…with a nice chianti and some fava beans… :eek:
No, I will not post a link to a pic of Ray Liotta at the end of ‘Hannibal’.
Here those types of models are restricted to fenced areas where spectators are kept several meters away to protect them from crashes. It’s not even just the helicopters, these are models that run on gas engines so they’re heavy and most parts of them are fairly sturdy. In the event of a crash anyone hit by it is going to be seriously injured.
My husband is a fan and we’ve gone to a few demonstration days and some club practice days and most operators we’ve met are quite aware of the danger and very cautious about safety.
It looks like the park he died at was the same one from the youtube videos he’d shot previously and despite the fact that it’s a park in NY it looks deserted.
It really does sound like a skilled operator had a tragic mechanical failure which caused the accident. Witness reports talk about a sudden boomerang in the middle of a maneuver.
I know. I was taking literary license. I debated whether to use ‘model’ or ‘toy’. Since the saying is ‘Don’t lose your head over [something inconsequential]’, I opted for the inconsequential noun.
Still, a ‘toy’ is an object that is played with, and remote control models are played with; so they really are toys. When I was into r/c, I would have been offended if someone called them toys. Now, anything that is played with is a toy.
As I was reading the story I kept wondering “Where is John Landis?”
DOH! :smack:
Nobody gets this joke anymore:
Remove a bill from your wallet and grasp the ends. Pull it and relax it with some rapidity, such that it sounds like rotor blades. ‘What’s this?’ ‘The last thing Vic Morrow ever heard.’
We’d better ban cars from public highways too. Have you seen what happens to pedestrians in motor vehicle accidents? :eek:
Do pedestrians in public parks expect to get mowed down by cars? No, because parks aren’t public highways.
Should we ban bicycles from parks, then? Dogs? Frisbees?
Do bicycles, dogs or frisbees cause similar injuries?
For an idea of what kind of crazy maneuvers people perform with R/C choppers, check out this video which was highlighted in a recent thread here.
Bicycles and dogs have certainly killed more people than remote controlled helicopters. Hell, probably more than all helicopters.
Maybe not frisbees.
I thought those blades were made from plastic and not that powerful. Guess I was wrong
I’m sure bicycles have killed more people that shoving a running chainsaw up an asshole too, but that doesn’t mean that comparison is at all valid.
Feel free to explain why flying a toy helicopter is more like shoving a chainsaw up an asshole than it is like riding a bicycle.
What, in like, essay form?
Preferably in meter.
And a spectator at a model aircraft field (which is what this was) ought to expect that there will be model aircraft flying.
It’s not so much about the power; the engine/motor doesn’t have enough torque to push the blade through you in the same way that you push a kitchen knife blade through a potato. It’s the speed and momentum of the blade itself that makes it happen, like swinging a meat cleaver at a pot roast.
Put two of these carbon-fiber heli rotor blades on the spindle, and you’ve got a rotor about six feet in diameter, weighing nearly two pounds and spinning at a couple thousand RPM. Carbon fiber is some tough stuff, and at that size, it has a lot of momentum; it’s pretty much like swinging a meat cleaver.
Are you including the Vietnam War in that estimate?
What was a model aircraft field? The story in the OP took place at Calvert Vaux Park, which sounds like a public park to me. Are you saying it was a dedicated model aircraft field?