ALWAYS be respectful of your engine and prop whether it is running or not.

I had a close one at the field today. I was having trouble starting my engine with my starter, so I decided to flip it around to see if it was flooded.

I forgot to remove the nicad.

Fortunately, my engine still did not want to start, and the firing only flipped it around once, which did not break my skin, and I can still count to ten without taking my shoes off.

It's embarrasing, as I have always been _very_ cautious about the running engine, but I want to post this in hope of preventing someone else's tragedy.

Good post Phayd,

Let's not forget that glow fuel engines CAN start even without a battery. Just the simple act of turning a prop can cause it to start, or kick!

Being from the 'old school', I will often "PULL" the engine through the compression cycle until it kicks - then it is ready to start...this is NOT a recommended procedure :-)

Jerry

I've been wondering how bad a prop hit could be. I don't see RC airplane hobbiest with the nickname "9" as much as high school shop teachers; so are there many accidents, how bad is a full prop speed hit?

I saw a helicopter fly for the first time a few weeks ago, I don't think I'll ever be interested in that, primarily due to the size of the prop...

I know a guy who is missing the tip of this thumb from adjusting the needle valve before most of them were "remote". we had a guy lose the tip of an index finger (buy it was sewn back on) with a warm engine and the prop hitting a compression point. I don't know the whole story, but I think he was picking his plane up after a flight and hit the prop. I also saw a guy accidently hit the throttle early when holding a Zagi too close to the prop. That just left a HUGH gash in his finger and a bad scar.

Zee

Props can be very dangerous. I was at the field one day with my brother and he caught his thumb on the prop when the glo starter fell off the plug. It drew blood and quite a bit of it. I think he could have used a stitch or 2 but he refused. (male ego's ) but it did leave a nice gash that took a few weeks to heal.

WF

over the years I've seen the thumb cut to the bone a couple times,have couple of friends with some awsome stiched up hands,one friend has 44 stiches in his arm from large gas engine,so people find it hard to belive ,but the running prop isn't your friend

APC= Another Phinger Cut

A guy at our field needed $20,000 worth of surgery to fix his hand after putting it through a prop mounted to an OS-46FX at full throttle. He is lucky to be able to use his hand at all. BTW, the AMA insurance payed the $10,000 that his health insurance did not pay.

This thread is an excellent reminder. Your engine may even fire if the glow lighter is not on if the engine is already hot enough.

Got 26 stiches across all 4 of my fingers because I turned away when someone called m name and my hand went into the prop. Not a fun experience. Doesn't hurt for about the first 10 minutes then it's all you can do to endur the pain

Think of it this way, the tip is traveling 200-400 mph, take a guess what a piece of plastic/wood at that speed can do! Also, it takes exactly 0.000083 seconds for a prop to find your finger and slice-n-dice it once it is the arc!

(great article, titled "Propeller Tip Speed or Why did that prop rip up my finger so much?")
http://www.lcrc.org/stu22.htm

A few months back...I too had my thumb sliced by a zagi prop at half to full throttle. This is not a fun experience. I was holding the zagi wrong, and the prop went right into my thumb. BTW...I may have made it sound like my thumb was cut off....it wasn't. It is now healed. But the moral is...BE CAREFUL AROUND YOUR ENGINES.

This was only a zagi with an electric on it. It bled for a while, and hurt BADly. I can only imagine what would have happened if this was a powerful airplane.

Patrick

I recently had to get ten stitches across 3 fingers because I reached through to adjust the needle valve not thinking. I've never seen so much blood run out of my body. Props are definitely dangerous.

I have had the honors of getting stitches also. I was cranking up a .60 on my aeromaster when it died when i got to the runway. So I put the nicad back on it and tried to flip it with my hand (just to darn lazy to get elec starter) when it backfired and sliced the tip of my middle finger off to the side.

The best part about it is that I had to pack up and head to the ER to get it stitched. I was in such a hurry to get loaded back up I got some fuel in my newly cut finger. My eyes rolled back into my head as I became weak on my feet.

Ended up getting a ride to ER after that.

Another good point to make here is that this is one of the best arguments against flying ALONE! Driving yourself to the ER whilst bleeding profusely could leave some very persistent stains in your cars interior (both red and brown).