PT21Flyer

My Feedback: (1)

When I was a young boy flying ukies, I reached through a spinning prop on a Fox .35 Combat Special that was wide open. It cut the finger pretty bad and broke one of those old yellow nylon props. No permanent damage. I started propping full scale when I was 16 or 17. Before my Dad would let me I got this advise, " Always treat the prop as if the engine is going to start." That rule has saved me more than once and I also practice it in modeling. He also told me if I ever got hit by the prop on one of his planes, He would get out of the plane and burn it. That also kept me very careful. I was pulling the prop through to prime his Parks P-2A with a 175 h.p. Wright 5 cylinder radial one day and on the fourth blade it started. We found out one of the p-leads that grounds the magneto had broken off which made the mag hot all the time. Anyway, everyone should always be extremely careful around any propellor at all times.

Jerry

digger.10

...that one oughta come with every propeller sold!

My badges of honor come mostly from my early experiences with the Cox .049 spring starter (ouch-ouch-ouch!!!).

Thanks for this thread, as said already a good heads up, can never be too careful, especially with the engine STOPPED, the only mischief I have caused myself recently was on the back of a stopped APC trailing edge a few months ago, just giving 'er a flip, no fuel or plug heat, next thing I knew there was blood all over the place. Now I wear a glove when installing a nylon/glass prop or messing with it at all. And definitely an electric starter--it's hard on the engine but not as hard as learning to fly with my toes...

planecrazy101

Here's one I learned early on: ALWAYS check your prop after a crash. I was doing more crashing than flying (self taught), and one day after an unsuccessful takeoff, I went and got the plane, looked it over, and started the engine to try again. Well, as I ran the engine up, it started vibrating. Before I could shut it down, one blade broke free from the wood prop, and smacked me on my inner thigh. It left a very black whelt on my leg. Just imagine what else that sharp blade could have done. THANK YOU GOD.

CHassan

My Feedback: (13)

Only took me once after about 6 years of flying it finally bit me. Now everytime I look at my Two fingernails on my right pinky, I remember not to do it.

RobertC

My Feedback: (157)

And Rich's Y.S. was running a Graupner... just imagine what an APC would have done...

P.S. When I saw Richard's cut on Saturday he said that he wouldn't be able to fly for *at least* a few weeks while his finger was healing... Guess who was at the field on Sunday

Traxxas_Tech

My Feedback: (22)

I've been told for years to respect the prop, So this summer right before dark, I decided to save time and just tune the low end on my 46FX with the engine running... Dumbest thing I've done. The new, ultra thin 12.25x3.75 APC turns invisible, and I run the end of my index finger through it.

Went through 4 times, looked like a neatly sliced up summer sausage. The peices were held on by the skin on the other side; Took twelve stiches and an aluminum fingernail.

I'm freakin' scared of those things now... Be careful!

jettstarblue

I'll admit to having been bitten by a few props. Here are a few "tips"-
If you MUST use MA black plastic-before you balance them use some 240 sandpaper, and take the molding flash off of them! I have been cut worse by this than ANY prop strike!
If you use plastic props-use APC!
Use wooden props whenever you can, they break away, not hack away! I know everyone has there favorite prop-Mine are JOZ Zingers-pretty balanced from the get go, and MADE OF WOOD!
The airfield we fly our ultralights at has the ULTIMATE reminder in prop safety-a 2 foot chunk of a METAL PROP FROM A FULL SIZED PLANE THAT BROKE AND FLEW 20 FEET INTO A SASSAFRASS TREE! the tree has grown around it in the past few years, something a human would not be able to do!
Oh yeah you can learn a lot by watching someone hand prop an ultralight, or full sized plane-you rarely get a second chance if you screw this up!

Jetts

stomper

My Feedback: (20)

I always use a chickin stick on the smaller engines and gloves on the larger engines! The gloves I use are made out of Kevlar and are made by North Glove Co. They all so make a Kevlar sleeve that I have sewn together to the glove. They won't keep you from getting broken bones but they will protect your skin from cuts. Those spinning props are scary, and man I can't look at that picture on post # 25!!

Happy Thanksgiving to you all

Doug

Hooked-On-RC

My Feedback: (16)

Gents (and ladies for that matter)
A guy at my club gave me a real simple suggestion when it comes to worrying about your hands around a propeller.

You see I fly big gassers 80cc and up and when one those kicks over and hits you in the hand it means broken bones, missing fingers and whatever else you can imagine.

So the solution is, go to a local flea market, swap meet, thrift store or some place that sells used sporting equipment and find yourself an old pair of hockey gloves. If you get a pair you can use either use the right or left hand glove, depending on your preference. Not only does it provide you with leather palms so the shaper prop edges do not cut your fingers, it also provides you with a large amount of padding around your fingers, hands and your wrists. Now if the prop kicks back, it will just knock your hand out of the way with little to no problem. Once the engine starts I just remove the glove and flip it on the ground and go fly. Then recover my glove after my flights.

