Complacency hurts.

dezertdog

Senior Member
So the forum topic is dead on, it needed stitches. Specifically about 18 of them. I don't want to gloss over this, or hide it. I made a huge mistake today and paid for it. I knew the rules, thought I was following them, and due to complacency got bit.

I'll just jump right into it. I was balancing props on the tricopter today, and thought I was being safe. I had only one prop on, the other two ESC's unplugged, one hand firmly on the boom and one hand on the throttle stick.

I was spinning it up to mid stick, checking vibrations, then dropping it back down, putting throttle hold on, unplugging the battery and moving the tape. I thought this was a reasonable protocol and got into a groove of spinning down and letting go of the boom at the same time.

The third time I moved the tape and spun up the prop, for some reason I will never know, instead of closing the throttle I opened it while at the same time letting go of the boom. The rear 10x14.7 prop at full rpm shot straight at me. I was able to bat it back down, close the throttle and unplug the battery. I then noticed that the prop was broken and bright red while just starting to feel a sharp pain in my leg and inside my elbow. I looked down and I was covered in blood.

I immediately went to my first aid kit and cleaned the wounds, bandaged them up and assessed what the hell was going on now that things were a little more under control. My leg had a 20 degree 3" slice into it that had formed a big flap. The inside of my elbow had a 2" split, about 1/2" deep. They were stitch material for sure, and I now had to re bandage my leg as it had bled through the first wrap and head out.

I drove to the ER, told my story, got two rows of stitches inside my elbow (which ended up being about 1/2" away from my Brachial artery) and a nice ladder stitch up my leg to hold my new skin flap on.

I've been flying for years, I know the rules and I broke them. I'm very embarrassed about this, but it should be shared to remind people why the rules exist. I was lazy and let go of the boom while still manipulating the throttle. That one little slip up was all it took, if I had left my hand on the boom it would have been scary, but not bloody.

Attached are pics of the cuts from the ER. Do not open the zip file if you do not want to see pictures of open wounds. You have been warned.
 

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Carbon

Elemental Madness
Ooh.. * hurls in trash can*
Thas naaasty!
I am going to take this into account on my first scratch build...

Thanks for sharing.
 

jetpackninja

More combat please...
Mentor
Yeah man- I'm not going to look at the picture.
The memory is still too real, 13 stitches on my right hand about a year and a half ago.
Heal well.
Everybody else, be careful.
Complacency is a killer.
 

Brian fred carr

Site Moderator
Mentor
I did something similar.....Changed the settings on my radio and some how my throttle hold had gone to 50% so I booted up the tx then the heli on a table, hit throttle hold to do some visual trimming and POW it wanted to fly, the tail boom came round and I took
both tail rotors on my bicep ....ended up with a couple of little cuts and two fractured blades.......Keep bleeding
 

SkySlayer

ARC=Almost Ready to Crash
LOL I never get stitches, I heal naturally,or die from loss of blood but ya never happened to die of loss of blood.
 

dezertdog

Senior Member
Update, 7 days in and I'm still redressing the wounds every 24 hours. Protocol is fresh bacitracin, gauze and a snug ace bandage (on the leg) to keep fresh blood to the wound and prevent pooling in hopes the "flap" will survive. Hate to be gory, but this is real life in our hobby.

I think in the end my pride is hurt worst of all, I've had to tell the story to about eight friends so far and get the same reaction, "Wow I thought you were like a pro of something with those things!". :black_eyed: