MAAA Wingspan

06 WING SPAN NOVEMBER safety matters: FINGERS AND PROPELLERS DON’T MIX AND WHY IT MATTERS TO BE FIRE PREPARED AN IMPORTANT SAFETY MESSAGE FROM THE MAAA ABOUT FINGER-PROPELLER SAFETY, WHY YOUR CLUB SHOULD BE FIRE READY AND WHY IT’S ESSENTIAL YOU DOWNLOAD THE EMERGENCY+ APP Fingers in propellers are an age-old problem. It can happen when a pilot first starts flying and unfortunately, it is keeping pace with the age of some of our membership. Finger amputation, (two in recent times), serves as an important reminder to all members that spinning propellers are dangerous. Several years ago, in an attempt to reduce these types of incidents, the MAAA released a commissioned poster to try and highlight this problem and the consequences. This poster is shown here again as a reminder to all members of the danger when operating around models with spinning propellers. Field Emergency response Currently Australia is in the grip of one of the worst droughts ever experienced. If you are lucky to be outside a drought area, there is still a high probability you’re flying over dry bush or grassed areas. A recent incident at a dry location saw a #40 sized two-stroke powered model fly out of control and make impact some distance from the flying field. The members went to retrieve the model in the normal fashion until they saw smoke rising from the crashed model. The smoke and subsequent fire was caused by the on-board LiPo battery that was damaged on impact. Had the retrieval party had some small amount of firefighting equipment, (such as a fire extinguisher or water sprayers) they would’ve been able to extinguish the flames as a first response. Unfortunately, they didn’t have any equipment with them initially and the fire, driven by the strong wind, soon developed into an inferno that destroyed a barn and damaged infrastructure, including power connection to an adjoining property. SES, along with a water bomber, finally controlled the blaze and fortunately no livestock or people suffered any injury. There are some clubs who take the possibility of fire- not only caused by models but also by mishaps around the club facility, seriously. These proactive clubs have a small firefighting system in place. While a large mobile water tank is ideal, this is not always a practical solution at a lot of clubs. Clubs should consider the possibility of fire, especially in the current dry conditions and are encouraged to put together a simple firefighting cart consisting of a bucket of sand, a long handled shovel, hessian bags and even a fire extinguisher- if they can get one. Additionally, petrol-powered blowers are a great device to blow grass fire back on itself. At least with the basics, there is a chance of stopping a small fire before it becomes a large one. To add to this situation, sometimes emergency services have trouble locating our fields due to our preferred isolation. We have investigated possible actions to assist our clubs and the use of the free Emergency+ app is a great tool to immediately provide the club location coordinates, in addition to being able to call 000 at the click of a button. Remember, safety is no accident.