ORIGINAL: TonyF
It is always easy to wave the safety flag over these issues. I prefer to wave the personal responsibility flag. As I said earlier, if we made a "safety" rule every time we saw somebody do something stupid that causes a hazard, when will it stop? As Dick said earlier, we have all seen the dangers that a mid-air can cause. Yet we continue to send two airplanes up in to the same air space at every single contest, even the Nats.
I can see your point Tony. You are right, if we made a rule for everything, just like in full scale aviation, no one would ever leave the ground!! This one is an important one though IMHO.I hate new rules as much as the next guy but when I am potentially the victim, it makes me sit up and think! I think of myself as a a personally responsible individual but I must admit I have left transmitters on, airplanes plugged in and a plethora of other "stupid" mistakes. The older I get, the worse it has become. How may personally responsible individuals have done the same? If they were honest with themselves, probably a lot. We are all human and as so are fallible.As I said before, better to be proactive with this and mitigate the human error factor.
My point is that I would much rather prefer via a flag, canopy off or whatever mechanical method is used to confirm that someone is personally responsible enough to disarm his airplane than to assume it. Big difference between a midair at 150 metersand apotential 12 lb, 3 1/2 HP buzzsaw going wild uncontrolled in the pits. All it takes is a small bump ot the throttle stick. It doesn't even take a full throttle application. If the buzzsaw meets flesh, flesh will lose every time. Do you recall a certainIntermediate pilot at the Arvin contest in 2010 who had a machine in the pits go out of control and hit the snow fence?Just bythe grace of (insert your favorite deity here)it was pointed away from the pits. I have seen other near disasters of the same makeup.
Ihopethat others can see the logic of this proposed rule.
Respectfully
Murray Johnson