Risk Advice Thread

[NathanSchool]

Hello again forum. I was wondering if you folks can suggest possible risks (physical, chemical, biological) when building an RC plane. If possible, I would also like to be aware of additional details such as risk likelihood, severity, and how to prevent these situations from happening? All advice is appreciated. Thank you.

 

[Flying Monkey fab]

Very much depends on how you build but since this forum is mostly about foamboard we'll cover that unless you want to go another direction.
The risks when building with foamboard are nearly 100% phisical and consist of cuts and burns.
Mitigation with adults is simply using reasonable care.
With children under say 12 you might want to pre cut to eliminate the sharp blades.

 

[NathanSchool]

Risks that come with Batteries, Propellers, and Electronics are what I am specifically looking for.

 

[Merv]

@Flying Monkey fab covered most of the major risks except one. He overlooked the greatest risk.

Those who build rc planes get addicted to flying them.

 

[Hoomi]

One big consideration is covered often in the Flite Test build videos. When hooking up the esc to the motor for the first time, make sure the propellor is not on the motor. If the throttle is reversed, the motor can start spinning unexpectedly, and props can deliver nasty cuts.

 

[telnar1236]

Risks that come with Batteries, Propellers, and Electronics are what I am specifically looking for.

There isn't that much danger, but you do have to be reasonable. Most rc planes are fast-moving and have a rapidly spinning blade attached to them. Don't fly in dumb locations or over people and you won't hurt someone. Others have already given recommendations about prop safety, and all I'll add is that it's a good idea to set a throttle kill switch in a position where if you accidentally bump it, it will deactivate the motor. I know a few people who use a rubber band to keep the throttle down when not using it out of an abundance of caution, but I don't really find that necessary.

LiPo batteries can light on fire. They need someone in the same room while charging and should be charged in a fireproof and preferably mostly airtight container (some release hydrofluoric acid if they ignite which is extremely nasty). If a battery seems damaged or throws errors when charging, don't charge it. They also should never be charged in parallel, and a balance charger should always be used. The same rule applies which is basically not to do dumb stuff. I've never had a battery go bad and light on fire (I've always caught it beforehand), and I've been flying for 13 years now, but it does happen occasionally, and you don't want to burn down your house.

Likewise, the electronics in rc planes can occasionally fail. If you're following the safety practices with propellers, nothing should be too dangerous. ESCs can break and produce a bunch of smoke, especially if you're buying the cheapest models, but even when connected directly to balsa wood, I've never seen one light the plane on fire. None of the electronics we use are high enough voltage to be that dangerous (don't lick a 6s LiPo's connectors and you should be fine).

I don't know of any biological issues, and I can't imagine any would arise. I think someone on this forum had issues with mold from an old balsa kit, but anything can get moldy if it's left too long in the wrong conditions.

As others have mentioned, the real risk is that you end up with far too many airplanes and nowhere to put them.

 

[Hoomi]

On the LiPo batteries, one lesson I learned the hard way is, LiPo's are not like NiCad batteries. They should NOT be recharged before storing, and they should not be fully discharged. On all my planes, I have a timer set in the transmitter, tailored to a reasonable tolerance of the flight time I can expect with the battery used in that plane. The timer is set so that I should have enough battery remaining for a little extra linger time, for either waiting out another pilot on the runway, or for making another go-around or two, if my approach isn't what I would like. Additionally, when I get home from the flying field, I always run every battery I took, back across the charger, using the "storage" function. While I don't have data to state it conclusively, this has seemed to prolong the lives of my batteries, and I have not had one go into "self-destruct" mode in the five years I've been flying.

When a battery is either damaged in a crash, or has started to get a bit too puffy, I have a safe system to fully discharge it, and then dispose of it properly.

If no one else has mentioned it, never, ever, puncture a LiPo battery. Doing so tends to cause them to catch fire.

