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Man Killed By His Own Radio-Controlled Helicopter In Brooklyn
An anonymous reader sends this news from the Wall Street Journal:
"A 19-year-old model helicopter enthusiast was killed Thursday when a toy helicopter he was flying struck him in the head, a law-enforcement official said. Victim Roman Pirozek 'was known to be aggressive in his flying and often executed tricks. He was executing a trick when he was struck,' the official said. Mr. Pirozek – depicted in [this YouTube video] he posted in July — was flying a remote-controlled helicopter worth about $2,000 when it struck him, cutting off the top of his head, the official said. The Woodhaven, Queens, resident was pronounced dead at the scene. His father was with him at the time of the accident, the official said."
This guy is going to get flamed but I agree. No flying-chainsaws near your own head. It seems like a "no-brainer" oops, too soon?
Yeah, I agree this very unsafe behavior for at least one reason, just off the top of my head.
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No, people don't care about the death of a man's child, even if he was 19. Think how his parents, his family and friends are feeling right now.
If you wouldn't say it to their faces, don't fucking say it at all.
At first I thought, fuck man, that sucks, but then I read that one of his tricks was to fly the helicopter close to his head.
This was a pure Darwin Award moment, plain and simple, stupid trick ended with someone getting hurt. It's up there with torn groin videos from bad landings...
quick, lets ban them! think of the children :D
The problem with slashdot is that most of its users were bullied and stuffed into lockers as kids!
There are also procedures for using chainsaws, barbecue grills, and other things that can kill a person. There probably are procedures, at least minimal, CYA procedures for model aircraft too. That he wasn't following them is why he killed himself. Given his performance-nature of his stunts, think of it like the guy who juggles chainsaws, a not-recommended use of the device, that could, and in this case did, lead to injury and death.
I play with model rockets. Fairly big ones, I'm up into the "G" engine size, and we practice a certain amount of range safety. I've had factory-made engines explode on the pad and that 30' distance is very important, as are following procedures for hooking up the electrical wiring for the ignition. Even with rockets that have exploded on the pad, rockets that have broken up in-flight right after leaving the pad, and rockets that have caught on fire, no one has ever been hurt because we're not stupid enough to sit right next to the rocket when we fire it. The only real danger we have to face is rockets whose parachute ejection fails, and the rocket coming down like a javelin, which has happened a couple of times but nowhere in the vicinity of where anyone was at the time.
I feel sorry for the guy's family, but my sympathy is limited by the documented reckless behavior he's shown before.
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Which is sad.
Some facts about R/C Heli's in the same general class as the one that killed him:
They weigh roughly 10-12lbs, this one was a gas turbine, so it likely weighed a little more.
The rotors each weigh about 3/4 lbs, most of the weight being from lead added near the tips to facilitate autorotation.
They can fly at speeds up to 100mph, though its unlikely he ever went over 30mph when doing 3d aerobatics.
The rotor tips in non-aerobatic flight travel at about 300mph.
In aerobatic modes, the rotor speed goes up by about 30% so you have reserve power, that brings them to nearly 400mph.
Carbon fiber blades are used not because they are lighter (you really don't want lighter blades at that size), they are more rigid, flex is wasted energy and can cause tail boom strikes.
Doing the math on the rotor blades, .325kg * 175m/s * 0.5 = ~28.4 the tips carry approximately 28 joules of energy assuming they don't separate from the rotor head.
That in and of itself, not so impressive. If you get hit with the broad side of a rotor, it hurts like hell, but won't even bruise most people.
But thats not what happens. Even if the rotor separates from the hub in a crash, they are aerodynamically stable. They are wings after all. They fly straight and true in almost every case with the weighted leading edge up front.
Thats 28 joules of energy in what is basically a knife edge. It can easily severe a leg at the ankle.
These are miniature aircraft. They are easily deadly.
I've put multiple helis into the ground to avoid possibly hitting someone or something, some of the scariest experiences I've ever had were due to a out of control heli. The worst was where I didn't properly fasten the radio antenna and it got pulled into the rotor blade during inverted flight nearly directly over the flight line (where everyone stands to fly) at our local club. Nothing I could do at that point but watch it tumble towards the ground and yell at people to scatter. I was able to recover the aircraft when it got closer to me and without hurting anyone, but you can not imagine the fear people had as the aircraft was tumbling towards them.
Jokes about this kid getting hurt are about as funny as jokes about the Shuttle Columbia's last re-entry.
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Careful, this is NY were are talking about.
Maybe he was just trying a random stunt that he though up off the top of his head.
There are two types of people in the world: Those who crave closure
They are definitely NOT toys
The high performance ones have 5 to 10 HP motors
The flying style currently popular among the top pilots is to fly very close to the ground and very close to the pilot
So naturally, the guys with less talent want to fly like the pros
I think this is kinda crazy..no room for error
Maybe if the Shuttle Columbia was trying to do inverted tricks on re-entry.
Otherwise, it's not much different than someone juggling chainsaws that are running.
There are two types of people in the world: Those who crave closure
It's his fault for not taking proper precautions. He was 19, an adult, and apparently had many, many hours of previous experience.
If all of that didn't instill in him the need to take basic precautions, what other conclusion can one make?
If I'm driving down a back road at 60 mph, stiff arming the steering wheel because that's how the cool kids drive, yacking on my phone while leaning against the door and don't make it through a turn, I can guarantee people would call me a dumbass or stupid for my actions.
This is no different. To bring up a phrase which will immediately get me marked as Troll, personal responsibility. It was his responsibility to make sure both he and anyone everyone else watching was in a safe location before attempting these stunts. He failed to do that and suffered the consequences.
We will bankrupt ourselves in the vain search for absolute security. -- Dwight D. Eisenhower
Was the helicopter over 16oz?
I don't know how this guy's flying club/park was set up, but at my local flying club, there is a fairly large "no man's land" between where the model aircraft fly and where the pilots are supposed to stand. Sometimes pilots and planes violate this separation (e.g. a pilot crossing the space to retrieve a damaged aircraft, or a plane being taxied through the space on it's way to or from the "runway"), but in general this no man's land is respected by everyone and accidents occur far away from anyone's head. Also, aircraft are never made to cross over the audience or pilot areas (I'm not part of the club so I don't know if this is an enforced rule, or just something everyone follows out of courtesy).
What this guy does in the TFV (The Featured Video) is totally stupid and reckless, and is just asking for trouble. Not only does he fly the thing over and near a parking lot (basically an audience area), but he flies it within a couple of feet of both himself (sitting down at a table at the end of the video) and another couple of individuals. As one youtube commenter posted, that thing is a flying chainsaw; you just don't fly it that close to anyone's head. This guy was a cocky, stupid individual, and sorry to say, he paid the ultimate price. Again, sorry to say, good thing it was him rather than somebody else. Far from being a freak accident, I bet you this was entirely predictable and also entirely avoidable with a few basic safely measures (and I'm not talking about wearing helmets). Maybe this will serve as a lesson to the others flying at that club, and they'll actually put into place a few basic safety rules to protect both themselves and the audience from this type of thing in the future.