Safety reminder!

[Biff]

Guys I know we're all about having a Giant time and flying hard, but a near miss occured that should be shared. A buddy of mine with thousands of hours with a transmitter shot another buddy down recently. The scenario; bunch of folks were flying and chatting. After landing his plane my bud turned off the flight systen, colapsed the antenna and set the transmitter down by his plane and turned his pin in (talking with buddies). Another pilot got the pin and was going to take off. His plane acted funny so he taxied around ,checked controls and tried again. This time he wasn't so lucky. His plane augerd in on take off. Nobody was hurt, but a really close call!

My buddy called and told me what happened and was obviously upset."That could have been terrible and it was all my fault. I simply can't believe I did that. I know better!!" He settled up on the flight line. Gentlemen shook hands and both realized they had made mistakes.


We've all done stupid things when you're not completely focussed on what we're doing. Chatting with your buddies is one of the reasons we fly. But do we chat with buddies while writing reports or doing our job? Usually not. I hate to admit it. But I was yacking away while setting up a Double Vision. Flew the plane and it just felt odd. Snapped REALLY weird. Landed the plane and saw why! I hadn't put in the bolts to the top of the inter plane struts! STUPID!!!

The other issue is if something don't seem right with a plane, something is wrong. If you get hit or the plane does something you didn't tell it to do, get it down and find out why! Hobbico's freq scanner is about $50. Get one and use it! Most fields have one. I keep one in the transmitter case and turn it on before I fly, every time.


Not shutting your transmitter off is somethig that COULD happen to each of us. Not listening to the little guy in your head saying "dude something's fishy, maybe I shouldn't fly" is something that WILL happen to all of us.

Nobody was hurt thankfully (these were gassers) the guys walked away as friends, but with a bad case of "What ifs".

I'm as guilty of anyone of having gotten away with some pretty stupid stuff. Not pointing fingers at all, just saying keep your mind in the game!!

Biff

[Bunky F. Knuckle]

Man, I can really empasize being ULTRA careful on that one. Not in this story, but another one, a year back now. DFE(Dern'ed Fooled Edjit) got in a hurry, turned on, while I was up with freq. pin attached to MY Tx. KRUNCH!!!! Goes my pride and joy 35% Carden(last years bird).

Just keep your witts about you, before, during, and after you fly, and everything will be smoothe air!!! And if in doubt, announce your frequency before turning on. Just a simple precaution will keep catostrophy away!!

Chris~

[Biff]

Good call Chris! I don't do that but will start.