THE FIELDBOX July 2003

       Well, it's that time again.... Class, open you're safety manuals to page..... If it were only that easy!

       I have two topics to talk to you about this month.

       First, we really do have it good here! I've been reading up on safety issues on RC Universe, some of which would make you cry. Little things like, kids riding bikes in the pits, people getting hit by planes flying over and through the pits, people losing fingers trying to start engines, pilots flying towards people and pulling up at the last second, pilots doing high speed aerobatics close enough to the fence to cause people to run for cover, and on and on. The basic theme to all of this is common sense. If no one ever got hurt, it wouldn't be unsafe right? Common sense tells us that things go wrong, usually at the worst moment (see the second part), and injuries can occur.
       How can we minimize the risk of injury? When flying we must constantly be thinking "what if". We must be looking out for the other members because our actions may cause them harm. This is a no brainer right? (see the second part)
       Pat yourselves on the back and take pride that you're in a great club! We have a lot of sensible people here.

The dreaded "second part"

       Well, yours truly had his first crash and yes, it could have caused injury. I was playing with my Magic, just goofing around flying low and slow and made a turn at the north end of the field when in mid turn, the plane stopped turning. I was just above idle at about twenty to thirty feet of altitude and almost in the middle of the runway when this happened. The worst possible moment! The plane was pointed directly at people and I had zero control!!! You can only imagine what was going through my head. I had already hit somebody in my mind. Not a good feeling to have. Remember, this plane was just above idle so it was flying slow. I tried the sticks, except the throttle, again and nothing happened. Not good! I shouted "Heads up!" just before it crossed the fence and the crowd scrambled. My Magic just kept the same attitude and slowly went over the pits and dug in on the other side of the   parked vehicles there, just barely. No injuries. No damage to property. But,,,,, What if????

       I would like to apologize to those people I put at risk.

       I think I did two things wrong here. First, I should have been making my turn further down the runway where the pit area was not in the line of fire. Second, I should have yelled quicker. I shouldn't have tried to recover first. The extra seconds could have made a difference. If I regained control, I'd get a little ribbing. I can live with that, but if someone got hurt.....

       Technically, making the turn where I did is not a safety offense. But is it? The plane was well on the flying side of the fence. It was going slow enough even I could out run it. Had I not lost control of it, it wouldn't have been unsafe. So we need to re-examine how safe we actually are when we are flying safely. I know I will !!!

       FYI: A post-mortem, still ongoing, is looking like a battery/switch problem. I'll fill you in at the field if you're interested. And no, I didn't get "hit".

       The moral of this story is, doing normal everyday, even slow, flying CAN go wrong and possibly hurt someone and communicate any problems as soon as they occur. The extra time could save someone.

       Fly safe,
       Dave

President’s Corner

The new hats and shirts should be in this Friday, July 4^th. We’ll have them available for purchase then. We don’t have the prices firmed up yet, but will by Saturday. Some of the new shirts are the style with a front pocket, so if you want one of those, get in line quick. The logo’d shirts & hats are great for wearing to other sites, such as Magic Valley’s upcoming fly-in. They’re a good source of advertising for our club. Be safe, and see ya at the field.

Field Notes

The grass is still coming on strong. We’ll hit it with another application of nitrates shortly, and that should give it a good summer kick. Check out the tips & techniques column, talks about a fuel recovery system. I think it’s a great idea to save a few bucks, but will also save a lot of wear on the grass if we try to keep as much raw fuel off of it that we can. A big thanks to Roger Bivens AGAIN, this time for coming over with his backhoe and at least making an attempt to fix the road. It’s not perfect, but a lot better than it was. Roger also found us a couple of scoops of gravel that we’ll put to good use.

BS From the Hangar

Magic Valley is having another Fly-In on July 19, starting at . Try to make a showing there, then come on back to the field for some fun flying.

Chop Talk

This is the first in a regular column about helicopter flying. Our own in house experts Rickey and Tom will be contributing to this column.

Building & Repair Tips

FUEL RECOVERY SYSTEM…..This is just an outstanding idea. We all need to take a look at building some type of system to catch the overflow as we fill our tanks. I read an article on another website where a guy determined that if you flew 5 flights per week, on average, your losing a gallon of fuel per year that gets dumped on the ground. There are several ideas on how to make one, do a simple search on RCUniverse and you can pick up several ideas.

Donation lookout

Ok, here’s a pretty simple one. With the new found volume of water, we find we need to extend the hoses on the flight line by about 35 feet. WalMart currently has on sale 50 foot yellow hoses for less than 8 dollars. If you can find the time to help, it would be nice if 7 people could pick up one hose each. That would cover it for our hose needs.

Bag of Balsa of the Month

No nominations again this month, I must be the only person out at the field that’s capable of crashing a plane. Brought out my BARF Stuka last Saturday, it flew OK, but I made some trim adjustments and came back out with it Sunday. Was so proud of the way it was flying that I gave a couple of folks an opportunity to fly it. Well, on the last flight of the day, I noticed something come off the plane in flight. I grabbed the radio back, made a low pass and noticed that my right wheel had fallen off. We talked it over for a few minutes, then I gave it a whirl for a slow, lean left landing. At first, it looked like it might work, but in the end, the right side settled to the ground, the strut dug into the dirt and threw the plane into an immediate spin, breaking the wing in two, cracking the cowl, and the right wheel pant. Oh well, good thing I have room in my workshop, I’ll get around to it one of these days.

Next Club Meeting

Next meeting will be Saturday August 9, 2 pm at the field. Please plan on attending; you need to be aware of what’s going on in the club.

Links

Here are some links to some pretty helpful websites:

West Tennessee R/C flyers rc planes remote control airplanes r/c r-c flying aircraft wtrcf –

RCUniverse - The Ultimate RC Forum! - Buy, Sell, Trade and Discuss RC Airplanes, RC Helicopters, RC Cars, Boats, Engines, Radios, Park Flyers and more plus RC Classifieds

R/C Battery Clinic

Academy of Model Aeronautics