Just over lunch today, I had the feathering shaft let go on my HK250GT. Partly my fault I think; I had a light tip-over on the previous landing, and the blades stopped abruptly. No damage (that I could see), so i picked it up and powered on again. It didn't even get off the ground luckily, it blew as soon as the rotor came up to speed. Those blades still flew about 10' in either direction, while the heli was still on the ground. How far would they have gone if it was 10' in the air?!?

Scary stuff. I don't think I'll be flying 4' in front of me anymore like I have in the past.

That makes two of us! I got back from the ophthalmologist today, he says the cut has pretty much healed but bleeding caused by the impact not gone, there are a lot of red blood cells floating around in the eye which is why I can't see still. After the 2nd day my vision went from zero to foggy with shapes, it seemed to get better but then got worse. Now it's just blurry. It's no better than it was the day after the injury. He says I've been too active and the blood cells have been stirring up, making it very foggy. He says they will eventually clear and drain and I should have it fully restored, but I can't be active at all. I thought I was taking it easy, but he wants me to really take it easy, like don't move basically all day. That's going to be tough, but I don't have much choice.

this is a pic I took of my eye with my cell. Pretty gross lol, but if you are curious, you can see how foggy the center is, and you can see where all the blood is accumulated at the bottom of the cornea, that has to drain and is causing a blockage and higher pressure.

I was face down in bed for a month
like they do for cataract surgery only longer
I lost my lense and have nerve damage
take it easy and be patient
I feel for ya
DIG

Originally Posted by Kawi

That makes two of us! I got back from the ophthalmologist today, he says the cut has pretty much healed but bleeding caused by the impact not gone, there are a lot of red blood cells floating around in the eye which is why I can't see still. After the 2nd day my vision went from zero to foggy with shapes, it seemed to get better but then got worse. Now it's just blurry. It's no better than it was the day after the injury. He says I've been too active and the blood cells have been stirring up, making it very foggy. He says they will eventually clear and drain and I should have it fully restored, but I can't be active at all. I thought I was taking it easy, but he wants me to really take it easy, like don't move basically all day. That's going to be tough, but I don't have much choice.

this is a pic I took of my eye with my cell. Pretty gross lol, but if you are curious, you can see how foggy the center is, and you can see where all the blood is accumulated at the bottom of the cornea, that has to drain and is causing a blockage and higher pressure.

That is looking much better. I can now see two sharp clean cuts that was not clear in your first photo. The most important thing is that the central area is spared. The two cuts seems to be healing cleanly and there is no infection either. You must listen to what the ophthalmologist said and take it very easy.

Originally Posted by zadaw

That is looking much better. I can now see two sharp clean cuts that was not clear in your first photo. The most important thing is that the central area is spared. The two cuts seems to be healing cleanly and there is no infection either. You must listen to what the ophthalmologist said and take it very easy.

the white part healed very fast, nobody can even tell anything happened by looking at me. The center part is another story, but I plan on keeping still as much as possible. I'm supposed to sleep with my head elevated though, I tried that, it's just not happening. Even if I do manage to fall asleep that way, that's not how I wake up at all.

Originally Posted by DIG2fly

I was face down in bed for a month
like they do for cataract surgery only longer
I lost my lense and have nerve damage
take it easy and be patient
I feel for ya
DIG

How did you injure it?

I was pulling a stuck ATV with my ATV and the rope broke and basicaly wipped my eye dead center smashing the lense into my eye.
11mm climbing rope breaks at over 7000 LB do the math
70 mile ride out of woods
2 hr drive to ER
10 hr solo drive home from Utah with one throbbing headach and a patch on my injured eye
surgery the next day
now just a blur dark spot in center from scarring

Originally Posted by DIG2fly

I was pulling a stuck ATV with my ATV and the rope broke and basicaly wipped my eye dead center smashing the lense into my eye.
11mm climbing rope breaks at over 7000 LB do the math
70 mile ride out of woods
2 hr drive to ER
10 hr solo drive home from Utah with one throbbing headach and a patch on my injured eye
surgery the next day
now just a blur dark spot in center from scarring

Ow, I hope that somehow didn't hurt as much as I imagine it would. did you pass out or anything? Glad you have a positive attitude about dealing with it.

