Don't Get Hurt!

[violetwolf]

I just saw this post on another forum and thought it is a timely message as many of us prepare our machines for a new season. Every year we see way too many of these posts:

This thread is located at:
http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1820773&goto=newpost

Here is the message that has just been posted:
***************
I did a really stupid thing yesterday. I did not remove the props when testing the motors and had the Quad fly up in to me. I now have three long gashes in my right arm and one on my forehead. I had removed the buzzer that lets me know when the FC is armed and I was thinking that it was not armed and gave throttle. Lesson learned, ALWAYS REMOVE THE PROPS.

Terry

 

[JPG23]

Thanks for sharing, and YES, remove props when testing, updating firmware and/or calibrating in software. Here's something that scared the absolute crap out of me when I started working with the DJI Naza M Lite; while updating the FC firmware on the Naza Assistant software, the motors suddenly went full throttle (I always remove props) and the first thing I thought way "those E-Props would've killed me""! Here's why I thought that, I was using my laptop to do the update and I had the S500 directly next to me (my arm was touching one of the landing gear and the vibration / sound almost made me jump out of my seat.

Everyone be safe

 

[violetwolf]

I've had mine spin up a few times unexpectedly without props on as well. I have one quite large Hex that would probably have killed me if it had props on. Here's another story I saw posted on another forum today:

---Quote (Originally by msgnfg)---
I spent six hours in the ER and received 25 stitches in two fingers doing something similar last year. Cost me $1,500 in medical bills. Lesson learned. Now I try to educate as many people as possible at the field so they can learn from my mistakes.
---End Quote---
Yeah that's to bad.. I had something happen that could of been bad but I got lucky.. I was outside arming the quad and the red and blue were flashing back and forth well after 30 seconds or so I realized it's not going to arm so I grabbed the quad and went inside my house. Well soon as I set the quad down on the table with the battery still plugged in the motors started to spin with throttle and came at me. Luckily I'm like batman and caught it and no bodily harm lol..

 

[violetwolf]

The story above brings up another safety concern: Always unplug your battery if you're going to move your copter... Fail-safe can kick in and cause it to try to return to launch. Had this one happen too. (While testing with no props on to see if I could make it happen.)

 

[Alwil]

Another concern I have and it happened to me a couple of years ago. I had finished a flight
and landed. Absent minded me turned off my Futaba and walked toward the copter- Guess
what- It took off in failsafe mode. Just lucky I did not have my hands inside unplugging the
battery. I think about this every time I land now.

 

[ProfEngr]

All good things that would get added to a JSB (Job Safety Briefing we do 2x/day at work) if one were to be performed as a pre-flight. It's basically a form we go over as a group that's designed to make us think about the task at hand for the moment or day, depending; i.e. what safety gear do we have/need and where is it located, what are the local emergency #s and closest medical facility, what is the work task, what hazzards are associated with it, and what precautions can we take to minimize them. It can get monotonous, but also helps us not to fall back on auto-pilot (no pun intended, oh wait) and forget something trivial that could be dangerous/lethal.

 

[violetwolf]

Along the same lines: approaching the copter while still armed with the transmitter slung around the neck.. Bend over activating the throttle...

Now I manually disarm using the TX, test that it's disarmed by raising the throttle, then put the TX down, making sure it's still on & throttle is off, and only then approach the drone.