Pictures of injuries caused by RC Helicopters

[great_life]

Please remember to reprogram you ESC to zero throttle in fail safe mode. This is very improtant. I turned off my radio by accident once and the blade started spinning. Fortunately the fail safe was set to very low speed, no fingersl lost. Is there a safty check list from Align that includes the fail safe setting. This is indeed a very dangerous hobby. For begginers I highly recommand you go with the Dragonfly #4 or Sabre where you can obtain other safety experiences without getting hurt.

[tricky dicky]

I have just posted pics of the cuts I sustained on Tuesday from my Trex 500. read the thread and you will get the story.


http://www.archeli.com.au/cobra/showthread.php?t=114908

[widower]

OOOOUCH!!!

I presume reconstruction of your arm is done with stitches, or is there something else?

Thanks for posting. Pics like that leave goood reminders.

Hope the healing goes smoothly.

[fogger]

crap that is a painful lesson for sure. Hope your arm heals up ok bro. IMO spektrum should not allow the failsafe throttle to be anything but off... This is a safety hazard, even though the user needs to understand how to set it up right, missing that one little detail clearly can have drastic consequences.

TD, you may want to send that pic with the story to Horizon / Spektrum and see if you can lobby for this safety modification to be made to their receivers in the future.

-Fog

[saltydon]

I just finished a flight and had changed the batteries in my Hurricane 550. I always follow the startup proceedure of having the radio at half throttle so the motor isn't armed when the battery is connected. I also had the radio on the table beside the heli within easy reach. Just as I pushed the deans together I noticed the throttle was at 0 so I reached over and poked it to half throttle. The very second I did this I realized what would happen if the ESC armed, which it did. The same time as I slide the throttle to 0 the blade made one half rotation and gained enough speed to brake the blade on my arm bones with an on edge strike. This all took a millisecond to occur. The acceleration of the blade in a one half rotation was not only awe inspiring but also pain inducing. My arm has since swelled and two days later is almost unmovable at the wrist. Leave the radio out of reach until the heli is positioned for lift off might be a good rule. Duh. With an ESC it will not start if it is not moved no matter what the position. I knew that!!!

[fogger]

Don't you use throttle hold? You might consider setting it to -5% and make sure t-hold is engaged before you plug in. This way the throttle stick position is irrelevant.

-Fog

[tricky dicky]

Fogger, thanks for the advice bro - a little late for me, but good advice for the future - and importantly for others as well.

[fogger]

Well tricky, unfortunately that knowlege would not have helped in your case; only having the receivers failsafe set to zero throttle would have saved your poor arm. The throttle hold deal should be something all new pilots are taught by their mentors... If the setup vids here don't stress this than we should evaluate that also.

I'm just sorry to see more people don't get that setup advice sooner I guess. Did you see my above post and think about sending the story to Horizon and Spektrum?

-Chris

[saltydon]

My wrist is healing and I now use t-hold as well as leave the tx out of reach just so there is no chance of contacting the radio while moving the heli around while setting up for flight. A very healthy respect was learned by getting smacked and I know I got off easy. Safety First!!

[Gene465]

Good thread, sorry about the injuries that have occured but these need to be seen. It's a shame that so many safety rules in place have been written in blood. Just a reminder to me that I have to always be carefull and not take anything for granted. Hope all these nasty injuries heal and no one is permantly injured. Gene

[fend78]

Here is a video I came upon pretty nasty!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VdIlUYiVmnc

[wannaflyguy]

Here's my injury:

http://tn3-2.deviantart.com/fs6/300W/i/2005/072/2/2/Broken_heart_by_fabu.jpg

[CodeB4U]

Wow, Just got my Belt CP yesterday, charged the battery today. Now I'm a little nervous in just plugging in the battery !! This is my first heli at that. I knew i shouldn't have clicked on this thread !!!

What's throttle hold? Something a RTF radio wouldn't have right?

[Tim Smith]

Here's my injury:
http://tn3-2.deviantart.com/fs6/300W/i/2005/072/2/2/Broken_heart_by_fabu.jpgI am like this also :arggg::arggg::arggg::arggg:
At least I am not addictited to CRACK!!:badair::badair::badair::badair::smokin::sm okin:

I am with you

[PilotSmith]

Wow, Just got my Belt CP yesterday, charged the battery today. Now I'm a little nervous in just plugging in the battery !! This is my first heli at that. I knew i shouldn't have clicked on this thread !!!

What's throttle hold? Something a RTF radio wouldn't have right?

It would be much safer and far less expensive to first fly a few hours on a simulator on a PC... When you can fly without crashing on the sim then take the real thing for a spin.

