ORIGINAL: p51Dpony
Fundamentally we need common sense but even more than that I think anymore someone new to the hobby can have a .40 size plane set up over a wkend or two and then they are operational.. When I started yrs ago I spent the first 10 yrs in the hobby learning procedure and respect with an .049 and plenty of episodes of minor injuries taught those lessons... Nowadays a persons first machine is commonly an os max .46 spinning a 10x6 master airscrew at 13000 rpm - a poor place to learn new procedures. Speaking of master airscrews, I love them in the air but they are a close relative of x-acto blades when it comes to hands and fingers![8D]
I used to figure the 049's were metallic cousins to the Pirahna fish...they sure like to bite and it seems like your hands were always in the prop area.
My first non-049 was a Thunder Tiger .28 (back in 1984, when nobody had heard of TT), and I used to get whacked a lot at first. I've always been meticulous about dulling sharp prop edges, both front and back. A backfire will cut you as sure as a regular strike when the back end of the prop is sharp. I DON'T like the APC props, and I'm not talking about performance. Their performance is fine. Those props are like razor blades, and there is no performance level worth putting a meat slicer on the front of your model.
I'm a big fan of wooden props.
~ Jim ~