Wow! I thought I was careful around working rc engines. It doesn't take much time or inattention to ruin your day. I was going to start up and start breaking in a new TT .40 Pro. What I had wrong was the wrong throttle control on the trottle lever - a braided wire without the tube to keep it taut. As soon as it fired up, the prop blast caused the throttle to open up fully. Rather than pull the fuel tube to shut down the engine, I tried to shut the throttle down a little with the braided wire - no help. So I tried to pull the throttle lever back a little with my index finger an got my hand a little to close to the propellor arc and got a little nip on the right index finger. It only took a little while to clean off the picnic table one handed, and go to the local immediate care center. 1 1/2 hours later I had a nice new bandage and 20+ stitches in my right index finger. Next time I get my test stand out, I will have a proper throttle control rod ready for my new engine. Newbies - please take care when you start those finger eaters up.

Yeah I had that happen to--I kinda like the scar you know-war wounds!!!

More like "Stupid Marks". I have some.

Particularly when it's a big 4 stroke! I remember what I was thinking when I had my new YS.91 (the largest and most powerful engine I had ever owned at the time) mounted to a piece of wood and clamped in my work-stand........"Man, that prop sure looks a whole lot more scary now!" I made sure I stayed *way* out of the way of the prop on that thing when I did the test runs!! I've got some photos of the dodgy 'test rig' arrangement I made on my site somewhere......basically, a piece of wood (with a slot cut in the end), some rubber bands to told the tank down and a length of piano wire for throttle control

I saw the prop spin off a trainer on startup at the field Saturday.. pieces went flying and the nut put a hole in the fuselage of another trainer parked nearby... but he got the nut back ..

It looks to me like you can never be too careful around these things.. anything that turns up to 12,000 rpm can put a lot of damage out....

Keeping a hand towel around a running engine is very handy and a great way to stop a run away motor by throwing the towel into the prop. Lot of oldtimers use this method to kill their idling engines.

Muffinman: I know exactly what you mean. About 30 years ago (rats now I am dating myself) I built a CL plane. A friend an mine were breaking in the engine. Now I know this is going to sound real stuipid, but remember we were young, and immortal. After we got the engine started he held it right in front of his face with his two hands on the LE's of the wings. Not done with stupidity yet. I was standing to his right and thought I saw the plane start to slip out of his hands. I took my left hand and made absolutely sure I did not hit the prop as I also put my hand on the wing with his left hand. Now another stupid thing, I did not pay attention to my right hand and I put it right into the prop. Luckily it was wood and the engine was one of those RED top engines. (MAC 40 or something like that) Running full speed since CL was only one speed at that time. I now have the scars from 19 stitches on the first finger of my right hand. This stupid incident kept me from getting back into R/C flying until a year ago.

Murphy's law is not theory, it is fact!

Last year my brain froze as I put my hand into my running Super Tiger .51 while reaching to get the Glow igniter off. I had to go immediately to the Urgent Care for several stiches. Not exactly sure how many, but I do have a nice scar for a trophy. I've been at it 15 years and have always been careful; all it takes is one brain freeze and off to the hospital you go.

Doug

I have started placing a wrap around very thin piece of flourescent orange sign vinyl on the tips of my props. It is VERY obvious where the tips are when running.

Where do you get that sign vinyl at?
Thats a good idea

A little white paint on the tips works better. It's also a good way to balance the prop, just use a tad more on the light end.

I just used the same dumb setup yesterday...in a hurry you know... .

I haven't been bit yet, but my time is probably near...especially using this method :stupid: .

Bob

Yes, Paint is better! The Vinyl can fly off!

A few notes about the aforementioned towel:

1. Keep it away from the prop! They can get sucked in!
2. Only use this as an engine shutoff in an EMERGENCY situation!

Muffinman,

The easiest way to safely shut off on engine that isn't cowled is to block the exhaust.

John

I agree about the comments on painting the tips. However, stupidity or brain freezes know nothing about paint. In my case the whole prop could have been orange, white or any other color. I just wasn't paying attention to anything but my left hand. I consider myself one lucky person.

