Toy RC Helicopter Kills Teenager

[Flaps 30]

Rather sad to read this ----> http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-23992647

This makes the second death of the year caused by an RC helicopter. No idea if the first death was caused by the type of helicopter mentioned in the article.

We do have a few club members who do the 3D flying with these very dangerous helicopters. Just looking at them and doing some rough in the head calculations is enough to scare me. The forces and speeds involved are measured in Tons with near supersonic blade speeds. I can say that I keep well away from the runway when one of these machines is being flown, as they (IMO) are an accident waiting to happen, and I have no doubt that airframe failure due to the forces achieved is just a few flights away.

For this story and the previous one having made international news I am sure that many park authorities and local councils will be looking at banning model flying in public places.

[jhsa]

Align T-Rex 700N

Not a toy at all

[jhsa]

Here. Probably flying the same heli that killed him..
I think the problem was that he was too good.. You can see the heli passing very close to him quite often. But no one is perfect, we all keep forgetting that sometimes
I wouldn't be surprised if he filmed his own death also.. R.I.P.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bL7YmUKL0RY

News:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p1_TskvUwXM

[kaos]

it is not just heli, any plane can do it. It is a freak accident. it is sad but it happens. Life is full of accidents. We should all appreciate that we can grow to our age live and standing.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article ... plane.html

a 700 size is not a toy for sure, it can chop your head off easy with a direct hit at the neck. If you have standing close to a flying 700 it is tremendous, you can feel its power.

BUT, I would say rc flying is still safer than simple skate board.

[jhsa]

An airplane out of control is still more predictable than an heli..

And flying in parks with lots of people walking around is not a good idea.. People that are not in the hobby don't have a clue of what is dangerous or not (some in the hobby also don't have a clue about what they're doing). People just walk on the place where you're flying and sometimes you can't even see them.. It's impossible to control the people when you're flying.. you look and there's no one there, you come to land and suddenly there is someone in front of the plane

[kaos]

An airplane out of control is still more predictable than an heli..

???? how so????

read the news again, he is flying in NY city sanctioned rc flying field, and his dad is /was the president of a local fly club. He is struck by his own heli. it is a freak accident no one wants to see. according to the news this is the 2nd time in the hx in US that a rc pilot is killed by a heli. That is much lower than being killed by a lightening strike.

while the girl in London was struck by a run away plane and died also in a sanctioned fly field.

[rperkins]

I was wondering if this had been posted. I've had 3 people mention it to me in the last 24 hours. It's a real tragedy and my prayers go out to his family and friends.

[jhsa]

An airplane fly forward normally.. 4D being an exception.. An heli can go in any direction.
I have nothing against helis, but at the field I duck behind my car when some people fly them. Respect for the machine but afraid of the pilots..

Someone I know He is lucky to be alive..

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QUjVBlzeqik

[dvogonen]

Two months ago I had a sobering experience when a helicopter pilot in a mixed flight line lost control during 3D maneuvers. The heli was only a 400, but when it crashed 2 meters to my right it was scary enough. The worst thing was that there was no way of predicting were it would hit.

I will keep a very healthy distance to helicopters from now on.

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk 4

[ShowMaster]

On a serious note. Many are using knockoff receivers these days in aircraft going at speeds right in front of us that have the potential to hurt or kill us.
We're guilty in many ways wiring and modifying our own transmitters of also losing control.
We fry our boards and rewire and restore them not always have the best soldering absolutes.
We fly systems without any failsafe to at least kill the motor/engine if there is a link loss because they are cheap.
I would ask everyone to ground any system they have any loss of control of for no apparent reason the second time.
Also to inspect their control surfaces and hinges before high speed flying in crowded flight lines.
I've seen severed arteries blessing out, fingers and hands bleeding and many car hoods dented in this last year then all the years prior to cheap radio equipment and new pilots.
Now it's quads hovering overhead doing FPV or camera passes.

[jhsa]

mixed flight is not allowed at our field. . I know there are guys flying big machines without failsafe. One of them big scale helis ..

