ORIGINAL: mdjohnson
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 meters and a potential 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 certain Intermediate pilot at the Arvin contest in 2010 who had a machine in the pits go out of control and hit the snow fence? Just by the grace of (insert your favorite deity here) it was pointed away from the pits. I have seen other near disasters of the same makeup.
I hope that others can see the logic of this proposed rule.
Respectfully
Murray Johnson
Hi Murray,
I think the overall intent of the new rule is to increase the safety margin as you state. However, if they just make the rule state that the motor batteries can't be plugged into the ESC in the pits then the goal will have been achieved. The incident you mentioned (I was also there) had nothing to do with an arming plug/switch/connector. A plane was being readied to fly in the pits. It is a case that I also referred to when I stated earlier that all of the "runaway" incidents I have witnessed would have happened with or without an arming plug. So, if you just make the rule state that the motor batteries can't be plugged into the ESC in the pit area then you will have achieved the result. It doesn't matter how you do it. Even with that safeguard, you can still have "runaway" events due to inadvertent throttle stick bumps etc on the runway. We could make it a rule to include a manual electronic arming control on the transmitter along with throttle cut function. That, to me, would do a lot more to enhance the safety of the operation than just focusing on batteries plugged into the ESC in the pit area. That is what I do and I don't feel safe unless I have the two step override on my transmitter (along with a fail safe setting that disarms my ESC). As a rule, I don't plug my batteries into the ESC in the pit area at a contest. I also don't arm my ESC with my transmitter and I don't disable my throttle cut until the plane is on the runway. I've seen many-a glow pattern plane and IMAC plane go errant while sitting on the runway/taxiway after landing at contests. Mandating a transmitter manually activated motor kill function of some type would have eliminated most of those events.
I agree with Tony on this rule proposal, it seems to be rather hastily put together and it isn't really addressing the issue. I'm one of those that clicked Yes on the proposal before I actually thought about it. I had no way to go in and update my vote and, after all, it was a survey not a formal ballot. Once again, after thinking about this, it doesn't do much to address any overall safety issue. The real issue is that you need to have proper handling procedures at contests and you need to make certain that guys have the necessary failsafe and overrides on their systems. Sticking a plug on your plane doesn't do that.