nyflyer56

That starter is a nice setup. I have seen simlar setups very popular with the high perf. free flight guys.

DinkusMalone

This is a very sobering group of incidents, for sure!!! I've been nipped before and it scared the duece out of me. I was about 15, hand starting a SuperTiger .45 in mid January, about 25 deg F out side...no gloves. Back fire and the Master Airscrew glass reinforced nylon prop whacks me on the finger. [:@] Cold weather prop hits HURT!!!. Well, the mold line on the prop is really sharp and cut me pretty good. The bleeding stopped eventually and I went to try it again.

Being 15 and knowing everything, I got it started (from the front [:-],) and promptly reached NOT OVER OR AROUND the prop, but DIRECTLY THROUGH IT. I have no idea how I escaped with no more than really sore fingers and a bruised ego. I guess because it was at idle and running poorly. The gods were looking over me, for sure.

Now, every prop I use whether gas or electric gets the flashing lightly sanded off and I paint the tips yellow or white. I'll take whatever performance hit in exchange for an extra bit of safety. It may not prevent a complete mental meltdown or straight ignorance, but it sure lets me know where the edge of the prop is. Plus I think it just looks pretty cool on a flyby when the sun hits it just right.[8D]

Dex

barry1234

All I know with my recent introduction to electrics is to really treat them like they can always come to life if the battery is connected. Because they can. The misconception is you have to do something to cause activation of the motor. In my opinion this is not so. Or a person not understanding a complex cause for turn on once may be one too many times. .
Myself and a nine year old for example were looking at the motor waveforms the other evening with a scope. The motor unexpectably activated once. We had removed the prop for safety anyways. I am still not quite sure of the reason it activated. Yet it self activated. And yes those thin plastic props are like knives.
I have been seriously considering installing a removable spade car fuse in one of the motor feeds. Just insert it prior to actual flight and remove it when you recover the plane. Mounted of course on the outside of the fuselage for practability. Not a new ideal yet quite sensible I believe with little downside if any. Perhaps just a lot of upside.
If I can make a habit of using it and not lapse it should improve safety somewhat. I am going to do something. Otherwise I am forced to always consider the engine coming to life unexpectantly. That makes me uncomforatable and a hobby is supposed to be enjoyable. Remember it only takes once to really get you.
Some of those hand injuries posted were pretty bad. I also know from other experiences how long it takes for something like that to normalise again if it ever does. Plus the increased risk of the old injury flairing up in some fashion as you age. I can only wish those injured the best.
I have for some reason always considered modern electrics far more dangerous in general than nitro. Might be the length of time I worked in the electronics industry but I really do not know why I feel that way. Perhaps it's just the greater potential unknowns. I am aware nitros have hurt a lot of people as well. Generally more self inflicted though. Or the sequence of events clearer and more understandable.
I just feel the odds of injury with present practice are far greater with electrics. It may be as simple a reason as the nitro engine will not self start or I have never heard of or experienced this anyways.
Another hazzard that justifies a real personal safety drive is the electrics getting better and better. We are going to experience more prop failures as rpms pick up. It would already be prudent to watch you are not in the travel path of a potential blade shearing event. There were some very serious issues with this occurance on nitro engines.
Here we are now starting to reallly turn up thinner cross sectional blades with electric. There is always risk in life I fully realise unless you do nothing. Without some real safety systems on these motors the risk is higher than I like to see.
I did not read every post on this thread but felt I wanted to throw my two cents in. I am used to calculated risk as well. The electric motor odds are too close to the edge for me without real precautions.
I was never this concerned with nitro engines and props. A healthy respect was enough as I used them on and off for 50 years. If this post results in even one less injury it is worthwhile in my mind. Consider the external fuse approach guys. I for one think it has merit. Also if you crash and somehow stall the motor the fuse will blow perhaps saving something on board frying as well. Sorry to be so long winded yet this area even if just in my mind deserves some serious consideraton. I am also pretty new here on site.

