Just a quick introduction: I am Jim Rice (AMA L463) and Dr. Sandy Frank has appointed me the interim District VIII Safety Director due to the unfortunate illness of Mr. Don Nix. I will fill this position until elections are over and a new District VIII Vice President is selected and takes office. I am a modeler of 57 years and have flown RC since 1957. I was in the Army for 26 years and currently own a Hobby Shop in the San Antonio area. I have spent countless hours at flying fields and have participated in many contests and air shows. None of that is to say that I am a good pilot. All of it is to say I have seen innumerable accidents or near accidents and have become focused on the aspect of modeling safety in the past several years. As a flight instructor, the 1st hour of every new student's training is a safety and flying field etiquette briefing. Even before my new appointment, I became proactive in trying to increase safety awareness at the fields that I frequent.

I intend to publish a monthly article on the web site about safety. It will be short enough for newsletter editors to duplicate it in their monthly efforts if they wish. It will likely consist mainly of my own ramblings about safety incidents or suggestions to improve safety throughout the hobby. I solicit input from everyone for inclusion in this effort. It is my hope that all modelers in the district who read these Safety Notes will pass the information around to those who haven't read them and that they will take a look at local operations with an eye toward improving safety. At no time do I intend to embarrass anyone by my examples or descriptions of incidents. However, most of the things I discuss will be actual incidents with either no names or fictitious names attached.

July 2006 District VIII Safety Notes

Recent deaths in Hungary and serious injuries in the United States caused by RC aircraft and boats should peak everyone's interest in the safe operation of our hobby equipment. It is not always the other guy or the other club that has the accident. It can happen to you and your friends and will happen when you least expect it. After addressing one of our local clubs on safety, I was approached by Mr. John Haire who is a retired USAF pilot and a local modeler. He gave me a piece of wisdom that I already knew but had never heard put in the words he used. I hope I do his idea justice here. His comment was that you can generally tell when an accident is about to occur because something out of routine is happening. All pilots and clubs have routines and as long as the routines stay in tact we remain fairly safe (assuming it was a safe routine). For example, everyone is flying and having a good time when someone announces Dead Stick. The routine is broken and we all turn our attention to the airplane and pilot that has made the announcement. We all know his routine is broken and there is potential for a crash or other incident. Another example is a friend who was competing in and winning a contest on the 1st day. On the 2nd day as he put his airplane together, he was inundated with questions about his airplane. He was answering questions and continuing to work but had to stop his efforts several times to gesture and show things which were out of his normal routine. After he assembled the airplane, his turn to fly came and in the heat of the competition moment, he did not check all controls before take off. His ailerons were not connected and fortunately, only his pride and aircraft were broken. They were broken because of a broken routine

Just last month, another friend of mine came to the field and he had not flown in several months. I taught him to fly so I knew his routine and in fact I drilled a pre-takeoff checklist into him. (I will make that check list part of a later safety note). As he was starting his engine and preparing to fly, I noticed some faltering in his normally smooth preflight procedures. He seemed to be thinking more trying to remember things that were somewhat distant. As he took his plane from its restraint and stood at the pilot station, I could see him going through his mental checklist but I noticed that he missed the "antenna up" part of the list. I started out to the flight line to advise him to pull his antenna out but before I got there he went back through his checklist and pulled the antenna out. The point is that I could tell he was out of his normal routine which caused me to watch him more closely than I would normally that I could help if needed. He also knew he was out of routine so he started over and fixed his problem. Having a routine is good and noticing that you or someone else is out of routine can head off an incident.

A final comment on routines, new pilots do not have well established routines. Experienced pilots need to help them establish safe routines and encourage them to use them every time they come to the field. For example, if a new pilot decides to attempt a 1st test flight, join them in the assembly of the airplane, helping them in a thorough preflight inspection including CG and control checks. Stand next to them as they prepare to fly. Understand that their routine is being interrupted by nervous twitches and shaky hands and they might forget part of their pre-takeoff routine. Be prepared to remind them about dual rate switches, timers, antennas, or wind direction. Years ago, in the single channel days, my Dad was about to handlaunch an airplane for a new guy. It was his 1st test flight. As Dad held the 6 foot model with the engine running over his head for the launch; he looked back at the pilot and yelled is it on? Meaning is the radio on and working. The young man nodded nervously and motioned for the launch so Dad ran out and tossed the airplane. It flew straight away without any trim needed but as the guy tried to make his 1st turn the airplane continued straight away. The airplane did not respond because the switch was not turned on. After they chased the airplane down and returned to the flying field, Dad asked him why he said yes when asked if it was on and the newbie said?..I thought you meant the engine. Another routine needed established or was broken-- I don't know which. Unfortunately, RC airplanes flying away were the routine in those days.

If you have comments or input for me, please direct it to

Be Safe!