[walter23]

I made a stupid, stupid mistake today and almost flew my heli right into my face. That's not quite as bad as it sounds - it's a blade CP micro electric. Still, I'd imagine you could lose eyes, ears, nose, skin, even if you wouldn't end up with a smashed skull like you might with a big nitro.

I was just out practicing hovering and landing on a box when I got the sudden urge to try forward flight. I've been flirting with it a bit but I'm really not competant. Anyway, the area was too small, I ended up having to do a tighter circle than I thought, and found the heli diving straight towards my head as it came around behind/beside me. Panic ensued and instead of giving up elevator and a bit of throttle to pull out, I got my sticks confused and pulled back on the throttle instead of the elevator... of course the dive got worse, I ducked and covered and still tried to pull the heli out, realizing what I'd done. Bottom line, it worked - I pulled out - but crashed backwards into the dirt pretty hard.

The heli repairs were cheap and easy (skid, feathering shaft, main shaft, and blades), but I'm damned lucky I didn't fly right into my face. Seriously, it was closer than I ever want to get again. Probably five feet and coming fast when I managed to pull back.

Now before you start flaming, I want to make it clear that I have never taken chances like that around other people. From now on I intend to not take chances like that around myself though.

It's easy to suddenly get the urge to try something, without thinking it through. I've just go to the point that I'm quite good at hovering in one spot, just got the training gear off, etc, but I still can't fly and sometimes I forget that.