[gohsthb]

On a side note about fail safe: the best setup for a helicopter is to cut the motor, stop piroing, and go to zero pitch. Zero pitch because you don't know what orientation it will be in when the link loss occurs, so it will at least stop pushing the heli around.
-Gohst

[NI0X]

Every Hobby is covered by danger, you should always be aware of it.
You can do some things to keep the risk at minimum.
Having failsafe SET CORRECTLY is one point.
Starting and flying in a good (safe) distance anotherone.
Do not fly alone!
Preflightcheck everything and and DO NOT fly risky maneuvers in short distances.
Alaways respect your machine.

[jhsa]

exactly.. and most of it applies to every single model..
I'd like to add a couple more.
set an imaginary "box" in front of you where your aircraft will fly (don't know the name in English), do not allow anyone to be in front of you and don't let the model fly behind you at any time. Keep people at distance..
Don't point spinning props/rotors at anyone including yourself. exception is when starting an IC motor, but tunning is made from behind with the aircraft well secured by a rope or someone else..

These were some of the basic rules I've learnt before I even touched the sticks for the first time on powered aircraft.

@gohsthb

The people I mentioned before fly big IC powered helis/planes.. So I don't think the motor would be cut if link is lost.. It could happen by coincidence..

João

[Flaps 30]

On a serious note. Many are using knockoff receivers these days in aircraft going at speeds right in front of us that have the potential to hurt or kill us.
We're guilty in many ways wiring and modifying our own transmitters of also losing control. We fry our boards and rewire and restore them not always have the best soldering absolutes.

I have seen a few knock off RX's pack up after no more than 100 Metres. Maybe the time is coming when we can only use approved equipment that has security seals on them to show if they have been tampered with. Servicing/annual checks will have to be done by approved service centres. Failure to comply or broken seals would mean that your insurance is invalid and in a court (if you should ever end up in that position) will take that into account when passing any judgement on you.

We fly systems without any failsafe to at least kill the motor/engine if there is a link loss because they are cheap.

That is true. Time to change that. I have seen a few with failsafe that have never been set. One instance at our club was scary. When the failsafe was checked, it was found that the throttle went to wide open, it seems that the owner of the equipment had never set the failsafe, as he assumed that this was all set up at the factory that produced the radio equipment.

Don't point spinning props/rotors at anyone including yourself. exception is when starting an IC motor, but tunning is made from behind with the aircraft well secured by a rope or someone else..

Ahh yes.. The nasty lump of IC motor that wouldn't have made it past first base in any health and safety check. Who on earth would put a manually adjusted needle valve just behind a lethal spinning blade? The glow plug attachment/lead is also a safety concern. Personally I would ban the majority of these lethal setups from any club field. The ideal setup would be a remote powered glow plug and needle valve, along with an on board electric start for the IC engine. The addition of a safety cage around the propeller would also be something that would help save a few people from loosing fingers.

I do wonder if the helicopter suffered some mechanical failure due to some manufacturing defect. I wonder if this case will end up in court with the guys family claiming a million or so £/$'s against them?

This case will certainly create some talk at our club, along with a review of safety concerning 3D flying of rotary and fixed wing aircraft.

[jhsa]

there are motors with remote needle system.. tunning the motor from behind is normally ok. Many of the people that hurt their fingers is because they try to adjust the needle from the front and end up putting their hand through the propeller when rotating at full speed. Also sometimes we wear chains and jackets with stuff hangging. this can get tangled easily.. We should stsy In front of the plane, only to start it to idle..
electric motors can also be very dangerous, in some way even more than IC engines.. They can start without warning and your plane flies into you or others. If with IC engines it is important not to point the rotating prop at anyone, with the electric planes we shouldn't do it at any time as long as the model is powered..
At the end of the day it all comes down to know what you are dealing with, and respect the safety measures to avoid injuries to yourself and others..

But as I said before, I gave the feeling that in general people now just don't care learning or teaching this important stuff anymore.. I'm glad I did, and still have a lot to learn

João

[ShowMaster]

My first rule would be to ban the use of duct tape on a plane.
Second would be to ban any transmitter with the antenna hanging on just its coax or duct taped on.
Clear tape also.
Typical these days flying in the same area as foamies. Over powered and $5 receivers. Open field so the club can't ground these planes or the pilots. I just land and get under cover.
The current thinking it that unlike the fm frequency systems, anything 2.4 is now bullet proof so anything goes.

I don't remember seeing this at the end of the day as much in the past.

I do see more of this

Big funfly at my field coming up so I'll have more pictures.