fred985

i hit the wrong thing ,,,i didnt mean to reply to that entry

byrne1157

My prayers and heart go out for the family members that will miss him the most.
Their loss has verified one of my worst fears, that someone would be killed in the pursuit of the fun our hobby can provide.
I recently purchased an airframe for a low price at a swap meet. I didn't have time to inspect it thoroughly beforehand, and when I got it home, I was dismayed to find many glue joints were seperated, or just plain had no glue in them. This gave me the idea that I should probably do this with all of my airframes, including new ones. I have found many glue joints lacking, to say the least. And these aircraft came new, from a reputable? manufacturer of arfs. Two, or more razor sharp knives, spinning at 1500-18,000 rpm is a disaster waiting to happen. I sure hope I never read about another one of these...

on_your_six

My Feedback: (11)

Buy good equipment, build properly, maintain it, replace all defective and worn parts, fly safely at appropriate locations. Maintain separation from people.

Lightspeed1551

My Feedback: (4)

NBC pissed me off.I don't care if there helis or fixed wings NEITHER ARE TOYS.

lopflyers

My Feedback: (12)

We can try to be safe all we want, but guys honestly, who checks all the screws and bolts every time? Not me, not anybody at the two clubs I fly from.
God protect us and our children.

init4fun

As this horrible accident so clearly shows , ANY hobby can cause the hobbyist's demise if certain things go wrong . In the antique radio/tv collecting hobby , for example , there are several hundred volts of whats referred to as "B+" , and this voltage can be delivered by the power supply in such amperage to be fatal in a "whoops" moment . And what of skiers who hit trees ? Car racers who hit the wall ? Yes , it IS a crying shame to see a young life lost and a family grieving , but at least the guy died doing what he loved , rather than of a heart attack brought on by too many days on the couch playing video games . The best possible thing that could come out of such a tragedy would be for folks to think about maintaining a bit of safe separation between them and their models to lessen their chances of being in danger should the model experience problems . Now of course that distance of safe separation will no doubt be subject to several different views depending on who's doing the viewing , but I think we can all agree that no model should ever be flown directly over the operator's head as the story quoted on page one of this thread seems to indicate . I fully understand the desire to see one's model up close while in flight , and am equally terrified of the sad possible result such as befell this young guy . Accidents DO happen , sure , we can try to minimize our risks , be aware of possible pitfalls , but in the end life itself is risky and comes with no warranties of any kind .....

xcz5785

My Feedback: (21)

This is a very terrible tragedy. My condolences to his family and friends.

xcz5785

My Feedback: (21)

This is a very terrible tragedy. My condolences to his family and friends. That said, watching his YouTube videos his is flying WAY too close to himself. At some points he is flying at eye level at what appears to be less than 10ft. http://youtu.be/HRPfLKVMGM8 He is obviously a really good pilot but flying that close is dangerous. Unfortunately flying that close resulted in a death. Even if he was just hovering and had mechanical failure, that is too close. At our field we can not fly any closer than the runway some 30+ feet away. Flying close than that lowers reaction time and increases the chance of being hit by debris at higher speed.

dbacque

My Feedback: (3)

My sincerest condolences to the family, this is a truly tragic event.

Having seen his YouTube videos, as a Safety Officer at an AMA sanctioned field I would have never allowed such flying to take place at our field. He violated minimum separation on several occasions and always during high risk maneuvers. Any failure, either hardware, electronic or pilot error could have had catastrophic results. And eventually did.

This isn't an "I told you so" posting. It's a "Please help keep your fields safe!"

As a wise man once said, "Safety is everybody's business." If it looks wrong, speak up. I keep telling our members that they have as much right to call safety violations as I do. If the offender doesn't listen, bring it up to the officers. We are here for a reason. As I type this I am genuinely in tears, wishing he had flown at my field and I could have prevented this terrible accident.

Dave

[email protected]

My Feedback: (1)

maybe we schould wear helments steel gloves>

cublover

My Feedback: (47)

Holy hell man,,,don't give ANYONE ammo when It comes to our hobby! I to agree this is a bad deal, but we ALL know it CAN be dangerous to fly our Machines!! The reason I said that, is because all it takes is one or 2 bad things to happen, and then the regulations come out in full force!!. I don't fly Heli's, but I have a couple guys who I fly with that do. When they fly, I stand back, and let them have there space. If this is made to be a huge deal, you'll be FORCED to take a safety course or even have to get a license to operate one!! could cost a pretty penny!!. If you think I'm crazy, to even think this, think about this.. If you are a gun owner, and never,,,not once EVER killed anyone,,why is it that YOU can't buy ANY gun you want to own??...Nuf said!! My 2 cents,,,, If you fly stupid, well,,,, you might just get the horn....I have never been one to sugar coat!!! Sorry if this sounds cold blooded, but we all know we could crash at any moment, why would you not think to yourself, "I need to fly this away from the crowd, and myself, just in case""!!!.. I know,,, Common sense just sucks sometimes..Rod

rowdyjoe

My Feedback: (9)

Given the propensity of our wonderful "gubmit" for knee-jerk reactions, don't be surprised when the busy-bodies jump in with both feet. According to them, we must be protected from ourselves because we are too stupid to do it without their meddling. No disrespect to the deceased intended but, we bring this reaction on ourselves by doing unsafe, stupid stuff.
I'll be surprised if we're not required to wear helmets and armor when flying. You'll know we're in trouble when non-fatal incidents/accidents begin to be reported and tracked by medical facilities, Dr.s, and possibly clubs.