Valve floater

Can you use regular super glue to put in a cut. Is there a medical kind. Man,that must sting like mad. Like when thin CA cures it smokes. Wow, i don`t want to think about that. Acclerator anyone?[X(]
Seriously, can you use a non medical type safely?

nyflyer56

There is a medical grade CA, but regular will work. just pinch the wound together and apply a bit to the skin. It will stick it together. You don't want to squirt it into a deep wound, just use at the surface. My friend cut the heel of his hand badly with a chisel when working on one of our construction projects, and stuck it together like this. Stopped the bleeding, and held together and healed nicely.

Fredsterman

We use regular CA, in rubber extrusion, to close the small paper cuts we get on our hands from spinning cardboard reels.
It does sting, but it closes the wound better than the old standby, duct tape

philsmein

I AM NEVER STARTING MY PLANES BY HAND AGAIN AFTER READING THIS THREAD> I Have been hit a couple times with wooden props and suffered a couple decent hits. NOTHING like i have seen or read in here. I hope you recover well and thanks for taking the time to post your replies. This should be the first page when entering RCU. All of those blind newbies entering the hobby have no clue what an airplane can do to you. Shoot I have been flying since I was 12 and have almost 15 years of piloting under my belt and wish I would have seen this thread then. I really didnt think a prop could mess your hand up that bad.

Bigshades

some people dont understand the dangers with these fast moving props, and i'm glad this thread will show the groteque side of the hobby, when it goes bad.

another thing that should be mentioned is cracked propellors. they arent too friendly either.

i was tuning a .46 with a cracked wooden prop. it was damaged from a deadstick landing, but i did not see anything wrong, it blended in with the grain (wooden prop). anyway, i was tuning to get in the air again. i go full throttle to tune by ear. BOOM!!! i closed my eyes from the loud bang, open them, and see the front of the fusalage in pieces. the firewall ripped out, linkages pulled, engine on the ground. half of the propelor was still on, th other half went into the ground! it was just sticking out of the ground, like if you dropped a knife , blade first.

i couldnt help but think of what would have happened if it went in my face, leg, or in a bystanders eye. it horrified me as to what could have happened. and the plane is too damaged to practically repair. at least no one was hurt.

if you land hard or funny, PLEASE inspect your prop. thats all i can say. i just keep an extra prop or two handy, if i ever get any doubt, i replace. its that simple.

Radical Departure

My Feedback: (13)

Hello Fliers,
Well, its been over a year since my last entry after starting this thread. My hand has for the most part healed. I say for the most. While I haven't encountered a task I can't perform with it, and from all outward appearances it looks normal, the muscles are still 'tight' and has areas of numbness. I find myself constantly flexing my fingers trying to keep them limbered up. I would also like to thank the many folks that contributed to this thread, hopefully it saved or will save someone from having an accident. Nowadays I'm flying 30% gas planes. Was really nervous starting prop first few times, as you flip the prop with the right hand. Since I've already gimped the left one... but its actually safer than I first thought, but my caution has not waned. Anyway, just wanted to touch base and let those of you reading this know I'm still out there flying! Be safe and fly it like you mean it!

Mr67Stang

Hello Radical Departure, It's good to hear from you. This is one of the most usefull threads on RCU in my opinion. Not nearly as bad as your accedent I have a post and picture in here of mine. Do to my experience I start my gasser (little 35cc) with a chicken stick

ernbar

Sorry to hear about your injury. It seems that no matter how careful one can be, an accident can happen. I have gotten bitten 3 times, once by a 25 glow, once by a 40 glow and once by a big 120 4-stroker. The last one was the more serious requiring 4 stitches on one finger and 5 on another. Now its chicken stick all the way and an extra pair of eyes and extra careful when handling engines.

jbess

O.S. 70 Surpass, 12x7 APC prop. 4th of July morning. Engine on teststand. Surgery for severd tendon, 40+ stitches, 6 weeks of thereapy.

