Warning - Check the condition of your rotor blades REGULARLY!

[Raptorite]

Hi All,

Just a quick reminder to those flying wooden rotor blades, or even carbon fibre or glass fibre ones for that matter. Please check the condition of your blades regularly and if you are at all unsure about the condition of a blade, REPLACE BOTH blades with a new set.

Also, for those of you who are using wooden blades, make quite sure that the plastic blade roots have been well glued to the wood, using strong 2 part epoxy resin.

This is what can happen if a set of blades let go on you, the model was only hovering at 3 foot above the ground and around 20 foot away from me at the time, so be warned!

Cheers,
Pete.

[Butuz]

Ow!!! That looks nasty mate

Butuz

[Janek]

Geez Pete, you were lucky there!. Where you flying at your own field, on your own, when that happened ?.

[ChrisB]

Ouch,,i always check them daily and between flights during the day

[Raptorite]

Thanks guys, yes it was pretty nasty. The force of the impact was enough to knock me backwards off my feet and into the long grass behind me.

Another very good point raised by Janek there, yes, I was flying at my own field, and yes, there was someone with me. I very seldom fly alone, and not at all if I can help it, for just this sort of reason, as you never know when you might need help.

Still it made for some interesting discussions with the hospital staff at the local casualty department when I took myself off to be patched up

This photo was taken more or less directly after I got home from the hospital late on a Friday evening, by Sunday morning my whole face had swollen up like a baloon and I could barely see as my top and bottom eye lids were almost completely covering my eyes. It took about 4 days for the swelling to subside, and after 5 days when the stick on stitch things came off, you would barely recognise anything had happened.

Cheers,
Pete.

[G-DAVE]

Very sorry to hear about this PETE - hope it heals quickly.
Regards Dave

[Raptorite]

Thanks Dave, it has all but gone now thankfully. The good thing was there was no lasting damage done and it just serves as a good reminder to us all that we need to be very careful about maintaining and checking our models before flying them.

Cheers,
Pete.

[Stuart]

Pete,

I hope you get better soon, I bet that gave you a hell of a headache.

[ChrisB]

Ouch,i hope you are all better now,just serves as a stark reminder of the damage our beloved helis can inflict upon us if we encounter a failure

[up&away]

to be honest,,its not the thing i check often,,will from now on,,

[Raptorite]

Thanks Stu, I certainly had that horrible smell in my nose for a while, and a bit of a headache yes.

Raptor, yes you are right there, it is a stark reminder, I just hope that my own experience can be shared by people here so we can all fly our helis in as safe a manner as possible.

Up&Away, I am really pleased to hear that, the aim of this post was to raise awareness of safety issues and that we should all check our models regularly, so good on you

Cheers,
Pete.