ON THE SAFE SIDE
The Need for Speed
by Don Nix,
Insider Safety Column Editor
Bear with me for a couple of minutes. I’ve gotta
work up to the title subject, after writing a little
more about the importance of preflighting.
I first participated in competition modeling more
than 50 years ago, in U/C Stunt, Rat Racing, and
Combat, then added Free Flight a little later. I
only competed for a few years, and wasn’t
particularly good at any of the four events. During
that time, the only safety incident in which I was
involved was at a Free Flight contest in Dallas,
circa 1960.
After a couple of official flights, I failed to
check out the trim settings after the last landing
and hand launched a big Class C model. Apparently
the Up trim in the elevator had gotten slightly out
of kilter. Instead of screaming straight upward, it
screamed straight forward at shoulder height
directly toward the score keepers’ open-sided tent
about 50 yards away.
Horrified, I screamed a warning and the several
occupants took cover. Fortunately, the left wing hit
a tent pole, spun around from whence it came and
splattered into the ground. That was the closest I
ever came to hurting anyone with a model airplane.
The lesson was clear: always, check the model before
every flight.
Fast forward to 1991 when a couple of friends
dragged me kicking and screaming into Sportsman
class Quickie Pylon Racing. I enjoyed moderate
success for about 10 years, mostly because that
class had relatively few entrants.
During a several-month RV tour of the western
states, we found ourselves near Phoenix in January
of this year at the same time one of the earliest
Pylon Races in the US always takes place. We decided
to go see some old friends and watch a little
Racing. I hadn’t been to a Pylon Race, even as a
spectator, in several years. I was amazed at the
changes made to enhance safety since the last time I
saw one.
For the benefit of those who aren’t familiar with
the fastest event in modeling, these airplanes are
in a big hurry to get to the finish line. The
Quickie Sportsman class is now running 120+ mph, the
Advanced approximately 170 and Q-40s are nudging the
200 mph mark. From a racehorse start, they fly in
heats of four models for 10 laps around three
pylons, making up a 1/4-mile circuit—2.5 miles
total. Most of them fly at heights of 30-75 feet.
Until a few years ago, every heat required 19—count
’em—19 people on the course: four pilots, four
callers, four lap counters/timers, four judges at
Pylon 1, one judge at Pylon 2, one at Pylon 3, and
one race starter/flagman. The lap counters/timers
and pylon judges were all protected by heavy steel
wire cages. The pilots, callers, and starter were
exposed.
A few years ago, a Pylon judge had his head leaning
against the cage at Pylon 1, so he could look
straight up to catch any pylon “cuts.” One pilot,
flying too low and too tightly, hit the cage and the
spinner poked through an opening directly into the
back of the judge’s head, killing him. Not long
after, in a Texas race, a very experienced Pylon
flier hit one of the cages with such velocity it
went through the cage wall, shredding itself in the
process. Fortunately, it didn’t hit anyone.
Understandably, the Racing group became concerned
(as did the AMA), and decided something had to
change. Rather than wait until they were forced to
do so, they took action to correct the situation.
Some 10 years earlier, 1991 World Pylon Champion Dub
Jett had conceived the embryo of an idea that would
require only the pilots, callers, and the starter to
be on the course. The 10 others would be several
hundred feet away. A group of racers, mostly from
Texas (including Mike Helsel, who has been racing
since the earth cooled), got to work on the project.
Veteran Pylon Racer Jerry Small of Dallas devised
the first off-course electronic timing system.
With the help of many others from all over the
country, Pylon Racing evolved to its present status:
No one is on the course but the pilots, callers, and
the starter. The current models are going faster
than ever, and, to the best of my knowledge, there
have been no serious incidents since.
For those who are inclined to take safety a little
too lightly—or ignore it altogether—I urge you to
adjust your thinking and your method of flying. As
full-scale pilots learned over the decades, if we
don’t police ourselves, some entity will do it for
us, usually much stricter than we like.
In conclusion, I’ll have to shift subjects to
mention some comments from last month’s
Insider.
Former Executive Council member Ed McCollough
pointed out an error in my statement that AMA
regulations require that all models have the owner’s
name and address in, or on the model. Well, not
exactly.
Prompted by Ed and aided by District VIII Vice
President Jim Rice and Ilona Maine at the AMA, I
found that Item 6 of the Safety Code reads, “I will
not fly my model aircraft unless it is identified
with my name and address or AMA number inside or
affixed to the outside of the model aircraft.” Note
the operative word is
or.
(This does not apply to model aircraft flown
indoors.)
My personal opinion is that the regulations should
require all three. In the event of a fly-away, the
AMA number would mean nothing to a non-modeler who
might recover it.
John Goegl wrote, “I have found the key to safe
flying starts with the training protocol. I have
noticed that one human trait trumps all others:
habit. As a flight instructor, I try to encourage
good habits by beginning each session with a
thorough preflight. Through repetition, these ‘good’
habits are picked up by the student ... and the
instructor.”
From Ben Lanterman: “Your comments on safety were
great and on target. Like you, I normally check the
control throws and direction before each flight. But
with some of the small foamies I have flown for some
time, I tend to get complacent. It backfired when I
changed transmitters to a newer one. I checked to be
sure all the control reversal switches were set the
same for each airplane I switched over to the new
transmitter, but I missed one.”
The rest of his note tells of the results, reversed
ailerons and a foamie turned into packing peanuts.
Fortunately, nothing was injured but the model and
Ben’s ego.
Til next time. Flyerdon1@yahoo.com
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