SoCalSal

My Feedback: (16)

Hi...don't feel that anybody is saying you deserved what happened to you. It was an accident.plain and simple.
I hope you re-cover soon and fulley.
Last year I too had a run in with a prop. It does not matter what type of engine was spinning it the fact is I got hit by a very large prop and it was my fault. Why??? you might ask..I had a brain fart and forgot a simple thing.

My injury was a near severed right arm and near loss of life due to blood loss. I was in surgury for over 5 hours and had over 5 pints of blood replaced. Today thanks to a good surgon my right arm is still on my right side. I have a very nasty scar on my lower arm and only about 90% use of my right hand. I also have a scar on my left arm as somehow during this nightmare the prop hit my left arm as well. But it was just a deep cut and 65 stitches closed it up just fine.
Also some scars on my left knee????????? his left knee you ask??????? yes my left knee. You see I was on my knees while trying to start the engine. When it started and I got hit I also was trying to get the hell out of the way at the same instant. This caused me to scrap a large area of my left knee down a few layers of skin.
To top it off my portion of the repair bill was over $51,000.

So please becarful with these toys...they can make us so very happy as well as so very sad.
I thank God my son was near when I got hit.Had he not been there I would have died due to loss of blood. My son is an electrician and his union requires him to be EMT certified. If he had not known how to stop the bleeding due to a cut artery I would not be typing this today.

HEY PEOPLE !!!!! USE CAUTION AND BE AWARE......... then have your fun.

dsales

I was going to start flying RC airplanes after driving Nitro and gas RC cars for 5 years but this is making me regret it. I think i'll stick to RC Cars for a while

Valve floater

You can`t worry about it. Knock on wood. For 10yrs i have been lucky. This sport to me is the greatest hobby. I get to bored with running RC car around the yard.

Radical Departure

My Feedback: (13)

You can't think like that. What this thread DOESN'T show, are the thousands of folks that actively participate in the hobby without injury. Some of us made mistakes, and by understanding how these mistakes were made, one might save themselves an injury. Take the information presented here and use it to make yourself a better and safer pilot.

Adui

DITTO!!

This thread wasnt started to scare people away from the sport. Rather to teach us all how NOT to get hurt. Dont let it scare you off, just learn th proper safety procedures and FOLLOW them.

I liken this thread to one on the dangers of firearms misuse. They CAN be deadly, so can our airplanes. However like firearms, if you follow all the safely procedures when flying you will have a safe, and VERY enjoyable time, and will grow to love this hobby, (airplanes that is) so very much. I promise.

(FYI Im a car guy convert too, had just started in cars with a MegaTech Gladiator when I bought my plane. Sold the car an never looked back!)

tmproff

My Feedback: (5)

Just last month, I was putting a new ESC on a night flying slowstick. We are talking about an 8 amp esc and a CD-ROM motor with a SLOWFLY prop! I had the plane on a little card table adding in a few little last minute adjustments, and programming the ESC. All of a sudden it decided to go full throttle. I reached out my hand to grab the wing, and it caught 2 of my fingers. My index finger got the worst.....the tip of my finger was about half way cut through and 2 other pretty deep cuts. If it wasn't for the finger tip, I'd have just bandaged it up real tight and kept it clean. Anyways...I had to drive to the emergency room at 9:30 PM and got 13 stiches. I have 40 cc gas engines that I've been hit with and it did less damage!!!

These little electric planes are so innocent looking......The tip of my index finger is still numb....

jollyroger

My Feedback: (6)

