Basic safety recommendations

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jhsa
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Basic safety recommendations

Post by jhsa »

Hey guys, let's contribute to make our hobby even safer and educate ourselves as far as safety is concerned. What I propose here is to create a list of basic safety rules so we can enjoy our hobby a little bit better and make it safer. I don't really like the word rules, so let's call them recommendations.
Model aircraft, even smaller ones can be quite dangerous if mishandled. That is a fact. They can cause injuries and damage to property. Electric motors if not handled correctly can burst into life without warning and cause really bad injuries.
I would like to use this thread to discuss safety, make a list of recommendations which will be posted and updated on this post, and it will be released as part of the next revision of the er9x manual. I hope the other manuals will also include it. So, let's make our hobby safer and more enjoyable. I'll start with a couple. They can then be reorganized in categories.

1- Do not fly your model over people, property (houses, cars, etc) or busy roads.

2- Do not fly at a place or altitude where your model could interfere with normal air traffic. Remember there are people inside the full size aircraft. They are not models..

3- Define your flying area in front of you, free of obstacles, and make sure people watching stay behind you. Imagine a line from left to right passing through the point where you are standing. Your model should NEVER cross that line and fly behind you. If possible fly in a place that was designed for model flying, like the field of a club. Make sure there is enough space to fly your model safely. Models are also attracted to trees and electrical lines, so, better to avoid them ;) :) (Please feel free to correct my bad English)

4- Having insurance is very important. Unfortunately accidents do happen. Clubs normally provide an insurance for their members

5- When your model is ON make sure props are not pointed towards yourself or other people. Keep everyone behind your plane. This is valid for both electric and IC powered models. The latter when starting, and after starting the engine. On IC powered models, start the model and then move to the back to make any adjustment. DO NOT stay in front of the prop when accelerating the engine. If you adjust the engine from the front you could easily put your hands through the prop arc while rotating at high speed with very nasty consequences. I have seen it happening again and again..
On electric models, the motor could start full speed at any time without warning. Stay behind,and keep everyone behind it when it's live.
Also, do not wear anything that could get caught on the propeller like radio straps, chains, loose clothes, etc.

6- Never takeoff towards people or property.

7- Always remove props/rotors when working on a model

8- Always balance your propellers and rotors. When not well balanced they cause vibration.
Vibration can cause premature failure of the electronics and airframe..

9- When possible, set failsafe on your models. Different models might need different failsafe settings. One very important failsafe setting is to stop the motor/engine if radio link is lost. This will avoid a fly away.

a- Some people (like myself) will set the failsafe to put the model on a spiral dive if RF link is lost. This prevents the model from keep flying out of control (even with the motor/engine OFF), and hitting people and/or property that may be behind the flight line. I would use this setting on anything else but light foamies. If you're respecting point number 3 of this list, very unlikely your model will crash behind you where all the people and cars are

b- Some people will just set the failsafe to stop the motor/engine if the radio link is lost, and apply some little amount of UP elevator so the model could possibly glide back to earth. I would use this setting ONLY on very small, slow and light models. With a glider, you probably want circling to reduce the risk of fly away, and flaps, spoilers, etc. deployed to cause moderate rate of descent. Keep in mind that if the model is high, you could have to walk/drive a great distance to retrieve it, and hope it didn't cause any damage.

The 2 examples above are for fixed wing aircraft and I'm sure there are also failsafe settings for helicopters and multirotors. I believe that in case of losing RF link, there's not much more that can be done other than just stop the motor/engine and let it fall to earth. As an exeption there are some flight controllers that might have auto-land capabilities, normally found on multirotors.

When purchasing a RF system it is recommended to buy one with falsafe on all channels.
It is up to you to learn about your model and decide which is the best failsafe setting for it in order to avoid damage and/or injuries in case things do go wrong.
If you lose control of your model let everybody around you know you did. You could for example shout "NO CONTROL", or "LOST CONTROL"..
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bertrand35
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Re: Basic safety recommendations

Post by bertrand35 »

I would perhaps add something about failsafe settings?
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jhsa
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Re: Basic safety recommendations

Post by jhsa »

That is model dependent? On my heavier models for example if signal is lost, I cut the motor and make them spin to the ground.. On a little foamie, I might just turn the motor off and give a little elevator so it just glides to the ground slowly.
There are other procedures to program FS on a heli I suppose?.. So the best is that people simply try to find out what is the best setting for their model.. Google is a good start ;)

João
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bertrand35
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Re: Basic safety recommendations

Post by bertrand35 »

Yes this is model dependant. Depending on the protocol it's even channel dependant.
And yes, people have to setup them properly depending on the hardware they use.
Daedalus66
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Re: Basic safety recommendations

Post by Daedalus66 »

The one infallible failsafe rule for most models is cut the power. That includes helicopters.

The exception is that if the model has a flight controller that works as an autopilot, the FC failsafe should be triggered in case of signal loss. This may command return to home or just a soft landing.

After that it depends on the individual model. In most cases, just having non-throttle channels hold position is as good an option as any. With a glider, you probably want circling to reduce the risk of fly away, and flaps, spoilers, etc. deployed to cause moderate rate of descent.


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jhsa
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Re: Basic safety recommendations

Post by jhsa »

Updated.. Please see point 9.
Nigel I stole part of your text. I hope you don't mind. With gliders, if set
to keep flying, you could have to walk a long distance even if they are set to circle, specially if it is windy. Also, some gliders are quite heavy and fast. we must take that in consideration..

João
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Koarl
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Re: Basic safety recommendations

Post by Koarl »

I want to ad something to the list:
Always build your models as properly as you can. It starts from A like Airframe goes over S like soldering and Z like, mmmhh, z- bends. Allways do a benchtest with your model. Support the wing ends and put some weight on the middle of the wing, do you hear a cracking sound under the stress? Are the linkages secured and slopfree? Right cog? And so on.... In short: only start a maidenflight when you assured yourself that everything is going to work like it should.
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Bill
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Re: Basic safety recommendations

Post by Bill »

I had a Brown flight simulator running in DOS which used to assess the cost of each crash, in tests I found that closing the throttle and pulling up elevator resulted in a series of stalls, the drop between each being less than a full on dive to the ground or straight line flight.
The average crash cost assessment was much less when I did this.
Flying a gangster in high wind I misjudged my sideways drift and lost sight of the plane over the tree line.
I shut the throttle and pulled full up elevator, I went to pick up the pieces and was greeted by a club member carrying my intact model he had seen it come down in a series of stalls the last one only a few feet high, from where it dropped to the ground with very minor damage.
Hence now I always set up my fail-safes this way as it has a statistical chance of least damage and lowest impact speed.
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jhsa
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Re: Basic safety recommendations

Post by jhsa »

Yeah. In addition to that I add full aileron and rudder. If I lose link I want the plane to fall as close to the runway as possible, not behind it, or on a road. Better to destroy a model than to kill someone..

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