Well, I relearned a valuable lesson tonight, and one that I already knew and should've known better than to do. Always, Always and ALWAYS remove the prop before you work on you're plane and make extra sure you unplug the battery before you turn off the transmitter! Not doing so can be painful and expensive! It sure was for me tonight. I had just finished replacing a servo in my Mini Funtana and committed 2 No-No's. Number 1, I didn't take the prop off before working on and powering up to do a test with the new servo, and #2, I failed to unplug the battery before I turned off the TX, which in turn caused the motor to power up to wide open! I knew better than to do either one but I had worked on planes so much the last several months that I had gotten lax and didn't even think about the dangers of a spinning prop. I even had the plane sitting in a PVC stand and it still took off, stand and all!! Things happened so fast that my natural reflex was to grab the plane, and when I did, the prop struck me right in the wrist! It cut me about a inch and a half long and to the bone. 1 inch further to the left and it would've hit the artery and then I would have really been in trouble! Needless to say, I've spent the last 2 1/2 hours at the hospital getting stitched up. It took 5 or 6 stitches or more (can't see how many for the bandage) to close the wound. I just wanted to post my accident with the hopes that it will be a heads up to a new person to the hobby ( or even a seasoned pilot) about what can and will happen by being careless! Be careful guys and gals!

Hope you will be allright! It also sounds like you have an Rx with a failsafe. Most Rx with failsafes will go full throttle if no signal is recieved for a specified amount of time. You can disable the failsafe or choose to program it such as 1/3 throttle, left turn climb etc. It also means in this case if you had flown beyond Tx signal your airplane would have gone full throttle and kept on flying until it....well you get the picture.

I'm sorry to hear of your accident and I'm glad that you came through it.

While some may snicker "oh look this thread again", I feel no matter how many times we see this type of thread we should all take notice and pay attention to how we handle our models.

We do tend to slip here and there and the moment you stop paying attention is the moment our toys remind us how untoylike and dangerous they really are.

Oh, look! Same thread all over again......

GOOD!!!

It needs repeating.

Safety first, always!

We sometimes have to be reminded. That's what my wife tells me and she is wrong....I always have to be reminded.

I had a similar experience in the summer. got 3 nice 3in gashes in my forearm about 1/4-1/2in deep and the blade broke and did a nice job peeling of about 1/8in of skin about 4in long. SAFETY 1st. If one person reads this thread and saves them self from gettin bit. Mission accomplished.

great post. Some can never hear "be careful" too many times.

I did some checking today ( with the prop off!!) and it was just like 1fullbird said, the failsafe wasn't set up properly. When the transmitter was turned off with the battery still plugged in it would run wide open for about 5 seconds. I've got everything set up properly now to where the motor will not even power up without moving the throttle stick. It was my fault for not rebinding the Spectrum Rx two times and double checking like the instructions said to do. I'm just thankful that it was only a park 400 size motor and not one of my larger motors and also that the prop broke when it hit or I would have really been chewed up, requiring a whole lot more than the 5 or 6 stitches I currently have. It could've easily been a lot worse! You can bet I'll remember "SAFETY" from now on!

As a newbie with a few foamies, I'll keep this in mind!

Hmm, if the prop is hard to remove, how about chocking some foam over the prop blades while you're working on the model? Seems like it should work.

Originally Posted by AussieNewbie

As a newbie with a few foamies, I'll keep this in mind!

Hmm, if the prop is hard to remove, how about chocking some foam over the prop blades while you're working on the model? Seems like it should work.

I was wearing a sweatshirt last night and it went through it like a hot knife in butter and sliced me clean, so I don't know if foam would've helped, but if you're cautious enough to put foam on the prop first then it probably wouldn't ever happen to you because you're already being careful and practicing safety. I got careless even though I knew better!

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Originally Posted by bartricky

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Got that right!