I would like to relate an unfortunate accident I had thursday night. My first in 5 years of flying. I hope this post will save someone else from learning this lesson also. I'll start by saying that I'm self-taught and have been flying for about 5 years. 90% of my planes have been electrics spanning a variety of motor sizes. I always approached my planes with safety first, beit on a field or on the bench. But there's a difference between thinking about it and actually thinking about it. When I was a young paratrooper, by the time I hit the 25th jump mark, I thought I knew all about it. Then I made a rookie mistake and came close to messing myself up bad. I came to the conclusion that I knew just enough to be dangerous. I failed to see a situation unwrapping because of my misplaced confidence. I did not know as much as I wanted to think I did. And thats what happened here. Maybe I'm at that dangerous know-it-all point with RC.

I had made some changes to the electronics on my E-Flite mini-ultra stick. It has a 480 Outrunner, 2100 li-po, APC 10x5 prop. I had everything plugged up and all controls worked fine. But.. I needed to reverse all control surface servos. I started with channel one, reverse, clicked over to channel two, reverse, everything going okay, click over to channel three, reverse, BAMM!!!!!! In the blink of an eye the engine jumped to full throttle, and the plane jumped into my left hand. Immediately lots of blood and fingers going numb. The impact had caused the prop to stop spinning but the motor was still humming as I clamped my right hand to the top of my left to slow the bleeding. A quick trip to the hospital and four hour wait confirmed what I already knew, that being several tendons and vessals were cut. 18 or more stitches. I looked like I had been in a knife fight. Tuesday I got to a hand specialist to schedule tendon/vein re-attachment surgery, to be followed with a bout of physical therapy.

I've replayed the events in my mind a hundred times or more. I know what I did. Normally I work with control surfaces from the side or back. But I was rusty with the servo reverse procedure, so I had the booked opened, radio next to it, and plane facing toward me, as illustrated in the radio manual. The first pic is the 'scene of the crime' as I left it. I located the procedure and start stepping through servos. The throttle was in the down position. So when I hit reverse on channel 3, the throttle, 'stick down' was now 'stick up', hence full throttle. Stupid stupid mistake, and a totally unexpected one which could have been prevented by simply disconnecting an engine lead if I was going to be working in front of the plane. Not to mention why I thought I needed to reverse that channel, instead of just blindly going from one to the other. This kind of mistake just never crossed my mind as one that could happen. but it did.

Some will say I got what I deserved, and while I might debate that, in a way they're right. This split second error in judgement will cost me lost time at work, and a large out-of-pocket medical expense even though I have insurance. Any plane I was remotely thinking of buying is off the table. Heck, it'll be a month before I can even hold a box. I share this as a warning, especially those new to RC and starting with electrics, that dispite the small innocent appearance, brushless motors even in the smaller sizes pack a punch equal to a .10 - .15 gas engine. They are not toys, and can become dangerous in the blink of an eye. I hope this will get some of you to examine your own practices and to conscienely consider safety in all your RC activities. I'm going to be 'off the net' for a while so I'm not going to be able to reply to any questions, etc.. in a timely manner. I'll respond to the thread as soon as I'm able, if necessary. Now get out there and go flying!!!!