ON THE SAFE SIDE
Distraction Action
by Don Nix,
Insider Safety Column Editor
Once upon a midnight dreary, as I pondered weak and
weary….
Actually, it was last night, considerably before
midnight, not dreary at all, while I was pondering
what to write for this column. Then I began to
recall some incidents where distraction at the
flying field had caused crashes. Here are two in
which I was personally involved.
As I’ve mentioned in past columns, when I lived in
Southern California most of my flying was done at
Mile Square Park in Orange County. Mile Square was
the busiest RC park I ever saw, and quite possibly
the busiest in the US. I say “was,” because it was
closed to model flying some years ago.
The runway was an abandoned WW II military airfield,
the RC part 2,000-feet long. There were 12 pilot
stations, and on good weather weekends it was not
unusual to have 50 or 60 fliers at the field and all
12 stations “hot” at the same time. One particular
distraction incident remains clear in my memory
although it took place more than 20 years ago.
A good friend of mine did a lot of teaching. When
newbies came to fly for the first time, they were
usually directed to George to get them on the buddy
box and start learning. One Saturday, George called
me over just before starting a beginner’s engine.
“Don, before I get this fellow on the buddy box, you
take his transmitter. After takeoff, I’ll trim mine,
then turn it over to you to get his box trimmed out
so he won’t have to struggle with it.” I agreed, and
after George made a couple of circuits said, “Okay,
Don, you take it and trim his box.”
I had control of the model for perhaps a hundred
yards when we heard someone scream, “HEADS UP!”
followed by the unmistakable sound of a model under
full power and, even without seeing it, could hear
it was coming toward us.
Naturally, we ducked and a split second later the
airplane crashed hard on the pavement three or four
yards from our feet. As soon as we realized we had
not been hit, our attention turned back to the model
we were test flying. This happened to be at a moment
when almost all the other stations had models in the
air at the same time. The sky looked and sounded
more like a swarm of large bees than a model flying
field.
Scanning the air for our model, George yelled, “I’ve
got it!” quickly followed by, “No, that wasn’t it; I
think it’s that one!” The sun was at the point where
most of the airplanes in the air appeared to be
almost silhouetted against the sky and were hard to
distinguish from each another in the flock on the
far side of the circuit.
George repeated the phrase two or three times over
the next 15 seconds, until it was obvious that none
of the models were ours and that it was apparently
gone into Never-Never Land out of sight somewhere
beyond the trees in the distance. There was nothing
to do but hand the owner’s transmitter back to him,
tell him we had no idea where his model had gone,
followed with a heart-felt apology. Understandably,
the fellow was somewhat bewildered and heartbroken,
having no idea such a bizarre thing could happen.
However, this story does have a happy ending.
About a half-hour later, while the owner was packing
up his gear to leave, a van bearing the logo of a
gas station/auto repair shop came driving up. The
driver got out, picked “our” model, totally
unblemished, out of the back and asked, “Does this
belong to someone here?”
After we got control of our astonishment, he
explained: He and another mechanic were working on a
car when one of them looked up in time to see the
model, propeller stopped, rolling up quietly into an
empty service bay. One exclaimed, “Where the (bleep)
did that come from?” By then, several had gathered
around, and one commented that a lot of such models
were flown at Mile Square Park, a couple miles
distant, so they decided to give it a try.
Obviously, the plane, perfectly trimmed by George,
had flown the distance, run out of fuel and glided
to a stop, just yards from a busy street.
I realize the above sounds totally unbelievable, but
I was there.
There is also a good lesson hidden in that incident.
The last time I looked, a couple of lines in the AMA
rule book clearly state that each model should have
the owner’s name, address, and phone number
somewhere on or in it. This is a rule that is rarely
taken seriously.
The second incident of distraction disaster took
place back in the 1990s after I had moved back to
Texas and was living in a small town near Austin. A
friend from out of state was visiting, expressed
curiosity about RC flying, and I, anxious to show
off, said, “Hey, I have permission to fly models at
our little local airport. C’mon … I’ll show you how
these things work!”
I took my favorite, a big 1.20-powered aerobatic
model. As I was putting the wings on, getting fueled
up and ready to go, I was being a smart guy,
explaining how everything worked. My friend stroked
my ego with admiring comments. I started the engine,
taxied to the takeoff spot, shoved the throttle full
forward, broke ground and started a great climb-out.
What happened next wasn’t pretty.
Almost immediately, the model became uncontrollable,
trying to roll from side to side. Within another two
or three seconds it rolled on its back, diving
straight into the pavement. I was stunned. We went
over, picked up the wreckage and took it back to my
van. I took the wings off, commenting lamely that
the only thing I could think of was radio
interference, which I had never experienced at that
field.
I unbolted the wing, lifted it off and reached to
disconnect the aileron servo leads from the receiver
and found I didn’t have to. In my eagerness to
impress my friend and basking in the glow of his
comments, I had never connected them.
Having been a full-scale pilot for decades and
thousands of flying hours in addition to years of
flying RC, I truly believe this was the single,
solitary time in either that I never checked for
full movement of all the controls before takeoff.
We should never, ever be complacent about safety, no
matter what the level of our experience—novice or
expert.
Flyerdon1@yahoo.com
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