Happy Feet

Student loses control of model airplane, crashes into Johnson Center, causing fire
Last Update: 03/21/2007 3:11:58 PM
By: Todd Dukart

Most model airplane crashes don’t cause buildings to be evacuated. But, Wednesday afternoon, one did. According to the University of New Mexico Police Department, a student flying a model airplane on Johnson Field outside the university’s popular gym, Johnson Center, lost control of the airplane. The airplane crashed into a Johnson Center window and its battery started a fire.

One student was scratched by the glass.

Johnson Center was evacuated for about two hours while UNM and Albuquerque police investigated.

Johnson Center is home to many of UNM’s physical education classes, and provides recreational services for UNM faculty, staff and students.

UNM’s volleyball team also plays games at the center, but their season is in the fall.

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tailskid

My Feedback: (34)

Oh boy....here we go again....

Dr1Driver

Another GREAT reason for joining a club and flying at their private site.

Dr.1

jettstarblue

Yeah, but just because someone joins the AMA and pays to belong to a club doesn't mean they won'r or can't hit something expensive. The three clubs near me all are a stones throw from the road/buildings/ect.

Dr1Driver

Maybe, but flying from a club field that has clear overfly areas, with members and visitors who understand the possible risk and are alert to the planes in the air, is a MUCH better option than flying from a college commons. Flying from a club field also means your skills have been approved for solo flight. Since most clubs require AMA membership, it also guarantees you have the insurance to cover the damages.

Dr.1

MinnFlyer

My Feedback: (4)

Very true. Since this sport startedd we have been self-regulating. With more and more people doing it "Their way" it won't be long before Big Brother steps in.

Stew99

I think the real problem is that people get these little planes and have no clue as to how much space is really needed to fly them especially for inexperienced pilots. They see these ads on TV of kids flying helicopters in their living room and think they can fly anywhere.

Dr1Driver

You said a mouthful, Stew! Even the smallest park flyer can be pretty fast for a beginner. Add to that a total lack of knowledge of how to fly and you have the recipe for accidents. But, by Gawd, it's their given RIGHT to fly wherever and however they darn well please. The heck with anyone else, their property, and the image of the hobby as a whole.

I, and many others, have spent the past 20+ years trying to keep R/C elevated to a hobby/sport (even educational), not "boys with toys" and "toy planes". RESPONSIBLE R/C pilots DO regulate themselves, and with great success. MinnFlyer is right, though. Big Brother is coming if this keeps up. It's coming. Either we (as a whole) fly safely and responsibly, or we might not fly at all. And before I get flamed, I guess some park pilots DO fly responsibly. I just haven't seen it.

Dr.1

P-51B

My Feedback: (5)

I wonder if the pilot had a waiver for operating with a LiPO battery operated model....oh wait, only dangerous turbines need that.....

Dr1Driver

I wonder if the pilot had a waiver

And don't forget the deadly plane weighing over 55 pounds!

Dr.1

MikeL

My Feedback: (3)

I think it's inevitable, for a variety of reasons. The things I read here on RCU have made me come to the conclusion that I need to enjoy this hobby while I can, as I don't believe it will survive in its current form throughout my lifetime.

The untutored beginner is a concern. These ignorant fools (which is a fair description) believe they can learn to fly by reading and using simulators. What they simply don't understand is the reality of RC aircraft--you need space, you need some measure of training, and you need guidance on the aspect of the hobby that can't be conveyed solely by the written word. These people are a threat to our hobby. I've read of municipalities passing ordinances banning RC flight within city limits. How many kids in a park getting hit by poorly built, out of control park fliers when the pilot has exercised to crowd control or time/place judgment will it take for other cities to fall in line?

Flying fields are being pushed further and further from population centers as urban sprawl continues. This has all sorts of negative impacts. It encourages park flying, and encourages hobby shops to cater to those who have no formal flying field. Hobby shops in the city can't get the business that they used to, so they change their product mix to serve the business that they can get.

Telemetry is the biggest danger to our hobby outside of human behavior. One of the promises of SS technology is real-time telemetry. Sure, this has been possible for some time, but it hasn't been accessible. Once it's more accessible, we may have a real problem on our hands. All it takes is one high profile problem to attract a great deal of unwanted attention.

Hossfly

MikeL, You and DR1 have both hit the nail square on the head. Your commentary here deserves a book of additional explanation and consideration.
The "....high profile problem..." can well be the well known "...first impression..." that many will get of this sport / hobby. Therein is a failure of the AMA for not assuring that all media and legislative bodies are well aware of the good things of the activity. First Impressions are the most lasting impressions.

