My Yak Bit Me! (Caution graphic pics inside!)

[Coonak]

Hi Guys,

I was debating whether or not to post this thread for a couple of reasons.... but here goes.

Last week i was waiting for a friend to pick me up and go out for some drinks.
The weather was spot on, so i took the Yak up for a quick blast! (I live on a 5 Acre Block)
Flight went great, brang the plane inside...... and thats when it happened.
I turned off my TX - (DX6) before disconnecting the battery from the plane! *Puts on flame suit*
The plane instantly leaped into life at full throttle shooting off the back of my Ute (pick-up) towards the closest brick wall. Natural reflexes caused me to lunge out and 'Grab' the plane, i caught it by the tip of the right aileron, but the plane/prop hung a hard right hand turn into my forearm and 'Bit' me.
So off to hospital i went for some help.
Here's the cut after it had been cleaned.
http://i101.photobucket.com/albums/m50/Mik_450/3_image002.jpg

4 days later,
http://i101.photobucket.com/albums/m50/Mik_450/4_image003.jpg

Also managed to nip my middle finger too!
http://i101.photobucket.com/albums/m50/Mik_450/5_image004.jpg

This is my Plane Cradle which for some reason i failed to use?
I have to come clean and say that this is not the first time i have had a runaway plane, however previously the cradle held the plane still for me whilst i disconnected the battery!
http://i101.photobucket.com/albums/m50/Mik_450/Cradle.jpg

Anyways, thats the story...... main thing is i will heal and the Yak only requires gluing on 2 of the aileron hinges with some CA and it should be right o go back up! Keep ya's posted!

Regards,

Coonak (Mick)

[msprygada]

Hi Guys,

I was debating whether or not to post this thread for a couple of reasons.... but here goes.

Last week i was waiting for a friend to pick me up and go out for some drinks.
The weather was spot on, so i took the Yak up for a quick blast! (I live on a 5 Acre Block)
Flight went great, brang the plane inside...... and thats when it happened.
I turned off my TX - (DX6) before disconnecting the battery from the plane! *Puts on flame suit*
The plane instantly leaped into life at full throttle shooting off the back of my Ute (pick-up) towards the closest brick wall. Natural reflexes caused me to lunge out and 'Grab' the plane, i caught it by the tip of the right aileron, but the plane/prop hung a hard right hand turn into my forearm and 'Bit' me.
So off to hospital i went for some help.
Here's the cut after it had been cleaned.

4 days later,

Also managed to nip my middle finger too!

This is my Plane Cradle which for some reason i failed to use?
I have to come clean and say that this is not the first time i have had a runaway plane, however previously the cradle held the plane still for me whilst i disconnected the battery!

Anyways, thats the story...... main thing is i will heal and the Yak only requires gluing on 2 of the aileron hinges with some CA and it should be right o go back up! Keep ya's posted!

Regards,

Coonak (Mick)


Sounds like you are a good candidate for Spectrum DX7 radio. If you turn off the TX, the receiver goes into fail-safe mode which is zero throttle..

[king160woody]

That gives me a new respect for what these foamies can do.. I didn't know they could do that much damage.. WOAH!! Your still able to fly though:p,

Woody

[aflipz]

Holy crap!

A slowfly on less than 200W did that much damage? (or did you change the prop to a slowfly after the incident?)

I'd hate to see what a 16x10 on 1500W could do... Decapitation anyone?


I once accidentally reversed ch3 in radio setup with an armed esc in a boat plane (reds hangar one) So, one second the esc is getting 0% throttle and the next it got instant 100% It plowed into furniture and did minor damage to the veneer and itself before i slammed 100% (0) throttle to stop it.