Wow I'm sorry to hear what you went through man, my injury was not as penetrating and destructive to the eye yet the pain was so intense and violent, I can only begin to imagine what you went through. Is there anything that can be done to restore the vision or are they not there yet?

no hope for my eye it was quite a hit I took
at leaest I was doing what I like to do when it happened
I was in a high mountain medow, the view was spectacular
I can still fly and ride and I still do more than most and DIVE
DIG

Rope or chain under tension is one of the least known and most lethal things out there. I've got a friend who was a toe truck driver and he's told me of people who've died when that cable snapped. I'm always paranoid around them. I wouldn't have expected it from a rope pulling a 4wheeler but I also didn't expect to be injured by the nano.

My eye

And you can sense just light at the edges?

pretty much just a blurr

What a close call man. I'm glad things are working out. Your post has impacted me and I bet thousands of others. I fly my MCX2 in the family room a lot, But we all know how unpredictable kids movements can be.

Ie never caught myself in the eye with a heli but I've had two major eye infections from contact lenses ( wich I only wear about 6 days a year now. Water park, beach etc ). The pain is undesirable! It is the sharpest most relentless pain I have ever had and I did take pain killers for it and you were smart in saying no. It barely takes an edge off. I think the nerves are so sensitive in the eye that painkillers don't seem to do squat!. I too had to set an alarm clock at night, wake up every hour and do drops A and drops B which both had to be kept refrigerated, in a cooler on my nightstand, the stress of "thinking" is my eye going to be OK or ami going to lose it is scary. I'm so glad things are working out for you.

I went to Wills Eye Hospital in Philadelphia. Great hospital but it would blow your mind how busy the ER is at an eye hospital. All eye injuries, all day , all night. WOW.

The first time I spooled up my MCPX. My 1sr CP heli, I was like HOLY SPIN!! It scared me but we all know how we take things for granted. I don't think it would be a bad idea to wear safety glasses. Those little things seem to move/twitch faster than a 450, and because they are small we all tend to fly them closer to ourselves. I know I lose orientation fast past 30 feet because my eyes aren't all that great.

Last week I was flying my 450. No crashes. Was in a hover about 3-4 feet off the ground and heard POP! Blades flew off in two directions. I have the heli full pitch to soften the landing and the Flybar paddles helped. I got it strait down and bent one landing skid. The blades and blade holders were about 10-15 feet in two directions. In prestine condition !!! Shame on me for checking every screw on the head and loctite. EXCEPT.... The feathering shaft screws. I've learned a lot of thing the hard way in his hobby, but I learn from every one of them. So far, haven't made the same mistake twice. I was lucky and I dubbed that..."my most successful crash ever". One landing skid, 1 washer and 1 screw.

Hope your eye gets to 100% and I hope you still enjoy this hobby. Sometimes an accident like that retires people from their hobby and I can surely understand it when it does happen,

Paul

Paul, you're right, the pain is hard to explain until you feel it. Fortunately it went away by the next day for me, and after that it was just an inner pain, more bruise like in feeling. But that initial pain, oh boy!

Wow that's twice now someone has mentioned their blades going off in 2 directions, and you're right, until you just mentioned it, I never even thought of the feathering shaft letting go even though I take it apart all the time, the only thing left holding the blades should it go would be the links and that's not going to do much. Just another reminder I guess that these things are really held together by tiny little screws that all too ofter don't bite like they should.

The eye is apparently getting better but I have to say my vision is worse than it ever was in that eye. I'm reassuring myself that it's going to be fine because the dr just yesterday said it was just a lot of blood cells mixed in with the fluid and it will eventually clear up. He reassured me that my vision was going to completely return, so I'm really clinging to that right now!

I'm surprised by the response and I thank everyone for all the good wishes again. I'm normally a private person in these circumstances, even the people I work with don't really know about my eye, but after some thought it really started to concern me about the likelihood of this happening to someone else and it's the only reason I made this thread. With the unprecedented increase in rc helis out there, and more and more of them being micros we fly indoors, very clearly it's just a numbers game. This IS going to happen to others. I have little kids (3) and I'm sure I'm not the only one here. It would be irresponsible of me to NOT share my story. I've been very careless around them with the micros until now, only because I had no idea. Just knowing what can happen and that little nudge saying "get back a little further" can make all the difference.