Although I did have some funny moments. One cut was right accross the underside of my first finger under the knuckle. In those days, I wore only winding watches (yes you can make me feel old if you want) and I had no feeling in the side and tip of my finger that you use to wind it. I sure was great when they came out with the windless watches and even greater still when battery powered ones were avialable. I reality most of the neat stuff we have now hasn't been around all that long.

Hey Guys, thanks for all of you replies. My main object in this post was to say to newbies to be sure to get all your ducks in a row before starting to begin starting these little finger eating monsters. But I realize that all sorts of brain farts and freezes happen. This was my first time out this season for playing with my stuff this year, and got a little ahead of myself. From now on, I will take my time getting started and be sure I am ready to start with all the stuff connected correctly before I stick that Glow Starter on that thing. (And I will paint tips on all of my black Master Airscrew Propellors)

In the past year I have been part of two accidents, both involving high rpm prop seperations. The firs was with an MVVS 40 and wood prop. At appx 15,000 the prop gave up and went in several diffrent directions, very fast. The second was a friends Rossi 60, It came up on the pipe, burped for some reason, threw the prop and spinner shattering the APC prop on the table part ,of which bounced back up cutting the back of his hand and a large welt. We now stand to the back of our planes to adjust high end, much safer.

I think everyone's probably had some sort of scary moment (or actual injury) while working around running props. My only injury ever was sustained by reaching through the edge of the prop disc of an idling Magnum .40GP.

I was crouching in front of the plane and had just started the engine. The glow clip was slowly working it's way around to the front, thanks to engine vibes. So, without engaging my brain properly, I thought to myself "I'll just grab that before the wires get into the prop......"

Next thing I knew, the engine had stopped, there was blood sprayed everywhere and I had a couple of decent lacerations on the meaty part of my hand, just below my right thumb. Too messy to stitch 'cause the prop hit several times and tore the area up nicely, so they put a couple of those suture (sp?) strips on and bandaged me up.

I've got a funny, crescent shaped scar to show for it, but thankfully that's all

I've never drawn blood on myself with a prop. I've gotten thapped a few times when doing the needle valve behind the prop, and if it had been a pusher it would have hurt a lot more.

Bagles, on the other hand, well, that's for another day

I never ever try to adjust the needle from in front, I always walk around. I usually leave the glow starter on and do that from behind too, but I do something take it off from the front.

I have, however, done my fair share of stupid things around engines. I once taxied back from a landing and ran in to my field box. I had props bolted to the outside of the box. Yep, you guessed it, broke 3 props with one stupid. (Yes, club rules do prohibit taxing back to your box, there were only two of us at the field, and there was lots of room, and I was feeling lazy. It was still stupid, and I don't do that anymore).

I did something simmilar, stuck my hand straight into a ST .45 Luckily it was at idle and luckily I wnet right up to the spinner. It knocked my hand out and kept right on running. My pinky nail still grows with a split right down the middle. Last time I did that. Now I reach way up and around that sucker, most times I just wait nutill I get behind the plane to run it up. Then I don't have as much to worry about.

Engine---3W 75

Prop -----24-10

While starting (flipping the prop) with my bare hand today, I got careless and didn't move my hand quickly enough, and my two middle fingers caught the prop. Luckily my hand was already moving in the same direction as the prop and the damage wasn't too severe. No blood but extreme pain for about 2 hours. I will probably lose 2 fingernails because they have already turned partially black. Needless to say, next time I will either wear gloves or use something else to start it with.

Greg

I took off my bandage off tonight, along with the splint. The nurse said to take the bandage off and let it breathe a little and not disturb the stitches. Actually, it doesn't look that bad. 10 outside stitches A new bandage will go back on before I go to bed tonight with some neosporin, and a pill. I guess it could have been worse. I have the use of all my fingers on my right hand now, so I can type okay. I have a piece of music wire I will out a z bend in so I can use it to control the throttle. I'll try to stay out of the arc of the prop from now on.

Ouchie that must of hurt.

Well I've been smart so far... The only time i did something simular, I decided to pinch off the fuel till it died... it was safer