F/F Sport

摘要

For some reason I focused in on the above inscription just a few minutes after a modeling friend had shown me the now-healed scars on his forearm acquired during last year's contest season. He had gotten the injury while he was shifting one of his planes from his left hand to his right while the motor was running. For whatever reason—a gust of wind, a fuselage made slick by fuel residue, or just carelessness—the madly screaming Cyclon .049 with its razor sharp prop had climbed his forearm in a nanosecond and turned flesh into hamburger. I spend a lot of time in this column dealing with building tips and new ideas to make things better in the world of modeling, but I spend very little time on safety issues and individual well-being. Suffice it to say, the dangerous things we are working with, be it chemicals, high-rewing engines, potential heat exhaustion, or simply breathing balsa dust while engaged in the building process, are indeed closer than they appear and should always be treated with appropriate respect and preventive measures.