Originally Posted by wolfewinde
So I am getting the Trojan ready - it is in the bed of my pick up and I am leaning slightly over the side to connect the battery - radio is on - throttle is off - I always check that - I connect the battery and put on the hatch - the radio falls over - full throttle - prop pins my hand agains the inside of the truck bed - not good - I yell a couple of choice words and shut down the throttle with my left hand.
Soooo, hopefully the "Sky Goddess" had had her fun with me today and I am now off the hook, but watchout, no telling who could be next on the list.
Wolfe
A guy in my club did that with a 70 sized four stroke engine several months ago.
After several surgeries, the surgeons have most of the tendons put back together, and there is some recovery of the nerves. He's still wearing a full bandage on his hand, and it may never get back to normal. A few years ago another club member did that with a big 60 cc gasser. Permanent loss of several fingertips.
If you're running a DX7 transmitter, someone figured out how to use the gear switch or Aux switch to disable the throttle.
Take a look: (This is not original, it was found in the Internet)
http://www.whitehillseaglesrc.org/me...ttlesafety.pdf
Electric Flight Safety
Ideally every electric aircraft you have should be equipped with an arming device on the craft itself
(either and ESC switch or power interrupter plug) as well as having a throttle cut switch on your
transmitter. Since electric motors can startup unexpectedly and inflict a lot of painful damage the
double precaution can avoid some nasty injuries. Although an arming switch/plug on the aircraft ought
to be sufficient on its own there are times when it is armed with the intention of flying but something
distracts you and the aircraft is now vulnerable to a careless jog of the throttle lever, the transmitter
becomes your last line of defense.
I have implemented a transmitter disable switch for all my aircraft (helis as well as conventional planes)
this way the process is second nature to me. The idea is that whenever the aircraft is not expected to fly
the transmitter switch is in the disable position. The moment before takeoff I switch it to enable, fly as
required then the moment the aircraft touches down and I have completed taxiing it I always click the
switch to disabled.
Some of the more advanced transmitters have the ability to set a throttle cut switch up within their
menus however others need a little work to make it happen. Below I give the process needed to set up a
Spektrum DX7, it is likely this technique can be used on other transmitters, it is well worth doing and if
you are still unsure how try looking online for your particular transmitter.
In my case I use the switch at the top right hand corner of the transmitter as the kill switch, this seems
to be a standard as far as I can tell, the DX7 does have a label saying HOLD for this switch (as well as
Ruder D/R).
Setup Process For the Spektrum DX7 Transmitter:
From your selected plane setup menu (pressing scroll and select simultaneously) move to one of the
mixing channels (kyleservicetech used Mix 3, for mixing with the gear switch).
Select source and destination for the mix to be THRO (short for throttle), the display should show:
THRO -> THRO
Now move to the rate section and set both sections to -100% (you will be able to set one of them with
the throttle stick down and the other with it up).
Move to the SW: section and set it to MIX
Move to the OFFSET section and set it to -100%.
If you toggle the gear switch you should see the text to the right of the THRO -> THRO change from OFF
to ON, when this reads ON the throttle is disabled (this should be with the switch pulled toward you).
[PROG.MIX1]
THRO->THRO ON RATE: -100%-100%
>SW:MIX
OFFSET:-100
Carefully try this out with your model turned on, with the switch toward you it should not be possible to
start the motor at all (even helis should be disabled despite the position of the idle up switch). And, as
always, check all remaining transmitter functions for both direction and unexpected operations. In case
something else got changed by accident.
All that remains now is to cultivate the habit of ensuring the switch is in the disabled position whenever
you pick up the aircraft and whenever it is not on the flying field.
Last but not least, be sure to set the throttle trim to center, or zero off set. If this is not done with the DX7, throwing the gear switch can change the throttle setting at the idle speed of the ESC.