Bottom line, if we don't prevent dangerous activity at our flying sites we'll be given all of the "help" the busy-bodies can muster.
We do it ourselves or start picking out which color helmet we want to wear.

RJ

Lnewqban

A terrible tragedy, he was too young and talented to die!
Just graduated from High School last year.

Having witnessed such a tragic accident makes the pain of this father unimaginable.
What he said has been published:

"He was a great pilot and a great friend to everybody," dad Roman Pirozek Sr., said of his 19-year-old son.

"It's a popular hobby but there's only a certain amount of people who can do it because it's expensive and it's a bit dangerous, as you can see," he said.

He said the family had no idea what caused the accident that took the life of Roman Pirozek Jr.

My deepest condolences to the family and friends of this young pilot.
Only time will bring some consolation to their souls.

MANFRED

My Feedback: (27)

Very very sad indeed. But let's not blow this up any more than we should. I firmly believe Texting while driving is far more dangerous than our hobby, just check the statistics. And even though it's illegal in California I see hundreds of people on the roads doing it, quite a few of them teens. We have a hands free phone only rule but some freakin morons think if they use the speaker on their phone and hold it away from their ear they are not actually talking on their phone!

xcz5785

My Feedback: (21)

I don't know if this is him flying but how is this for too close? http://youtu.be/YrQ_JsGo7J4

SigMan

My Feedback: (21)

sickening.

Chickengeorge

My Feedback: (1)

I sure wish we knew if it was an equipment failure or just an accident so we could learn from this more. My deepest sympathies as well

Jeff Worsham

My Feedback: (28)

This is terrible, and it didn't happen to a newbie. An experienced pilot with his father in the hobby as well. Why are so many of these helicopters being flown over top of and so close to the pilots and spectators, and not just in a hover with blades spinning in line with body parts, but while being stressed mechanically just feet away from others while doing 3D maneuvers???? After watching this pilot's FPV video posted on the news sites, I'm surprised this field can be called an AMA sanctioned field with that type of flying going on.

Phantomless

I don't need to learn anything more.

Clearly playing chicken with a pretty darn big rotating meat cleaver powered by an engine that sounds like a 4-stroke motocrosser means that both the pilot and the and the machine have to be 100% reliable or something bad's going to happen.

That's a bet that, if you make it often enough, you're going to lose. Just like playing roulette at the casino. This sad outcome was completely predictable.

Chickengeorge

My Feedback: (1)

I just thought if someone that was there would share with us. We could learn and not let it be repeated. Maybe? Like a servo failure or was he flying in circles toward himself? Or over his head. Like I heard one person say. You guys are right. It's definitely dangerous. But some risks can be minimized. by being smart. I AM NOT SAYING THIS FELLOW WASN'T BEING SMART. I am only wanting to know more. Because people are going to continue to do this. In the video they put on the news. The guy was flying on his side in a horizontal circle. I don't about where y'all fly. But any maneuver done towards the crowd is a major no no!

karlik

Don't want top make light of it, a father did lose his son and that's a sad thing to see....
But why don't we get just as upset when a drunk driver takes out a soccer mom and 3 kids? How many people were killed by rc aircraft last year? How many killed by drunk drivers?

Nitro-Tom

Pylon Racers wear helmets - I would not be against it.....

on the plus side it gives us a mounting point for our Go Pro camera's......

Nitro-Tom

I too am a Safety Officer at 1 of the 2 fields I fly at.....and the other field I fly at is even stricter with such rules than my main field.

I always take heat when I ask someone to fly safely…i.e no hovering near the pits, etc….no low passes over the pits, it doesn’t matter…..pilots can get caught up in the awesome moves they are doing and forget how close they are to danger or putting others in danger.

We cannot forget how important safety is in our hobby. Safe practices and safe distance is #1.....

We are all “Volunteer” safety officers and need to help keep this hobby safe…..

Chickengeorge

My Feedback: (1)

Well spoken sir. Safety first. Keep up the good work

F-16 viperman

Years ago, I would fly My heli inches from my head to show off My skills nose in hover. between then and now 55 years old, I've learned to respect kinetic energy. It's everywhere in life unless everything stands still. always weigh the risks. I think the best way to show Our respects is to give it a little more thought. the only thing I'll hover close to My head these days is My Quad nano. God bless He and His Family.