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Fun, danger, and 70s airplane toys

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Re: Fun, danger, and 70s airplane toys

#21

Post by jacquesm »

zabzonk wrote: post #18
jacquesm wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It can do much worse... https://www.rcgroups.com/forums/member.php?u=60153 Really, the mechanical integrity of the motor/plane mount and everything else comes into play when the thing starts up and if you're not treating it with all of the respect that it deserves you can get hurt very badly. I used to live right next door to a model airfield and more than one person left that field with serious injuries from spinnin…

depends on the capacity (and hence torque) of the engine, a sensible person would always wear a thick glove! besides, kids back then were pretty impervious to injury.

Right... well the number of times I've seen the ambulance ride out to that field tells a slightly different story. The problem is that every time it goes right your risk tolerance goes up and after a while people stop seeing the risk entirely. Same story in machine shops.

I think the real issue is that these are not toys, some of those motors pack an awful lot of punch, much more than the size of the motor would convey to a casual observer. Likewise for LiPo packs, those things are extremely impressive from an energy content perspective and yet, the number of idiotic things I've seen people do with them just baffles me.

After a long history of making, building and using all kinds of dangerous stuff I still have all my fingers. But I did manage to break my leg on an experimental bike so even the cautious can get caught out.

Oh, I just noted the helpful little table on that article I linked above:

Ultra Micro- Micro= Break the skin/ light bleeding, can cause serious eye damage

20"- 25" wingspan= Deep cut requiring surface stitches

25"- 35" wingspan= Deep cut through muscle, damage to tendons requiring multiple layers of stitches and possibly even surgery.

35"- 50" wingspan= Can cut to the bone, cut tendons, surgery required to fix damage.

50"- 70" Wingspan= Damage to bone, broken fingers, cut tendons in arms hands and legs.

70"- Large Scale= Lost fingers, serious deep tissue and tendon damage, cut arteries potential death

Giant scale= Dismemberment, can take off fingers even arms or legs, can likely kill especially if it hit you in the head.

Re: Fun, danger, and 70s airplane toys

#22

Post by wrp »

Something not mentioned is that these things were pretty messy. At least mine was. It burned a mixture of oil and gasoline, and the plane got coated with a film of oil.

I only used mine a few times. I found it rather tedious just spinning around in place. Much more exiting were the model rockets that used solid fuel engines.

Re: Fun, danger, and 70s airplane toys

#23

Post by watwut »

zabzonk wrote: post #18
jacquesm wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It can do much worse... https://www.rcgroups.com/forums/member.php?u=60153 Really, the mechanical integrity of the motor/plane mount and everything else comes into play when the thing starts up and if you're not treating it with all of the respect that it deserves you can get hurt very badly. I used to live right next door to a model airfield and more than one person left that field with serious injuries from spinnin…

depends on the capacity (and hence torque) of the engine, a sensible person would always wear a thick glove! besides, kids back then were pretty impervious to injury.

Kids back then were not "impervious to injury". Accidents and injuries did happened in the past. So did fires cause by kids.

Re: Fun, danger, and 70s airplane toys

#24

Post by WalterBright »

Hey, I still have my Cox 049 engine somewhere. The airplane is gone, smashed up of course. I suppose it was dangerous by modern standards, but not at the time. About the worst it would do would cut your finger if it backfired when starting. Or you could use a cheater stick, or even an electric motor to start it.

I once made a car for it out of piano wire. It would take off at high speed down the road, but because I never could get the wheels aligned perfectly straight it would inevitably try to turn and flip into a wild crash.

One of the neighbor kids had a free-flying one, that was supposed to fly in a circle. It sorta did, as the circle moved with the breeze, and eventually it broke someone's 3rd floor living room window.

Good times.

Toys today are boring.

Re: Fun, danger, and 70s airplane toys

#25

Post by WalterBright »

wrp wrote: post #22

Something not mentioned is that these things were pretty messy. At least mine was. It burned a mixture of oil and gasoline, and the plane got coated with a film of oil. I only used mine a few times. I found it rather tedious just spinning around in place. Much more exiting were the model rockets that used solid fuel engines.

My dad wouldn't let me have the rockets. Sadly, by the time I was old enough to just get one, I had lost interest.

Re: Fun, danger, and 70s airplane toys

#26

Post by WalterBright »

tragomaskhalos wrote: post #19

The 70s really were another country - see also: chemistry sets. These are pale and anodyne things now with a mere handful of bland household-level chemicals - assuming you can even find one in a toy shop at all. But as a lad these were both readily available and full of dozens of intriguing substances that would send a modern health and safety wonk into apoplexy. Who among us did not incinerate all of the supplied ma…

The German Kosmos sets were the best.

Re: Fun, danger, and 70s airplane toys

#27

Post by wrp »

WalterBright wrote: post #25
wrp wrote: post #22

Something not mentioned is that these things were pretty messy. At least mine was. It burned a mixture of oil and gasoline, and the plane got coated with a film of oil. I only used mine a few times. I found it rather tedious just spinning around in place. Much more exiting were the model rockets that used solid fuel engines.

My dad wouldn't let me have the rockets. Sadly, by the time I was old enough to just get one, I had lost interest.

There was a concern about starting fires when they came down. I heard the rocket club at my school had to notify the fire department beforehand.

I just remembered I also had a gas engine helicopter. Much more fun since it was free-flying. It would go pretty much straight up then rotor down when it ran out of gas. Couldn't do it on a windy day.

Re: Fun, danger, and 70s airplane toys

#28

Post by meheleventyone »

WalterBright wrote: post #24

Hey, I still have my Cox 049 engine somewhere. The airplane is gone, smashed up of course. I suppose it was dangerous by modern standards, but not at the time. About the worst it would do would cut your finger if it backfired when starting. Or you could use a cheater stick, or even an electric motor to start it. I once made a car for it out of piano wire. It would take off at high speed down the road, but because I n…

Don’t worry these days kids fuck their fingers up on quadcopters instead.

Re: Fun, danger, and 70s airplane toys

#29

Post by WalterBright »

wrp wrote: post #27
WalterBright wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My dad wouldn't let me have the rockets. Sadly, by the time I was old enough to just get one, I had lost interest.

There was a concern about starting fires when they came down. I heard the rocket club at my school had to notify the fire department beforehand. I just remembered I also had a gas engine helicopter. Much more fun since it was free-flying. It would go pretty much straight up then rotor down when it ran out of gas. Couldn't do it on a windy day.

Those helicopters were very difficult to fly, or so I've been told, as they were unstable. The modern electric copters cheat because they use a computer to stabilize them.

Re: Fun, danger, and 70s airplane toys

#30

Post by stavros »

WalterBright wrote: post #24

Hey, I still have my Cox 049 engine somewhere. The airplane is gone, smashed up of course. I suppose it was dangerous by modern standards, but not at the time. About the worst it would do would cut your finger if it backfired when starting. Or you could use a cheater stick, or even an electric motor to start it. I once made a car for it out of piano wire. It would take off at high speed down the road, but because I n…

I don't know what toys you have, but my toys today are RC planes with a 25km range that transmit HD video so you can fly them with a first person view.
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