I got nailed once wearing my hockey glove on a ZDZ80 at idle and although I felt it I did not break or cut anything and the prop hit me right across the back of the hand.

THIS IS NOT A SUBSTITUTE TO PROP AWARENESS AND SAFETY, just an alternative protection method.

Mendes

My Feedback: (1)

Props are definately scary. A fellow in my club had an accident last summer, got a 4" cut half way up his forearm. The one good thing that came out of this incident is that it woke up the members of our club to get an emergency procedure in place, and it changed our pit area rules.

I convinced myself to buy a Megatron starter now that I am getting into the really big engines. I am sure that I won't regret this purchase, as much as I would have liked to spend the cash on servos or something else instead.

robert

I touched the back of the prop twice when adjusting the needle, and almost loose my balance. That was on an old TT GP42, so there was really know damage, as it was where the two bones in your finger meet. All my engines nowadays have their needles back.

Billy Hell

My Feedback: (2)

We had an experienced flyer reach through his 90 sized 2 stroke. He hit a main artery and cut his muscle in two. He was a Dr. and thought he had it under control. One of the guys realized he was in shock and took over. It was an odd scene, the Doc was pumping blood like a fountain saying everything was under control and all the guys sort of looking around. Then everyone realized what had a happened and everyone jumped into action. He had surgery that night and I saw him flying 2 days later.

rajul

My Feedback: (58)

I thought that this was very interesting because we have a doctor in our field doing EXACTLY the same thing. He also flies behind the pit ! No offense intended to medics out there but in the specific case of these two doctors, "leading by example" should be the order of the day...........

OnTheEdge

While on the subject of prop safety, we also need to be aware of our neck straps. I just recently started using a neck strap on my transmitter. Everytime I start my planes (Tx on the ground) I always sling the neck strap around the back of my neck. I'd hate to see what would happen as someone leans too close to a spinning prop and it grabs the end of the neck strap.

Also, those of you who leave the neck strap attached to the radio and then loop it over your head, cap and sunglasses, be very careful not to hit the throttle stick (saw this happen once but fortunately someone was holding the plane at the time).

Good thread...should be required reading for all newbies (as well as an 8 x 10 glossy of the photo on #25 )

.........Mark

Rcpilot

My Feedback: (78)

I got hit by the back of an APC 12.25X3.75 once. I was tuning an MDS at full throttle. The needle is VERY close to the prop on this little engine.

I got hit on my knuckle. It took a chunk of skin off my knuckle about the size of a quarter. I was out of commission for about 3 weeks. I thought I broke my knuckle. It hurt BAD !!!

I always use a chicken stick.

I see guys reaching over their props to remove the glow ignighter all the time. I wait untill they are done flying, and then I let 'em have it.

I have been an instructor at our club. One year we took frozen carrots and frozen hotdogs and put them in the spinning props to demonstrate to the students. I had on a lot of leather clothing and several leather gloves. We had on safety goggles and face shields. We looked like one of them guys that the police dogs train on. All bundled up like the "Pilsbury Dough Boy".

You should have seen the looks on some of them students faces when a frozen hot dog hits an APC 12-6 at 12,000RPM. The OS61FX hardly even burped when we put a carrot in the prop. An OS46FX with a Master Airscrew 11-7 broke and sent the prop flying. The engine went nuts and blew up from excessive RPM with only about 3" of prop on each side. It took less than 2 seconds to blow the engine. We broke a few props and a lot of carrots and hotdogs. Noone was injured, but a few guys had to clean their underwear out after witnessing the events.

All in all, the students that year experienced quite a show and learned to have a healthy respect for the "Samuri Swords".

I think we got our point across to those students.

Dago Red

My Feedback: (11)

I start all engines by a eletric starter. The main plane I fly,my agwagon has a .70 4 stroke with a 4 blade prop on it---I think I'll stay away from that prop. I use a geared starter made by ????. It can start a ST 2000 or was it a 2500--same differ.

bear750

My Feedback: (30)

No finger problems, but have had 6 stitches in the left knuckle as a result of tuning a Thunder Tiger GP .07 (3 stitches twice).

I understand how a 3 horsepower engine swinging a 16" prop can mangle the fingers, but don't forget about a 7" nylon prop spinning at 15000 rpms. I always wear leather gloves around those little engines, and never start anything with bare hands.

CP140

Thanks for the photo of your finger.... I've saved it and intend to print a few life size copies on nice glossy paper to take to the next club meeting... maybe the club safety officer can hand them out to every "newbie" and "hand starter"!