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Indian inventor dies in homemade helicopter accident

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131–140 of 178 posts

Re: Indian inventor dies in homemade helicopter accident

#131
post #129

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Safety is pretty easy, just envision what would happen if you fucked up. Then take precautions so that when you do, you won't lose a limb or an eye. > I'm also curious how one builds up strong manufacturing skills safely? A lot of technical colleges/polytechnics offer short courses for skills like welding or cabinetmaking, often during the evening.

>Safety is pretty easy, just envision what would happen if you fucked up I do see what you mean, but you can still get hurt even if you do everything "right". Angle grinders, for example, can shatter even if you don't break any safety rules. Hopefully your safety equipment works, but really hard shards flying around at 10,000 rpm are unpredictable.

Or kickback from a table saw. Or when I almost took my hand off when a chopsaw hit a knot in a 4x4 with such force that it deformed the metal and bounced my hand toward the blade.

Re: Indian inventor dies in homemade helicopter accident

#132
post #15

He didn't have a helmet or so much as a seatbelt in the helicopter. The tail rotor flew off, hit the main rotor at a high speed, which knocked him sideways, out of the fuselage. It was at this point his head came into contact with the spinning main rotor, likely killing him instantly. A seatbelt seems like it would have saved his life. It was recorded, which is how I know this, I honestly wouldn't suggest looking for…

I am also a farmer and inventor based in India. Problem is that we do not have many tools, indian made tools cost 3-4x of Chinese tools and have 2x worse quality on average 80% things which exist in West (made in China) does not exist in India on top India doesn't make many things. Plus we suffer from too many middlemen problem, where the end product is inflated away beyond the affordability of masses. Not everything…

While there's some truth to this, I think there's often too much regard for 'jugaad' in many parts of India which sometimes just manifests as 'penny wise pound foolish' behaviour.

Re: Indian inventor dies in homemade helicopter accident

#133

What type of rotor system did it have? Youtuber Peter Sripol has a video where he designed a rubber band powered helicopter with a working tail rotor to show the mechanics of how a helicopter works. In the video he shows and explains why a stability mechanism is important and at 2:56 in the video he says that you see all these people on YouTube making their own helicopters that don't know anything about helicopters b…

Heres a video of the accident:

https://leakreality.com/video/19400/a-new-test-dummy-is-need...

Re: Indian inventor dies in homemade helicopter accident

#134
post #39
post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

From what I understand, I am amazed we have anyone willing to teach in New York (the city) public schools. You need a master's degree and more than three (not sure) certifications. It is insane. Yes, I agree we should have some standards but too many restrictions and I am afraid only a certain kind of personality can survive as a teacher in the city.

You may find if you carefully checked that a number of people who you would think are "teachers" are technically some other classification because they don't have the required paperwork. Sometimes the requirements are and/or, and sometimes they let you slide if you're "working on the masters".

Yeah, my middle school wood shop teacher was a “coach” and we called him coach. Don’t think he coached any school sports though.

Re: Indian inventor dies in homemade helicopter accident

#135
post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

One would assume that if you have the resources to attempt to build something that resembles a helicopter, you would have a way to source a cloth strip to tie yourself to the seat. Not trying to diminish the magnitude of the disaster, but I think your argument does not apply in this case

sorry, i think you don't get it - the point is that you don't have all the necessary things. Which things out of the missing things were really necessary - that is rearview 20/20. This time it was strip of cloth, other time it may be something else.

It's also not just a strip of cloth - it's a decent strip of cloth, fasteners, nuts, bolts, washers, something to fasten the seatbelt etc.

Which isn't a lot and I think this is an unfortunate oversight, but I can see it being a bit difficult to do properly.

Of course, doing it improperly with a rope would probably have been better than not at all.

Re: Indian inventor dies in homemade helicopter accident

#137

I was watching the Stuff Made Here Youtube channel (amazing channel btw) and was getting tempted by Shane's (guy running said channel) shop tour ([1]). Surely I could get tool X and operate it safely? But yeah .. I'd likely get myself maimed or worse. YouTube makes this sort of stuff seem so accessible, this is a reminder of the obvious .. power tools and moving parts can kill. As software people, we sometimes don't…

Safety is pretty easy, just envision what would happen if you fucked up. Then take precautions so that when you do, you won't lose a limb or an eye. > I'm also curious how one builds up strong manufacturing skills safely? A lot of technical colleges/polytechnics offer short courses for skills like welding or cabinetmaking, often during the evening.

> Safety is pretty easy, just envision what would happen if you fucked up.

If you make something fool-proof, the universe will invent a better fool.

Imagining every possible failure mode is extremely difficult, if not impossible. Some modes aren't obvious until you begin using the device. Some modes aren't obvious until they happen.

Re: Indian inventor dies in homemade helicopter accident

#138
post #15

He didn't have a helmet or so much as a seatbelt in the helicopter. The tail rotor flew off, hit the main rotor at a high speed, which knocked him sideways, out of the fuselage. It was at this point his head came into contact with the spinning main rotor, likely killing him instantly. A seatbelt seems like it would have saved his life. It was recorded, which is how I know this, I honestly wouldn't suggest looking for…

I am also a farmer and inventor based in India. Problem is that we do not have many tools, indian made tools cost 3-4x of Chinese tools and have 2x worse quality on average 80% things which exist in West (made in China) does not exist in India on top India doesn't make many things. Plus we suffer from too many middlemen problem, where the end product is inflated away beyond the affordability of masses. Not everything…

I believe you when I read this, but my primary takeaway is that given these constraints, you should not try to build a homemade helicopter

Re: Indian inventor dies in homemade helicopter accident

#139

I was watching the Stuff Made Here Youtube channel (amazing channel btw) and was getting tempted by Shane's (guy running said channel) shop tour ([1]). Surely I could get tool X and operate it safely? But yeah .. I'd likely get myself maimed or worse. YouTube makes this sort of stuff seem so accessible, this is a reminder of the obvious .. power tools and moving parts can kill. As software people, we sometimes don't…

Don't be dissuaded. Just take that cautious attitude, and learn everything you can. But don't let it scare you off.

Re: Indian inventor dies in homemade helicopter accident

#140
post #120

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Nowhere near the same level, but one of my proudest moments in gaming as a teenager was being able to complete a single mission in Search and Rescue 4. It took many, many hours of futzing with the game interface, and even more hours reading up on helicopter controls on the Internet. Without the latter, I couldn't really understand what's going on with the controls. I know it's just a videogame, but it gave me a deep…

> I wish I could fly one for real. Maybe in another life, when I'm someone with more time, money and risk tolerance. That dream is much more attainable than you might realize. "Discovery flights" are pretty cheap, and of course you're going up with a seasoned instructor who guides you through a few maneuvers. Highly recommend it!

Thanks! I didn't realize "discovery flights" are a thing!
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