ORIGINAL: Nathan King
I always poke fun at my flying buddy Ed because he uses Supertigre engines (which are good engines by the way). For example, he was once having engine trouble and asked me to double check everything. I said, "Oh, I see your problem here. You're running a Supertigre engine....Thow in an OS and you'll be up and running." It's sort of a spoof on the masses of people that seem to have an unfounded viceral hate for them. Anyway, I'm just waiting for him to sign on and post something like, "see, a Supertigre engine wouldn't have done this!"
My whole problem is I have yet to find a brand of glow engine that I don't like...
The really silly part of Nathan's mishap is that he has a nice, heavy starting glove that he always has with him. I can only guess as to whether it was sitting right there in his flight box or if he just didn't want to walk 25 feet to his car to go grab it!
Nathan is a classically trained pianist as well as a budding pattern pilot, so you'd think he'd be smarter about protecting his fingers. He even enjoys sewing doyllies on which to park his hangar queens so the ground can't get the wheels dusty while he's busy not flying them.
(See, I can publicly antagonize you without resorting to snubbing your favorite brands of engines, Nathan!)
He was back out flying again tonight, so as much as it smarted, at least it's not keeping him grounded.
Really simple rule. Never, never, never touch a propeller while a glow ignitor is attached to your engine. This still leaves you vulnerable to getting injured by electrics, diesel engines, 4-strokes, and gas engines, but it's a start.
We have a Senior Dental School student who just solo'd last fall in our club that I've been trying to convince of this rule for almost a year now. I mostly use my hands for typing RCU forum replies or eating bone-in pork chops when I'm not using them for flying, so a few stitches wouldn't be a big deal for me. For folks who need their hands to make a living, they really ought to exercise good common sense.
Glad to see you're not grounded because of a momentary lapse of judgement, Nathan! I have little doubt that you will walk away from your mishap wiser from the experience.