 

[mastermalpass]

Sounds like you wanna make a risk register like the ones I worked on at my old job. Where you have a table like:

Risk | Accidental prop activation.
Description | Unintended throttling up of
| the prop, where user is
| unprepared, injuring people
| and/or damaging objects.
Liklihood | 4/5
Severity | 5/5
Risk Rating | 20/25
Response | Avoid
Acceptance | Ensure prop is not attached
/Mitigation | when powering on model in
/Avoidance | workshop. Only power on
| model when needed. Ensure
| transmitter is stable and clear
| of anything or anyone likely to
| move.

Or summin' like that. I flipped the table on its side to fit it in, but that's one row. The difficulty is that things like liklihood and severity are a bit of a judgement call. If we had all hobby incidents and dangerous occurrences logged on some database, you could kinda model an accident frequency rate off the different things within the hobby and do it mathematically. But as the others say; a few Dos and Don'ts and some basic overview of the risks is enough to keep the hobby safe. I could geek out about a data approach all day, but doing it is a lot of work.

 

[NathanSchool]

Sounds like you wanna make a risk register like the ones I worked on at my old job. Where you have a table like:

Risk | Accidental prop activation.
Description | Unintended throttling up of
| the prop, where user is
| unprepared, injuring people
| and/or damaging objects.
Liklihood | 4/5
Severity | 5/5
Risk Rating | 20/25
Response | Avoid
Acceptance | Ensure prop is not attached
/Mitigation | when powering on model in
/Avoidance | workshop. Only power on
| model when needed. Ensure
| transmitter is stable and clear
| of anything or anyone likely to
| move.

Or summin' like that. I flipped the table on its side to fit it in, but that's one row. The difficulty is that things like liklihood and severity are a bit of a judgement call. If we had all hobby incidents and dangerous occurrences logged on some database, you could kinda model an accident frequency rate off the different things within the hobby and do it mathematically. But as the others say; a few Dos and Don'ts and some basic overview of the risks is enough to keep the hobby safe. I could geek out about a data approach all day, but doing it is a lot of work.

This is exactly what I'm making. I'm just very new at this is all haha.

 

[bisco]

nothing biological that i can think of

while battery risk is real, it is extremely low

 

[bisco]

https://forum.flitetest.com/index.php?forums/hobby-safety-practices.236/

 

[NathanSchool]

Here is what I have now:

Is there anything more I should add?

 

[luvmy40]

I'd classify LiPo fires and electrocution as lowest likelihood if safe practices are followed. And at the voltages and amperages we are working with, PPE would be safety glasses at most.
JMHO

 

[bisco]

prop injury is proly the most common accident. make sure you program a throttle cut switch

if you get a smart charger/balancer, it will monitor voltage for you. they are not expensive

i can't see the need for rubber gloves

if you are going to build, be careful of hot glue, sharp blades and superglue

and don't leave the glue gun unattended while plugged in

 

[luvmy40]

prop injury is proly the most common accident. make sure you program a throttle cut switch

if you get a smart charger/balancer, it will monitor voltage for you. they are not expensive

i can't see the need for rubber gloves

if you are going to build, be careful of hot glue, sharp blades and superglue

Hah! I don't even think about hot glue and cuts anymore. I haven't had any feeling in my finger tips for 20 years(not build related!).

 

[Bo123]

Hah! I don't even think about hot glue and cuts anymore. I haven't had any feeling in my finger tips for 20 years(not build related!).

same

 

[danskis]

Quantifying the likelihood and severity would be difficult without data. You could do a poll on the website but I"m guessing for what you're doing you could "guestimate" even if you have very little experience (google search on lipo accidents?). I'm guessing you would be the subject matter expert after compiling the risk assesment and unless your instructor builds planes it would stay that way.

 

[NathanSchool]

I edited the chart a bit more:

How does this look?

 

[danskis]

It looks good. Typically to mitigate LiPo battery fires we charge them in a fireproof container. Instead of "monitor cell voltage" we would look for "physical degradation" of the batter i.e. "puffing" or obvious physical damage.

 

[NathanSchool]

It looks good. Typically to mitigate LiPo battery fires we charge them in a fireproof container. Instead of "monitor cell voltage" we would look for "physical degradation" of the batter i.e. "puffing" or obvious physical damage.

Does this look better?