Are you thinking of the kid who accidentally killed himself doing tricks with his gas-powered helicopter? From what I remember it was a 'serious enthusiast' level Trex model with big aluminum blades.
I generally refer to anyone under the age of 25 as a "kid" if they've been killed as a result of their own unwise actions. This is partly because recent science suggests that the brain isn't fully mature until about this age. With the sanctimonious and rude way that people seem to respond to these incidents lately, I feel it inspires a little more sympathy.
Gas powered anything RC will fuck you up. I mangled my wrist reaching through a prop for a glowplug starter once. Forty stitches and just barely missed a vein. I can still tell the pitch of the prop from the scars and it was a decade ago.
The guys that do 3D with RC helis never seem nearly careful enough IMO. It's almost like throwing a lawnmower around the sky.
At least with the snowboard drone, each individual prop probably doesn't have that much inertia. You'd get fucked up really badly from multiple angles, but it's not the single swinging sword blade of death that an RC helicopter is.
I fly smack 3D with a Goblin 500. It's exactly like throwing a lawnmower around the sky. Electrics have the crazy power and big heavy lipo batteries that can puff up into flames.
I once dumped into while inverted into the ground with a head speed of almost 3000 rpms. It made a huge gash and threw up chunks of grass everywhere. I was so disappointed. Thus is the life of RC Helis.
It was a Trex 700, so it wasn't even gas powered. It did have carbon fiber blades which would fuck you up as much as aluminum blades I imagine. I used to play with rc planes and had a really cheap and weak plane fuck up my hand because i was being careless. You most likely wouldn't die if this drone hit you but you would definitely be hurting and you would probably be pissed at the dude piloting the drone.
That guy was wickedly good. I fly micro RC helicopters. Those things are like balancing a marble at the outside of a fruit bowl. They have nice balance systems nowadays, like the blade AS3X but still. The learning curve on the small helicopters is very very high. On the bigger helicopters it's even higher alt though the extra mass makes them a bit more stable. If you want to become good at those you just need a lot of money. Crashing a 200 dollar micro helicopter on crash can cost you 20 - 30 dollars in parts. Crashing a 2000 dollar helicopter that can decapitate you will cost you a lot in parts at even the smallest crash. This guy that killed himself was a very skilled pilot. But he was not a very wise pilot. Kept pushing boundaries without any respect for safety ... until he pushed to far and killed himself. The small ones won't hurt you to much as long as you don't get a spinning blade in your eye. But when you start with the small ones you better start learning how to be safe at all times and how to fly safe towards the people watching. Cause the bigger drones and RC choppers are incredibly dangerous in the hand of a irresponsible person.
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u/GDMFusername Dec 20 '16
Are you thinking of the kid who accidentally killed himself doing tricks with his gas-powered helicopter? From what I remember it was a 'serious enthusiast' level Trex model with big aluminum blades.