ON THE SAFE SIDE
The Lighter Side of Safety: Revisited
by Don Nix,
Insider Safety Column Editor
A
few months ago I wrote about some things I had seen
at various flying fields that could have been safety
disasters, but happily turned out funny instead. I
decided to continue the subject because (1) I’ve
remembered a few more, (2) many seemed to enjoy
them, and (3) I drew a blank for a subject this
month ... Seemed like good reasons to me.
As I’ve mentioned before, I’ve been a modeler since
I was six years old, and a full-scale pilot for
nearly 51 years. I got into RC a little late in
life—back in the mid-1980s—after full-scale began to
be almost prohibitively expensive for the average
guy. I’m sure readers who also fly full-scale can
understand what a humbling experience the transition
to RC can be. Suffice to say it took a very long
time to get my head out of the cockpit and fly the
airplane viewing from the outside.
My late wife was also a licensed pilot, and after I
became fairly comfortable with a couple of RC
trainers, it was her turn. Things went well for the
first few sessions using the buddy box system, but
she was a long way from soloing. After a takeoff one
day, she said, “My transmitter is out of trim, and I
don’t feel comfortable enough yet to try to trim it
myself.” I replied, “Nooo problem. Here, swap
transmitters with me, and I’ll get yours trimmed
up.”
(Rim
shock….cymbals….think about it for a minute.)
An incident some years earlier occurred while I was
flying a full-scale airplane, but the lesson learned
remains the same as for models. I lived in northern
Illinois at the time and did a lot of business
flying in my Piper Comanche.
One winter we had a several-week stretch of weather
that I didn’t care to attempt to fly in even though
I was instrument rated. When the weather finally
improved a bit, I departed one day on a long-delayed
business trip. I had several thousand hours
experience and hundreds in that airplane, but I was
quite aware that inactivity for an extended
period—models or full-scale—can be dangerous. I went
through my checklists very carefully before and
after starting the engine, during taxi, and
pre-takeoff.
Takeoff and climb to altitude proceeded without a
hitch, so I trimmed for level flight, set the
autopilot and began to relax, but not for long. My
Comanche normally trued out about 180 mph, but after
tweaking everything I could think of, I couldn’t
nurse more than about 155 out of the beast. I stewed
and wracked my brain for at least 10 minutes.
Remember the cartoons where the little light bulb
suddenly lights up over the character’s head?
In my special efforts to be very, very careful
during takeoff and climbout, concentrating and
perhaps too focused, I had neglected to retract the
landing gear. I was alone with no witnesses, but
shame and embarrassment washed over me.
Lesson: No matter how high one’s level of
experience, after a period of inactivity use a
checklist—all of it.
Back to models. The first good-weather weekend after
Christmas was always interesting at my favorite RC
field in Southern California. All the people with
new Christmas airplanes would show up, many of them
beginners. I was hangar flying with a friend one
January while we watched a young fellow about 14
getting his new ready-to-fly toy assembled. It was
some sort of long-winged motor glider powered by a ½
A engine. His mother was standing close by watching
sonny boy.
It quickly became obvious the lad had never flown
before so my friend, one of our club’s instructors,
walked over and offered to help. Instead of
gratitude, this whiz kid erupted with profanity,
suggesting my friend perform an anatomically
impossible act on himself.
The instructor said, “Oookay” and walked away. As we
watched from the sidelines, the kid hand-launched
the model and immediately pulled full up elevator,
which was hooked up in reverse. Amazing how
thoroughly and quickly a paved runway can convert a
foam ready-built into a pile of packing peanuts.
The ironic part? My friend said to the mother,
“Ma’am, that wouldn’t have happened if your son had
accepted my help.” Her response was only slightly
less vile than the son’s.
Clearly, the needless incident could have hurt
someone, so to head off myriad e-mails asking why we
allowed the boy to fly: it was a public county park,
and we had no authority whatever to control
operations; we just suffered the criticism if
someone did something stupid or careless.
Afternote: While on a nine-month RV tour of the
western states this past year, I visited the flying
field at Wenatchee, Washington. This was perhaps the
most beautiful RC field I’ve seen in years, and it
was clear safety was high on their list of
priorities. Unfortunately, I didn’t make a note of
the club name, but you folks know who you are.
Congratulations!
Th-th-th-that’s all, folks. I could use some
suggestions for safety topics, so ring me up at
flyerdon1@yahoo.com.
Q
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