I learned my lesson right there, with gouges in the furniture but sans the manly scars on my hands/arms... Now when i arm an esc i watch the tx like a hawk and hold the throttle stick down until takeoff. Whenever i have any tweaking or radio settings to change i allways take the prop off. When i land i hold throttle down until i deposit the tx on the ground and quickly grab the plane to disconnect batteries, the whole time i hold it as if it were going to go wot unexpectedly (hands and limbs out of the way until the deed is done) And then i turn off the tx. I'd rather prevent than get sewn up at the hospital. Sure our medical system is free in Canada, but you get what you pay for, i'd probably have bled to death had i suffered the same injury here... (waited 8h in the emergency room last time i was ill)

I find it odd that a spektrum dx6 would do this in the first place, isn't there some kind of built in protection in those things? I thought they were the safest radio systems out there. I smell a lawsuit! (just kidding)

[Falcon]

Mick your an idiot!!! only kidding mate:)

Since looking at your arm the other day I am very very careful how I handle my Yak, as I am far to good looking to scarr:D

Anyhow you guy's at Airfoilz make the best fomie type planes in the world by far, I have your Yak 54 and just love flying it at every chance, I have built a lot of foam planes and yours in my opinion is the pick.

Will post some pics of my bird later.

And good luck with that arm and finger Mick!!:eek:

[GooneyBird-Landing]

I am glad that you did post it. I was just talking to someone the other day about this type of thing referencing Helis and someone added foamies to the discusion too. I hate to be grim, but that could have been your throat, or the neighbors kid's that always love to watch these things. I hope more people will see this to 'remember' what can happen.

I hope for a speedy healing for you as well.

[Coonak]

:) Thanks guys,
I am all healed up now... stitches out, back on the bike and back in the air! :D

I haven't repaired the yak yet, but took the 540 up yesterday...... what a great plane!
Happy flying everyone!

[Gary Hoorn]

With any of the Spektrum radios you first bind the receiver and setup the plane. After all adjustments are made you re-bind the receiver with the sticks in the desired fail-safe postion. This means throttle all the way OFF! I set a mix on my radio, throttle-to-throttle and put it on a switch. This then functions like a throttle hold on a heli. Re-bind with the throttle hold switch on. Mine are set to -125. No way the ESC is going to activate with the switch on no matter where the throttle stick is set. Electrics hurt when they bite you. Treat them like a loaded gun!
Gary

[Vintauri]

Ouch, painful lesson there. I remember getting nipped by a prop on my glow plane years ago. Luckily it hit the top of my fingernail so it did not cut in mut man was it painfull as I bled under my nail.

Berg RX's for the non DX crowd also can be programmed for failsafe at signal loss. Good idea to cut the throttle on them.

Steve

[Flyingace451]

Working at an LHS, I know exactly what small "weak" foamies can do. I've heard and seen pics of a guys finger being sliced to the bone by a simple front yard basher type depron foamy. Don't under estimate plastic spinning at 16000 RPM.

[aflipz]

Well good luck getting a slowfly prop to spin 16K rpm... but looks like 5-6K is more than enough to hurt!

[grampi]

Sounds like you are a good candidate for Spectrum DX7 radio. If you turn off the TX, the receiver goes into fail-safe mode which is zero throttle..


Doesn't the DX6 as well?

[socomon]

I have to agree with the others here, Sounds like you did not have the throttle set to zero when you bound the receiver. When the reciever lost its signal when you shut off the transmitter, the throttle went to its fail-safe position, which sounds like it was WOT.

That is a nast injury. I'm very sorry you had that happen to you. Hopefully we all take a lesson away from that.

Steve

[socomon]

Msprygada:

Fail-safe on a DX6 or DX7 is whatever you program it to be - could be throttle closed or WOT!! If you are not sure what yours was set to, you may want to rebind your receiver making sure the throttle is closed.

Steve

[tdarst]

...that echos a previous one; and is less expensive than a wholesale changeout to Spectrum. I put a Berg 7P in my new Edge. First Edge, first Berg receiver. The Berg's are programmable via USB interface, fail-safe positions on loss of signal for all outputs is one of the options. While I have safely bench tested it and found it to work flawlessly... good procedures and safety measures will remain as my first barrier. I work in the Process Control profession for a major oil company. We do controlled tests on our safety systems, but try to avoid testing them live; they are simply the last defense against the "bad happenings". Glad to hear you're all healed up...

TD