not to smart

[Hawk_Sport]

well i for one would not attempt a single flight with any large nitro bird in a house... to me thats asking for it.... thats playing god.... what if he woulda lost controll? what would the onlookers do ? they sure as hell couldnt get out of the way of flying blades for sure. what about the one in the kicthen? i saw a dog dish..... what would he have done if the dog woulda come out and made a sudden move.. the heli hitting wall or braking through the patio doors. carnage everywhere.... these are not toys... very far from being a toy..... and the fumes? my god man i have started my aircraft in my workshed on a stand tied down and just 2 min of running the engine i had to kill the switch.... area being about 30X30 foot.... common sence says dont do it in a house.... eesh........ take heed of the dangers involved in this hobby. i dont care how good you are things do fail . and it will happen when not expecting it... next time could be certain death....

[pilgrim]

Don't know if this one has been posted but it sure shows what can happen in a crash!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rGvl1Lv_Yto

[rdlohr]

YOW! No, I've never seen that one!

Rick

[Tonystott]

Don't know if this one has been posted but it sure shows what can happen in a crash!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rGvl1Lv_Yto
Brilliant example! I suspect that the great majority of modellers (ie not just the general public) were amazed at the trajectory of that heli.

ShinOBIWAN, I have seen it time and time again.. the general public have absolutely zero perception of the dangers of model helis, and rather than shying away, will often approach closer out of curiosity. I once saw a woman almost run, to get closer to find out more about the helis. The pilot realised she was unaware of the dangers, so rapidly aborted the flight and switched to throttle hold. Another time, I watched as parents ignored their little 2 year old, who started heading 100 yards to where we were flying (we were alone until they turned up over in one corner of the field), until we quickly grounded the helis and shouted to the parents to catch their child. We packed up immediately of course. But the point is that any asumption that others will somehow miraculously identify the risks inherent in that invisible spinning rotor, is totally false.

Now let's consider the woman holding the camera in that kitchen.. is she really aware of the risks? I would doubt it, because the pilot wouldn't have flown the heli if he was aware of the risks, sso you can bet 100% that he downplayed the risks when asking her to operate the camera.

Is it our busine? YES, because as has been said already, all it takes is either a lawsuit ("you never told me it was dangerous to fly this heli inside") or some politician to see it as an opportunity to get a higher public profile, by attacking a minority activity, knowing that the R/C types affected by a crackdown won't have the voting power to defend themselves.

And these can affect people in other countries as well.

So I reckon we as a community should always jump on irresponsible flying, for our own future.

[pilgrim]

Well said Tonystott! I have been involved in a number of 'high risk factor' jobs as well as a few hobbies that had the potential to harm others. I was taught that safety was MY responsibility. A good example is loading and discharging dynamite. We always had to set a parameter and enforce it carefully because some people would always want to get closer than was safe.

Heli's are somewhat similar in my opinion. They can be dangerous even in the hands of a professional and should be treated with great respect. That video is a great example of the 'what if' factor. I don't want to see our privilage to fly hindered by someone with a lax or even bad attitude.

[Pinecone]

Let's see how much common sense people have.

People car surf (stand on the top of a moving car in a surfing pose).

People look down the barrel of a gun.

People drink and drive.

And those just get started. You say yuo quad, ever notice the disclaqimer on every advertisement? "Professional rider, do not try this." If people were so smart about dangers, do you think there would be warnings like this.

Think about these warnings and what it means about people:

"Do not pick up this lawn mower and trim hedges." Person did so, chopped off his fingers and sued.

"When the trigger of this firearm is manipulated, a bullet may be expelled from the muzzle at high velocity." In bold black letters, on orange background in manual that came with a Colt LQW Commanber piston. I sure hope so, as that is what it is supposed to do.

"Caution: Contents are Hot!" Hmm, hot coffee is hot? This is news.

"Do not put pets in microwave oven to dry." Duh.

People DAILY show that they have no sense, common or otherwise.

You mention rally fans. Well, I guess yuo know that the SCCA got out of stage rallying because of this. And just because people do it, actually PROVES how dumb they are. Watch some rally videos of people running to help a car that just ran off the road, when the NEXT car runs off at the same place. And rally fans do get killed.

And think about how you would feel, it is was one of your family members who got mained or killed by something that they did not perceive as dangerous. I am pretty sure, you would be teh FIRST person going off on how "someone" should have stopped that.