Just ayear into R/C and I'm out in the middle of the lake with a .46 powered airboat. Now I'm in a rowboat with my cousin(Physician) and I start this engine up.... oh yes, let me regress alittle ....I'm using a two stick surface radio and never removed the spring from the throttle which keeps it a midpoint for cars, the engine is now "idling at mid throttle with a 9X6 prop and for some reason I put my hand into the arc.
I felt several tugs and look down to see blood splashed from gunwale to gunwale, on my shoes, pants... it looked like amad slasher movie.
I realised I had been bit and the prop struck me across the top of several fingers on my right hand which more or less sliced the skin back, but it also cut my thumb deeply as well. Now one could say I was fortunate this occurred on the tops of my fingers and not the underside as it would very well have caused considerable damage. The ER visit included 13 stitches, a script for Vicodin and a smack of reality in the kisser. I consider myself to have learned another hard lesson. I also removed the throttle spring and adjusted stick to respond in a normal manner.
I told of an incident involving a ducted fan jet: With the engine running at a high level of RPM's the operator attempted to adjust the mixture when the little screwdriver slipped and his fingers went into the fan/ now food processor. The processed fingers were then ejected from the rear of the plane in a somewhat grisly manner.
A friend of mine was testing as .75 2 stroke when the prop let go and he felt one of the blades through his hair! The prop had a nearly invisible crack in it and it nearly struck him down.
Accidents such as these are sometimes real "accidents" unfortunately most are caused by inattentiveness and sometimes lack of respect for these little potential meat cutters. Noone though deserves to suffer the pain, injury and medical costs and sometimes even psychological damage (mostly ego) as well as the time spent going through therapy and loss of income.
Let's all try to practice good safety methods and teach the newbies to the hobby to be safe.
This is a great hobby, I hate to see it spoiled sometimes by carelessness.

SoCalSal

My Feedback: (16)

Hey Mister...cheer up you are not nor will you be the last person to get bit by a prop. About a year ago I had a brain fart while working on my model. When I went to start it.....surprise...........I got bit in both arms by a 32 inch prop spinning about 3500 rpm. I know your pain belive me. But don't ever think you deserved this. It is just proof that sh%t happens and at some point to all of us. It took me 5.5 hours of surgury and almost 6 pints of blood to "fix" me. I'm lucky to even have a right arm at all. My hand is still only about 85% and from what the doctors say that may be as good as it gets. I still see some dried up flesh and blood on and about my shop, my arm is deformed forever. But I am happy to be able to tell everyone I can that they need to always make safety the very first thing on their mind when playing with our toys.

Thanks for sharing your accident with us. It may be another reminder to all that this stuff can and will happen.

Best of wishes and I know you will be a better pilot because you have been bitten!!!

Flight Risk

My Feedback: (1)

Don't look if you don't like graphic images.

I had just cleaned and reasembled an OS FS .61 and put it on the bench to test.
It ran for about a minute then started to fizzle a bit. I noticed one screw holding on the intake had just fallen on the bench. I reached to grab it before it was lost in the grass. Yes, it is still in the grass. I didn't want to see a doctor but my wife insisted. I should have tried the CA fix, but maybe not. Nine total stitches and a funky thumbnail.

RS

Valve floater

Ok that`s it! I am selling all my planes and going to RC cars!!!
Man that looks painfull!! I mean that looks bad!

crossman

The point of this thread is NOT to scare anyone away from the hobby that we enjoy. It is only to remind us that our propellers need to be respected and we cannot lose our focus around a running airplane ( or an electric if the motor is armed.)

And, Flight Risk, that's one of the reasons that married men live longer than single ones. We have someone to send our A**es to the ER once in awhile.

SoCalSal

My Feedback: (16)

O.K. now that it is show and tell time...here is my contributaion to the "I got hit" section.

This nearly severed my arm, and if it weren't for fact that my son was near me to stop the bleeding I word have bleed to death right on the spot. 5 hours of surgury and 5 pints of blood and I'm ready to fight with the prop again.
WARNING DON"T TRY THIS AT HOME


Right arm in fight with a 32x12 prop on a RCS215

Not watching stick on transmitter after being distracted for a minute. Flipped prop to start and throttle was set for about 3000 RPM, Plane jumped chocks and I was on my knees in front of it as it came at me. Tried to reach around prop arc to get my hand on a wing but my arms were a bit too short . the photo explains the rest.

qldviking

My ex would have called for a preacher to give me the last rites