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"STUFF HAPPENS" my
pessimistic friend argued. "You just cannot prevent all accidents. [The
concept of] Zero accidents is a myth!"
As much as I like my friend, I
disagree with his opinion on safety and particularly on aeromodeling
safety. He is partially correct in that some accidents are beyond our
control. However, we can anticipate these and lessen the risk of
accidents we can't prevent. The many accidents for which we alone are
the source can be prevented.
I have written a four-article series on
safety at the urging of Aeromodeling Editor Bob Hunt and because I take
safety in building models and flying seriously. I have been a
flying-club safety officer, I have helped with three model-building
clinics, and I am a club instructor for radio-controlled flight.
I have
seen some strange happenings. There is inherent risk in using sharp and
high-energy tools and in the conduct of model-flight operations. I will
concentrate my discussion on radio-controlled models and try to write
simply enough to be understood by those who are new and not so new to
the hobby.
I have two goals for these discussions, the first of which is
to make you aware of safety hazards you may encounter while building,
performing flight preparations, and flying your model. Second, I hope to
arm you mentally with tools to avoid the pitfalls that can lead to
mistakes and getting someone hurt. I will try to keep these discussions
straightforward.
I visualize aeromodeling safety as a defensive effort.
This defense recognizes the safety risk: a combination of the
probability of an accident happening and the possible consequence of
that accident.
Generally the consequence of an accident may be on one of
three levels.
1) A first-aid injury—a minor inconvenience.
2) A
significant injury that requires medical help, such as stitches to
repair a wound.
3) A debilitating and possibly life-threatening injury.
The higher the safety risk, the stronger the defense we have to muster.
If the safety risk is low, we apply only one or two of the multiple
levels of defense. If the risk factor is high, we employ all possible
levels. The five levels of safety defense applied to aeromodeling are:
1) Attitude
2) Prechecks
3) Backup
4) Isolation
5) Barriers
The first
three are used to prevent something from going wrong. The last two
minimize the risk of a consequence for an occurrence that is beyond our
control. We usually apply these defense levels cumulatively; that is, we
ensure the right attitude before we apply the prechecks.
The application
of backup normally implies that we have already ensured the right
attitude and have done the prechecks. However, there are occasions when
it is appropriate to proceed directly from attitude to prechecks to
barriers. I will point out some such instances.
By barriers I mean
personal protective equipment such as a dust mask, goggles, earplugs, or
a hard hat. When we cannot provide adequate safety protection by
reducing the likelihood of a safety problem, we must rely on preventing
the event or condition from reaching the person or property by using a
barrier.
Isolation means physically separating people from a safety
hazard, such as an out-of-control aircraft that is about to crash.
Click on photo to view large image with caption
Workshop Safety: Whether you are building a FF Peanut Scale
rubber-powered model, rigging an electric-powered park flyer, assembling
an ARF wet-fueled model, constructing a sport trainer from a kit, or
scratch-building a World War II fighter, you will likely glue, solder,
cover, saw, grind, cut, bend, sand, assemble, and/or paint during the
process.
I will address the personal attitude you need to safely perform
these activities, the use of prechecks for tools we use, and the
application of barriers, as appropriate, to keep our fingers, toes, and
other vital body parts out of harm's way while working in the shop.
Even
experienced modelers who should know better and have been told
lessons-learned stories from past safety events still make serious
errors and get themselves or others injured. Why? The answer often lies
in the modeler's frame of mind prior to the accident.
Modelers are more
likely to make mistakes if they are in the wrong frame of mind—if they
have the wrong attitude. If we are feeling hurried, stressed out, tired,
distracted, or infected with the Commodore Syndrome (overconfidence), we
increase the safety risk in what we are doing. Dave Gee identified and
discussed the effect of the Commodore Syndrome in his October 2004
safety column in MA.
We need to recognize when we are in one of these
high-risk states and adjust what we are doing to minimize the
probability of an accident. We may need to slow down, take a break,
refocus our concentration, or take a less-tiring position for the shop
task.
We model-airplane addicts do many simple things with sharp tools.
We also use tools and materials involving significant amounts of energy.
When there is a lot of energy available, in whatever form—mechanical,
heat, chemical, electrical, or potential energy from gravity—the safety
risk is elevated.
Following are some high-risk attitudes you may
experience.
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