[Hawk18052]

Don't want to hurt myself but I'd rather have it be me than someone in the area. There's a post here about a guy flying his heli and a lady with a dog comes along, the dog chases the heli-the lady chases the dog. What a nightmare! I'm worried because one of the places I'm planning on flying is in a park that no one really goes to but there are houses around and people get curious about these things. I know "fly at the local club" they aren't heli friendly there (all planes). You would think that common logic would tell a person that it's basicly a fly lawmower. So If I hafta ditch my heli because someone gets to close I will, but I'll give them a safety lecture and let them know if it happens again they will be paying for the replacement parts. Hopefully that works. what else can ya do? Not fly?

Hawk

[Tim Smith]

I have had my hot start at my coffe table and as by looking at some of these photos I was very veyr fortunate indeed:noteworthy:noteworthy
I have made quite a bit of advancement in this hobby With out the good fortune of having a RC mentor.. Just Finless bob,all the post ,vid's and photos on helifreak and RC helimag.
The one thing I have to say is that the Warnings and Do's and Don'ts in some of these manual s Flat ass suck:thumbdown: I think even if a Product is Dangerous ( And Especilly If )
The manufacters should go to Extreme Lengths to send this message out to the purchaser. In the form of Examples and better explanations of Exactly Why something is dangerous.... These Companies are banking and laughing at the fact that we have become so addictied to a RC toys as we all have. The money pit sindrome involved with the RC heli market is truley as absurd as the aotumotive industry:roll: Things are manufactured to sale and break and sale more. I mean why not up grade the dammn thing in the first place ,Then you are truly making a quality product not just bank on th eidea that it will cost and cost and cost till you finnallu get it right or give up trying .You guys know this is as bad a crack in some way's :thinking

[Blackwood Engineering]

Just Imagine the responsibility of owning and operating the heli in this video!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c2tDneYsvro

Jim

[HeliMix]

Ok, adding to my wish/need list today... Meat cutters gloves (the chainmesh gloves), tree cutters pants and jacket, three pairs of safety goggles, and a full face motorcycle helmet.

These images really make you think. :shock:

[tz250w]

http://www.helifreak.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=26568&d=1190132473

I was starting to get excited until I realized it was a dude's leg! :puke:

[rcnut]

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The one thing I have to say is that the Warnings and Do's and Don'ts in some of these manual s Flat ass suck I think even if a Product is Dangerous ( And Especilly If )
The manufacters should go to Extreme Lengths to send this message out to the purchaser. In the form of Examples and better explanations of Exactly Why something is dangerous....
__________________________________________________ __________________________________________________ _____

Most people will just skip right passed the warning pages. It would be nice if everyone read the warnings AND instruction first, but this is life, it'll never happen. Most people need to learn the hard way, and some......well, they never learn.

Just my 2 cents worth.

[LoveMyTrex]

I always plug in at throttle hold and carry it out to the flight line in TH then place the stick at half throttle in normal, switch out of TH and hit my timer, pull my hair out of my eyes and take of, idle 1,idle 2 rolls rolls rolls. :) has always worked for me.

[PilotSmith]

After having the heli spool up and almost run away from me a couple times from accidentally knocking over my TX, I make it a habit now to always set the throttle hold switch when the heli is not in use. When you figure you have two big blades spinning near 3000 RPM and 2 smaller razor sharp blades spinning around 12,000 RPM I guess you really don't need that much in written warnings to know that that flying buzz saw is dangerous. I got my finger in the tail blades once, and that was enough to hold my attention from that day forward!

[OhDonPiano]

So I am not sure if indirect causation rules apply to this thread... Anyway, if it weren't for heli's this wouldn't have happened.

I probably get the "dumb-@$$" award...

I get most of my heli stuff (parts, etc.) shipped to my work, because that is where I am at during the day. If the package is small enough, I usually open up the box and transfer the contents to my messenger bag which I take to work every day (I take a subway to work)...

Anyway, today was no different... package arrived. I was excited as usual, and decided to transfer the contents to my bag (as usual). Only this time, the cheap plastic-y pair of scissors I use to slice open the boxes decided to slip past 180 degrees, and my thumb goes with them. I'm not sure how to explain exactly what happened, but anyway, in the end, I nice big chunk of my thumb ended up on the tip of the scissors. Seriously... what you see missing in the photo was actually on the end of the scissors. The photo doesn't really do it justice - or maybe its just different when you look down and see a chunk of yourself not attached to yourself...

Basically what I am trying to say, is that this is the worst paper-cut you could probably ever receive from the RC heli hobby!

Anyway, the positive part of this mishap is that I get to see how permanent finger print patterns are... Will this grow back as a scar or as my original fingerprint pattern? hmmm...

[forjer]

Ouch...that smarts.