However the faults are not always with the newer entries into our sport / hobby. I could tell you about a club that is a very well established club and a fairly prosperous club that owns -- with a mortgage -- its property with lots of land to fly over. The past 4 years have seen some rather new people in the club, yet old time modelers, not familiar or caring about the long time traditions of the club, become entrenched into the officer positions, become a bunch of self-serving groupies while most of the old-time members have either died off, or moved away and the turnover simply doesn't allow the remainder of those that care to vote these people out.
Safety Considerations, once a big thing, has become a very small thing. A through briefing for new members, once a standard, now does not exist, just take the money and a brief "Welcome" does it. The requirements for Solo flight have been decreased because several of the new so-called "instructors" couldn't fly well enough to complete the older requirements. [:@]
Many new members join simply because the flying site is so good. They contribute nothing other than their dues to the club. They expect the club to bend to them. Not unusual to see a select few of the groupies having several freq. clips on their shirt with unclipped transmitters on the table when the Club Rule states that all Transmitters will be either clipped or in the Impound. This includes the Pres and his groupies. The Safety Rep complains over and over. He is about to throw in the towel.
BTW the AMA DVP just appointed the Club Pres. an AVP.

The Bureaucracy sustains mediocrity, and the unknowing newbies have nothing to learn from.

Dr1Driver

You pegged it, MikeL.

Your first criteria - SPACE - is the one that gets ya every time. I've seen the ads. "It can be flown in your backyard/park/baseball diamond." Yea, it will probably take off in that space, and it might land in that space, but it won't fly in that space unless the pilot is experienced and good. A plane isn't a car, it can't be stopped and parked if the operator gets disoriented.

You're right on about the hobby shops, too. The LHS will carry and cater to what sells in their area. And let's face it, most LHS operators will sell anything to anybody, regardless of their experience level or potential flying site. They have to to survive. But who needs hobby shops? Your local Wal-Mart has plenty of R/C TOYS to sell. Just plug it into your cigarette lighter socket to charge it up on the way to the park. Follow the simple instructions to put it together and you're in the air. It's scary...

Dr.1

MikeL

My Feedback: (3)

In many ways I agree with that, but at the same time I think that the modeling community has looked at the issue of awareness as being someone else's job. It's not reasonable to expect the AMA to do all of the lobbying and education for us. We need to take ownership of our responsibilities--nobody is going to create a positive impression at the local level without local people taking the lead.

I'm very fortunate in that I've got a great flying site in a county park. For many years I took it for granted, never doing more than paying my AMA dues and purchasing the required park permit. Meanwhile, a parks planning process was going on. Like the other people using the field, I was unaware of this. Through no fault of their own the parks department contacted the wrong people for input about the flying field. Because of this we were in danger of losing our flying site.

As a result, several of the guys I fly with have come together to work on getting a dialog going with the parks department. We do the groundwork--creating the relationships, demonstrating why model aviation has a place in our parks system, and trying to balance persistence and not becoming pests. So far, I think we're doing a good job. We've secured the site for at least one more year along with a commitment on the part of the parks' staff to have a flying field as an ongoing part of the services they offer.

The AMA, through Joe Beshar, has been helpful in this. They can't do the work for us, though. We have to work the hobby into the fabric of our communities ourselves. Not all of us have to do that, but at least some of us do. Whether that's working with a parks department to sustain or create a flying field or building community ties to a more traditional club, we have to do those things ourselves. The AMA can certainly support us and act as a conduit for information, but in the end we'll live or die by our own hands.

I feel badly for people who have clubs where politics is an issue. I have to deal with none of that, for which I'm very thankful.

I can see where the AMA could take a more proactive role in providing leadership with regards to education about the hobby. That doesn't, however, change the fundamental problems that we're going to have to grapple with as a hobby. The AMA isn't terribly relevant to many of the people who are a threat to the hobby. To a guy who's plopping down $100 for some RTF POS at a hobby shop the AMA is just one more thing he doesn't need or care about. They've got no influence over him. He's going to do what he's going to do.

One of our problems is that we can't divorce ourselves from him. He's a part of this hobby, and if he does something stupid it will reflect on the hobby. There's little way to keep government regulation out of the hobby when we (as in the formal, established, and ongoing participants) can't exclude or control what happens. Eventually something bad is going to happen.

