Man Killed By His Own Radio-Controlled Helicopter In Brooklyn 479
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."
Re:OUCH (Score:5, Informative)
Holy hell that's insane. What a way to go :(
At least he died doing what he loved. But in the last 60 seconds of the youtube video, he lands the helicopter on a table just a few feet from his face, while he is seated and thus unable to dodge it easily. One of his friends isn't even wearing eye protection. He was taking dumb risks and it isn't a total surprise that he was later killed. I fly R/C helicopters, and mine are small enough that they could barely leave a scratch, but I would never land one that close to a seated person, and I would never operate in the vicinity of someone without eye protection (parts can come loose, and even small helicopters can kick up debris).
Re:OUCH (Score:5, Informative)
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...
In his last video... (Score:3, Informative)
Some of the stunts he performs are pretty impressive, but as far as I can tell they're all dangerously close to him, given the model can go what appears 0-100 in less than a second. At some points the vehicle is less than 10 feet from him. I would call it a toy, but it's a bit beyond that.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HRPfLKVMGM8 - Last video posted by Pirozek. Rest in peace, doing what you loved.
Re:OUCH (Score:5, Informative)
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.
Re:This Was News Yesterday (Score:5, Informative)
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.
Actually, juggling chainsaws, while somewhat dangerous, isn't as bad as it looks. Even though the motor is running, the chain is not moving, at least with a stock chainsaw. You have to press on the trigger for the chain to move. Fucking safety interlocks, how do they work?
Re:OUCH (Score:5, Informative)
and I can not recall ever seeing any RC person doing that.
Line judges in R/C pylon races wear helmets or hard hats.
Pilots usually do not, however -- the risks are not large enough to justify them. That said, this situation shows us that they are not zero.
Re:OUCH (Score:5, Informative)
Re:OUCH (Score:4, Informative)
"Gas turbine engines are very rare in the RC hobby, and quite expensive."
Expensive, not so much any more, and rare, not even fucking close. More than half of the RC devices flown by Citrus State Park are gas turbine engines, with the rest being battery pack - no nitromethane anywhere to be found. There's even a guy with an F-16 with freaking functional full-auto airsoft cannons on it. you know when that sucker gets started up, even half a mile away.
Re:OUCH (Score:5, Informative)
Kinetic energy is 1/2 * m * v^2, so using your numbers gives ~5195 joules. It's actually a lot of energy, about the same as a car going at walking speed, delivered as you say, at a knifes edge.
They'll easily chop a man in half if the rotors don't break first.
Re:OUCH (Score:5, Informative)
Kinetic energy is (1/2)(m)(v^2), not v. So it works out to 4977 Joules. More than twice the energy of an AK-47 round [thefiringline.com].
The park was not set up safely. (Score:5, Informative)
I had just visited the park where this happened to watch because i love this hobby (prior to the incident) and there really should be more safety precautions taken in fling fields, because these helicopters are only 40-50 yards from the spectators, and there is nothing stopping these things to do what it did to that kid
Last year I went to a fun fly at that field. A lot of those guys, including Roman (who I met), were pretty much flying right in their faces and on the deck the entire time they were flying. Even that day there was an incident where another guy was flying above his skill level on the deck, the tail smacked the ground and the heli started pirouetting out of control. Well it flew right into the pit area and hit a car, and the shattering glass injured somebody. And yet immediately after there were still about 6 or 7 guys at a time flying next to each other on a field that's about 500 feet wide without any concept of staying in their own flight box. Since that day I hadn't been there again and I definitely am not going back there now.