Now some would say that just getting up in the morning is dangerous enough, but mix in some money, a penchant for speed and a dab of penile deficiency, and you end up with one combination or other of fast women, fast cars, or some other fast toy. Most of these are inherently dangerous in one form or another.
Personally, I like me some R/C airplanes. I’ll fly just about anything at least once, but I like 3D areobatics mostly. But what I’m not particularly into is speed. Speed is cool, but I get pretty bored with it. The F-86 isn’t all that fast, but it’s fast enough for me, and it’s kind of limited in the interest factor (there’s only so many fast passes I can do before I start getting stupid with it and risking damage).Anyway, turbines are pretty much the ultimate if ya got the need for speed. Unfortunately they have a few drawbacks. First, they are just stupid expensive, something in the neighborhood of $10K and up for one plane. Second, they’re fast, redicously fast if I can be brutally honest (200+ mph). And last, when something goes horribly wrong, they tend to explode or catch shit on fire (while going redicously fast).
There’s a saying in the R/C hobby, if you expect to keep a plane in one piece, don’t fly it. That’s pretty much true. Shit happens, and you kind of have to have the mindset that every takeoff could potentially go horribly wrong and end up in a body bag (figuratively speaking). Start taking risks and the chances of that happening go up exponentially. Go faster, lower or introduce more of any one variable and it compounds the problem.
With that said, one can assume that next to helicopters, R/C turbine jets can potentially be the most inherantly hazardous R/C model to fly. Take for instance the incident we got to witness (and film) at the Joe Nall fly-in back in May. Here’s the vid on YT:
Pretty fucking awesome, eh? Awesome as in; awe inspiring, frightening, and thought provoking. Sure, the pilot is a good pilot, and the show was being run in an organized and controlled manner, but still it happened. It happened, and it could have turned out a lot worse. During that same meet, the guys flying 3D (Yaks, Extras, etc) were pretty much told to not hover over the runway (except for solo demos) for safety’s sake. I would rather have had the 3D guys hovering over the runway than have a 200+ mph jet scream by at 5 feet AGL. But that’s just me. Some fool turned his radio on when the jet pilot was over the runway. Shit happens. BTW, there are a couple of other videos of this same incident on YT, just not as good as mine.
Hang tight, changing lanes. Everyone watches NASCAR for two reasons. First, to root for their driver, and second, to watch the wrecks (maybe not in that order). Human nature. Why do folks rubberneck at traffic accidents, or watch Viva La BAM? Same reason, it’s HUMAN NATURE. Fortunately for folks, there’s a gadget called a video camera and the interent, and most importently, YouTube. Now we can sit and rubberneck all day, and night, rubbernecking at spectacular crashes and people getting hurt, all from the safelty of home.
So, where’s the river? Ran up on this after one of the crew alerted me to it.
Stop the Crashing
PLEASE!
June 2007While most AMA Turbine Waiver holders do respect the rules and do exercise good judgment and responsible behavior, some do not.
It is early in the ’07 flying season and unfortunately there have been some serious crashes and resulting property damage.
Most of these crashes could have been avoided if the operator/pilot had properly prepared the model and related equipment and flown it in a safe manner.
The ability to contain and or extinguish a fire until professional help arrives is part of our responsible behavior. See August 2000 Safety Issues article. Getting the water extinguishers to the site requires possibly an all terrain vehicle (depending on the topography) and certainly a few physically fit individuals. If you don’t have either available, then it is sensible to refrain from flying a turbine powered model during particularly dry conditions.
Mishaps beyond a pilot’s control can and do happen, i.e. radio interference. Thankfully, these are a rare occurrence.
Please understand that we live in an increasingly litigious society, so if there is a mishap, posting videos of such on any website can be hurtful to our cause.
If you truly enjoy this sport, please do what you can to protect it.
What’s funny about this are two things. I thought that when these things crash, they make fire. What are we to do with these water extinguishers (paragraph 4)? And where can I get one? The second is why would we go against tradition, and human nature and not post videos (paragraph 6)? We might as well give up fucking while we’re at it.
Oh, here’s another “Fuck The News” tie-in, check this out:
People must have had a complete disregard for personal safety back in the day. Most of those models were not radio controlled, but were heavy and had a gas engine on the front. Modellers have come a long way in safety concious flying. What gets me are the commentators comment. It’s also the same News bias BS that’s still around today. Fuck the news.
At any rate, shit’s gonna happen. It’s just a matter of time, number of spectators, the ammount of carnage, and if someone has their camcorder at the ready when it happens. People will still want to see, or read about it, no matter how big the river is, so don’t cry me one.
1 Comment to “Cry me a river.”
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what about all the fires caused by um I don’t know maybe ciggs or for that matter lighting. Guess we need to stop posting cool as shit pictures of electrical storms and god forbid if the camera man was smoking while he snapped the photos.
… Got me singing “Da roof, da roof, da roof is on fire. We don’t need no water (extinguishers) let the MOTHER FUCKER BURN”
Maydog