Hey,

A buddy I met at the flying field just called to say hello and mentioned that he was off from work on sick-leave. When I asked why, he told me that his EDF unit blew up and did this to his eye. I don't know why he had it out of the airplane on a bench, but when he did, he wasn't wearing adequate eye protection when he ran it up.

It's funny, I kick my kids out of the shop when I'm dremeling, but I sometimes get complacent and squint instead of putting on my eye protection. Not anymore! This fellow had to have a few operations to save his vision, and it's still not 100%. Sad reminder...

Wow can his eye be saved ??

Hi,

Yeah, he's already had three or four surgeries. He was telling me all about it, but I had to take a phantom phone call cuz I just couldn't listen anymore. Apparently, he can see out of that eye again, and it's supposed to keep healing until it's just this side of normal.

Hope he gets better....and the rest of us heed the need....

Although this was a EDF......your turbine will most likely spit something
out the front end...... before it spits whats left out the back end.

http://www.harborfreight.com/catalog...eye+protection

wow, a sobering reminder to be careful. I find with mine that as long as I continue to keep them clean I just leave them on while I'm building, then I don't need to remember to put them on when needed.

The other site says it punctured his eye thru his safety glasses...

Hi,

Perhaps I misunderstood him, then. I didn't realize this was already discussed or that I was writing anything that contradicted what was told, written or said elsewhere. I'll give him a call and apologize for opening my mouth (or fingers).

Hi,

Just talked to him again, and I'll just leave it like that with my edit. The point (and the lesson for me) is the same. There, but for the grace of God, go I.....

Yep.. the exploding rotor went right through his 'safety glasses' is how we were told down at our local field where he flies. Were it not for whatever eye protection he WAS wearing, he'd have lost the eye for sure.

One of the few benefits to being optically challenged I suppose, I have glasses on all the time. For me, since I ride, I bought frames for my glasses that wrap tight to my face all the time and have the plastic lenses so they can't shatter like glass on me. They've saved me from countless bugs, numerous rocks, and the odd dremel cutoff wheel that exploded!

Nah, a turbine will must likely spit it right out of the SIDE......beware.

Last year I had an accident that grounded me from flying for about 3 months. I was getting my flight box out of the car and accidently bumped the fuel pump (glow fuel) switch on my flight box to the "ON" position. I have a good pump and the full stream hit me square in the left eye.
The pain was so intense I had trouble getting from the garage into the house to get help. My wife called my eye doctor right away and they said to flush the eye with cold water for 15 minutes and then get to his office.

First the doctor deadened my eye to stop the pain and then he flushed some more with about a quart of fluid. His exam then revealed the fuel had burned off the outside layer of the cornea. He then said the good news was I should fully recovery my eye sight but it would be very painfull for a couple of days. After 3 months I was back to 20-20 on the vision test.

I never leave the fuel pump nozzle pointing straight up any more. Safety glasses during all modeling activities are a very good idea.

Sometime we can become a little too complacent around these things. A very good friend of mine (RC JET PILOT) loss it thumb when he loss control of is RC helicopter. Thanks for the heads up