Tomstoy2
Member
Damn guys,,, St. Pattie's sucked for me!
Here's how she went down.
Woke up about 10:30 A.M. to a beautiful day,, about 66 degrees F and aboslutely no wind what-so-ever.
Had a cup of coffee, thought about having a second,,, then thought I would do a little work on my Hexa before getting cleaned up and going over to my buddy's place in the country to fly her.
Powered up everything and did a couple changes to the gimbal, then decided I wanted to increase the expo on the controls.
In the tx, I ended up accidentally bypassing a safety in the servo screen and the motors all turned on!
Instinct,,, I grabbed a skid, from underneith with the left hand to control it. Then with the right I went underneith to grab the battery and give her a rip.
Before my hand got to the battery, suddenly the motors went to full throttle, torqueing the landind strut over almont to 90 dergrees horizontal and two props struck both fore-arms, a third struck my left knee, shattering against all that titanium. Superficial cut at most.
The 2 that struck my fore-arms laid them both open about 5 inches long and an inch deep striking the bones!!!
Ripped the battery out, grabbed my fore-arms, bleeding like crazy, rush into the kitchen, shoved them under the faucet, gave them a good rinse.
Grabed both fore-arms and squeezed the cuts together I rush back into the living room, grab my phone and with one hand release one fore-arm, over the sink again, and tried to turn it in.
Learned that the slider to activate the Iphone won't work with blood all over it, so, there I am wipping the phone off on my robe.
Got it on finally, speed dialed another friend and on speaker told him to rush over and take me to the emergency room.
He yells, in a panic, "call 011 now!"
Told him that there was no arterial spray, so I was fine, just get here as fast as he can and then rushed into my bedroom and grabed 4 tee shirts.Used one each to wrap each fore-arm and pull as tight as possible with one hand and my teeth, and then wrapped both of them with another tee shirt, each, because by then both were soaked and dripping.
Threw on some cloths, walked outside and my buddy pulls up and off to the emergency room we go.
6 hours,,, yes, 6, I was out of there.
They didn't use simple stiches, but some other stitch that weaves everything together. They did tell me that the reason for that particular stitch was because if they used simple stitch it would have taken over 50 stitches each to close the wounds!
Another doctor comes in and reviewes the work and complements the work done, saying I'll be left with hardly a scar at all.
Came home and my house looks like a crime scene!!!
I know, nobody needs to tell me how stupid I was to not disconnect the battery after the gimbal work, nor that I should have removed the props first, or how lucky I was.
It was stupid, and I learned the hard way that short cuts are not worth taking,,, ever!!!
I post this so that the new guys, hopefully, will understand that these things are super-dangerous!!! They can easily kill you!!!
It was stupid to let instinct rule my actions. Complancency on my part is all I can stand on. A very, very sorry excuse at best
Had I rotated my right arm to grab the battery the out come of all this could have been disasterous!
As it is, because I work in a medical clean room, I'll miss a week of work. That is nothing compaired to my damaged pride.
I've been flying some sort of aircraft for 50 years, super save, been bit before, but nothing like this.
Now, I'll just sit here, back on pain meds for a few days, licking my pride, and hopeing somebody else will learn to never let complacency set up residence in their brains!
Above everything else,,, always think safety first. Do as say, not as I do, best advise Ii have ever given
Here's how she went down.
Woke up about 10:30 A.M. to a beautiful day,, about 66 degrees F and aboslutely no wind what-so-ever.
Had a cup of coffee, thought about having a second,,, then thought I would do a little work on my Hexa before getting cleaned up and going over to my buddy's place in the country to fly her.
Powered up everything and did a couple changes to the gimbal, then decided I wanted to increase the expo on the controls.
In the tx, I ended up accidentally bypassing a safety in the servo screen and the motors all turned on!
Instinct,,, I grabbed a skid, from underneith with the left hand to control it. Then with the right I went underneith to grab the battery and give her a rip.
Before my hand got to the battery, suddenly the motors went to full throttle, torqueing the landind strut over almont to 90 dergrees horizontal and two props struck both fore-arms, a third struck my left knee, shattering against all that titanium. Superficial cut at most.
The 2 that struck my fore-arms laid them both open about 5 inches long and an inch deep striking the bones!!!
Ripped the battery out, grabbed my fore-arms, bleeding like crazy, rush into the kitchen, shoved them under the faucet, gave them a good rinse.
Grabed both fore-arms and squeezed the cuts together I rush back into the living room, grab my phone and with one hand release one fore-arm, over the sink again, and tried to turn it in.
Learned that the slider to activate the Iphone won't work with blood all over it, so, there I am wipping the phone off on my robe.
Got it on finally, speed dialed another friend and on speaker told him to rush over and take me to the emergency room.
He yells, in a panic, "call 011 now!"
Told him that there was no arterial spray, so I was fine, just get here as fast as he can and then rushed into my bedroom and grabed 4 tee shirts.Used one each to wrap each fore-arm and pull as tight as possible with one hand and my teeth, and then wrapped both of them with another tee shirt, each, because by then both were soaked and dripping.
Threw on some cloths, walked outside and my buddy pulls up and off to the emergency room we go.
6 hours,,, yes, 6, I was out of there.
They didn't use simple stiches, but some other stitch that weaves everything together. They did tell me that the reason for that particular stitch was because if they used simple stitch it would have taken over 50 stitches each to close the wounds!
Another doctor comes in and reviewes the work and complements the work done, saying I'll be left with hardly a scar at all.
Came home and my house looks like a crime scene!!!
I know, nobody needs to tell me how stupid I was to not disconnect the battery after the gimbal work, nor that I should have removed the props first, or how lucky I was.
It was stupid, and I learned the hard way that short cuts are not worth taking,,, ever!!!
I post this so that the new guys, hopefully, will understand that these things are super-dangerous!!! They can easily kill you!!!
It was stupid to let instinct rule my actions. Complancency on my part is all I can stand on. A very, very sorry excuse at best
Had I rotated my right arm to grab the battery the out come of all this could have been disasterous!
As it is, because I work in a medical clean room, I'll miss a week of work. That is nothing compaired to my damaged pride.
I've been flying some sort of aircraft for 50 years, super save, been bit before, but nothing like this.
Now, I'll just sit here, back on pain meds for a few days, licking my pride, and hopeing somebody else will learn to never let complacency set up residence in their brains!
Above everything else,,, always think safety first. Do as say, not as I do, best advise Ii have ever given