I think our task at hand is to establish local ties to government and community, so that when something bad does happen we can use those relationships to mitigate the damage to the hobby.

khodges

My Feedback: (1)

He won't just "step in", he'll step ON the hobby and that'll be all she wrote. Somebody here said something about "having no clue". I took it out of context, but it's a sad fact that too many of the newer generation of flyers who tend to "regulate themselves" and do it their own way without any regard for the rights and safety of others truly don't have a clue, and will screw the pooch for all of us.

I tend to agree with Mike L thet the hobby as we know it won't last through my lifetime. I wish there was a way that we, as AMA members and part of the responsible group (not to say that ALL AMA'ers are responsible, sadly enough) could absolve ourselves and distance ourselves from these events as described above, to convince the general public that we do not in the least condone such irresponsible and poorly judgemented occurrences.

JNorton

My Feedback: (2)

MikeL
It's not just this hobby that is suffering from the probability of regulation. In my life time we've went from riding bicycles bareheaded as kids to having my grandkids wearing knee pads, elbow pads and a helmet before they are even allowed on a bike. More regulation is coming because it is what people seem to expect. They want government to "protect" them - witness the silly safety stickers on ladders and the visor of your car. To these people good government is more regulations not less. Now that a generation of people are conditioned to rules our grandfathers would have thought asinine look for more regulations covering everything from how to cook your meat (oops that one's already here) to what type of light bulbs you can have in your home (that one the west coast is trying to pass).
John

Tired Old Man

My Feedback: (1)

I'm one of those "grandfathers" and I cannot for a moment understand why so many willingly accept the amount and types of regulation that we do today. Worse still, the public has asked our government to do it! It's rapidly reaching the point where if anything you want to do or try has not been specifically legislated as permitted it is automatically prohibited until government studies authorize the practice.

khodges

My Feedback: (1)

It's all a part of the "Dumbing Down" of America. Hot coffee warnings at McDonald's drive-thru (well no s**t, Sherlock, it's supposed to be hot), warnings from the news that motorcycle riding is dangerous, knives are sharp, and guns will kill you. How stupid do you have to be to not know this stuff? Yet nobody wants to take the responsibility or be accountable when they make some very basic screw-up, and the government steps in and hamstrings us all with some knee-jerk reactionary regulation to protect the idiots from themselves. Give it enough time, and Darwin will take care of business; just prohibit the thinking-impaired from suing every time they cut, shoot, or burn themselves.

Happy Feet

That incident also took place in Albuquerque. It was also subject of a Seinfeld show.

JNorton

My Feedback: (2)

BINGO! What some people will do instead of admitting blame for their own negligence is to try turn it into a money making opportunity. Hence the proliferation of warnings and laws of ever increasing complexity to the point where there are labels on anything and everything. One of my favorites - "Earplugs - These ear plugs are nontoxic, but may interfere with breathing if caught in windpipe."

I can just see the next one. But your honor, I couldn't read the warning sticker on the propeller. It was turning too fast so the printing was blurred. If I could have read the label I would have kept my hand out of the way! The manufacture is to blame for not making the warning label visible when the product is in use, after all what good is a label if you can't read it?
John

Happy Feet

There could be a totally innocent flipside to this also. How many pakflyer types are out there totally oblivious to "our " system? These are not fools be more than likely just like us but totally unaware of a different or more organized system here.

This kid who hit the building could have been typical radio hit or loss of control as routine as we have all experienced at one time or another. I recall when I started several years ago, i was completelu unaware of the whole process going on right here and i was in the middle of it. never knew about the huge airfield and hundreds of pilots, ama and the whole thing.

I am assuming he was just some college kid relieving the stress of academics and flying his little plane and nailed building. Oops! Being at a designated airfield does not eliminate damage to person or property either. Iwould not be surprised if there is more damaged and destruction don at airfields than out arounf the parks and fields and such.

MikeL

My Feedback: (3)

The whole point, of course, is that he shouldn't have been flying there in the first place. If where you're flying is only safe if your equipment and skills are perfect, then you're flying in a place you should not be.

jettstarblue

I'll just keep it at this- Just because big brother is watching you at a "proper field" doesn't mean you or your equipment is safe or you are a good flyer.

When flying is outlawed, only the outlaws will fly.

P-51B

My Feedback: (5)

I'd say that about nails it.

Pete328

Hello everybody, I have a simple solution to this problem. I don't think it will ever happen, but here it goes. I think that hobby shop owners should have to "card" consumers(just like for cigarrettes or alcohol) for an ama card before they are allowed to buy a nitro or turbine airplane. then also if someone does something stupid like above story insurance should not cover it because they were not a sanctioned flying field. the person that had this unfortunate accident should also be ticketed by the police for doing something stupid.
I would be behind this theroy.