Yetti,

Another thing to consider when flying alone is what happens if you have an accident - not to the plane, but to you?

We have had at least two cases at our field that went along the following line. A pilot starting up his engine, plane not restrained properly. Moving electric starter out of the way, hooked cord over throttle stick on transmitter. His hand and arm came in contact with prop (read that meat saw).

Now you have a pilot with one fingertip cut 3/4 through and another finger cut 1/2 through. He went into shock. If someone hadn't been there to drive him to the ER he would have bled to death.

A similar incident happened about 6 months after this that also needed a trip to the ER.

Then about 2 years ago while a friend was holding down a plane of mine, I tweaked the needle valve on a little sport .15 and managed to brush my thumb into the prop arc. Nothing serious, but when I got it cleaned up a bit, there were 10 slices in the tip of the thumb and a good chunk of fingernail missing. Nothing that a few bandaids couldn't fixup.

Hate to be grisly about it, but things like this do happen. And the results can be grim.