[Terror Dactyl]

This is something to read and think about:

"From the IMAA:

Dear Members of the IMAA Board

I have been notified of a horrific accident that happened over the weekend in Wakeman, Ohio. 2 good friends of mine Casey Rowe and Brian Striker who have flown together for years encountered what we have all talked about at our Board meetings for months, What if one of these 42% aircraft hit someone?
Well Brian had a 42% Oracle Bi-plane as it took off he lost control of the aircraft. Casey who was over 300ft away sitting under his tent, stood up and looked at what was transpiring and before he know it, tried to leap away from the incoming 47# 80 mph 42% biplane but to no avail.
He was struck in the back the carbon fiber prop cut through his back into his kidneys, severed his leg almost completely off. They called 911 and he was transported by life flight to Cleveland metro where he is in stable condition. I talked to Casey today and he wants everyone to know that his can happen to anyone.
These guys are professional RC pilots and use the best equipment!! Casey is lucky to be! alive and is very shaken by the whole incident. I wished him our best on behalf of the IMAA. I would like to work with the AMA safety committee and really look into a way to police ourselves. We and Casey are lucky no one was killed. If we do not put restrictions and more failsafe measures in effect on ourselves then I feel the FAA and other government agencies will do it for us. I feel this was our wakeup call I hope we can all work together on these
issues.

Sincerely,

IMAA President Tom Hayden # 5138"

This is also needs to be on the minds of Bro's when we are doing a mass hover. You have to be able to see things on the edge of your sight focus as well as looking at your plane, for your own safety.

I know that the 40 size planes will not do as much damage, but very bad things can still happen.

I will say that I will be glad to watch y'all in a mass hover in Texarkana, but am not comforatble enough with my lack of comfort zone on the control of my 80" to get close to y,all. I am saying that my bird will either be pretty far up or WWWAAAYYY off to one side if there is a chance to get a really big number in the air. With the size of it a pic from the other end will look okay as the size will probably be right.

 

[ChuckAuger]

Was the guy hovering when he lost it?? 300 ft is a long way for a hovering plane to go and the guy not have time to get away.. Sounds more like he was at speed when he lost control.

 

[Terror Dactyl]

The way I understand the info is that it was in a take off that the problems happened.

I was was refering to the mass hover as a time to have us be aware of more than just our own planes so that we can have an incident free good ole boys time.

Some of the probable prevention policies (being mentioned already) to be able to fly something big will hit our pockets pretty hard. I guess that if it goes true to form even a Hangar 9 80" Cub will have to use a throttle failsafe and a PCM receiver and these will cost more than the plane and motor.

I know I dont need to get started yet.

I just hope that the gentelman is able to come back to full health.

 

[Terror Dactyl]

More info <<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<

I would like to give you my first hand account of what happened to Casey
Rowe at the Wakeman, Ohio gathering and correct some of the inaccuracies
surrounding the incident.

This incident took place on Saturday, August 14th about noon. Some of us
got together at a friend's house to have a picnic and fly. This is a
large estate complete with lake and large, standalone workshop. Bryon
Striker was flying his father's Miles Reed Challenger II Giant Scale
Biplane. This plane had flown quite a few times before. I was spotting
for Bryon at the time. BTW, Bryon is a very accomplished Giant Scale 3D
flyer and his father is an accomplished Giant Scale builder. Bryon took
off and flew the plane uneventfully for about 4 minutes. This quote from
a previous post is not an accurate statement "Well Brian had a 42%
Oracle Bi-plane as it took off he lost control of the aircraft." I then
flew the plane for about two minutes. Bryon once again took over and
flew the biplane for about 2 more minutes. He was making a fairly level
pass (perhaps slightly descending at about 150 feet) flying north to
south over the lake when I heard the throttle go to full. I assumed
Bryon was preparing to enter a vertical maneuver. Bryon immediately
shouted that he did not have control. I said, "You didn't do that?" He
said no, and began shouting again that he didn't have control. At that
time I looked around and everyone outside the workshop was looking up.
The plane proceeded south with the engine full throttle and level. As it
passed beyond and over the workshop, it began to slowly turn east and
began slowly descending. As it came back over the workshop I decided to
run towards the workshop since it appeared it would continue flying
towards where Bryon and I were standing. I was looking up and running
when I saw the plane slowly roll over and head for the ground almost
right at me. As I was running I heard a "thud" and felt debris hitting
the back of my legs. I stopped and turned around and saw that Bryon was
all right and then noticed Casey on the ground by the tents. He had
apparently exited the tent to try to locate the plane in the air. We
administered First Aid, I applied a tourniquet, and the other people
called 911.

The plane had a JR 700 PPM receiver (not PCM) and I believe on Channel
50 from the Frequency Board. The receiver was purchased new just for the
biplane. No other person had a radio with that channel. After the
incident, I witnessed testing the battery pack under load and the
voltage regulator, which checked out OK.

Just to put things into perspective, previously the closest I had ever
seen anyone being in danger of being seriously injured by a flying RC
aircraft was a 40 sized trainer crashing vertically into a chair that
was occupied 30 seconds before the crash and a helicopter crashing
approximately 10 feet from the pilot and spotter (both incidents were
when the pilots lost orientation).

I just got off the phone talking to Casey and he is scheduled to return
home this Wednesday. He is in good spirits and wants to thank everyone
for their kind remarks.

Nick

_____________________________

Nick Yuhasz
Amherst, Ohio

It is funny how the stories get retold

 

[xjet]

I guess that if it goes true to form even a Hangar 9 80" Cub will have to use a throttle failsafe and a PCM receiver and these will cost more than the plane and motor.

Nah.. you can buy a new 6-channel FM PPM receiver with DSP, TSR, Signal Hold and failsafe on all channels for under $80.

These things are (in many respects) even better than PCM at a very reasonable price. I fly nothing else now.