battle Postal Contest! A Postal Contest is where contestants fly at their
home fields and email the results to a headquarters. This event is open to any bagged, slip-together, all-balsa, rubber-powered model airplane with wheels. This makes Guillows’s popular Strato Streak and Jetstream eligible along with many other airplanes.
The models can fly in the Stock class (with only added dihedral and an upgraded motor allowed) or in the Modified class (allowing airframe changes but with only the wood in the kit). Amateur aerodynamicists will love that one!
Age groups are 17 or younger and 18 or older. Models must rise off of the ground or take off from a tabletop and only your single, best flight counts. The contest window is from April 26 to May 5, 2024. Arbor Day to Cinco de Mayo covers a lot of cultural ground! The website and email address are listed in “Sources.”
Drop in Anytime!
It’s rare that RC models are set up to drop anything in flight, which is a good thing. Scale models might release a balsa bomb or torpedo during a contest, and sometimes air show teams have a display routine, but that’s about it. This is for good and obvious reasons since anyone who has flown a model knows how hard it would be to guarantee a safe landing spot for a dropped item.
The AMA Member Safety Program Handbook states, “Dropping any object creating a hazard to persons or property are prohibited.” Even though it’s not proper grammar, we all understand what it says. Despite all of that, my disruptive nature led to a poor choice for the mystery airplane prize plan. Please read on ...
Mystery Airplane
This mystery airplane is one of my favorites, and to those who accuse me of having a lot of favorite airplanes, I say that if you’re reading Model Aviation magazine, you probably understand.
This US carrier jet was frontline equipment for 30 years and performed many combat roles. It even has its very own major motion picture! The aircraft has good proportions for a model, but it is not built and flown as often as it should be, in my opinion.
The photo was taken at the Estrella Warbird Museum in Paso Robles, California. The museum’s displays are amazing and it’s well worth a visit. Please send your guess to my email address, found at the beginning of the column.
And the Prize?
Everyone who takes a guess at the mystery airplane will receive digital plans for the Parachute Plane, a rarely seen vintage model. The original kit produced a sleek and graceful 40-inch wingspan airframe with a hatch that opened in flight to drop a parachute. I built a reduced-size demonstration aircraft to suit my small local field.
Your emailed plans can be enlarged to its full size or to any wingspan that you’d like. It would make a fine electric RC model, but builders who include the parachute-drop feature should consider moving it to the airplane’s center of gravity instead of aft as it’s designed. Landings are easier when the airplane’s balance point doesn’t change in midflight.
SOURCES:
Sky Battle Postal Contest
skybattlepostal@gmail.com
www.skybattle.org
Estrella Warbirds Museum
(805) 238-9317
www.ewarbirds.org
Parachute Plane test flights
YouTube
www.youtube.com/watch?v=NiM-jPPqblg
