Saturday, February 12, 2011

43/365 Sad Day Yet I'm Full of Praise

My 15 year old son's hobby is flying his R/C helicopter.  I'm not talking about one of the little ones.  His is about 4-1/2 feet long... and powerful!  He flies 3-D manuevers and has been preparing for an upcoming amateur competition.  Well, today he was out flying and while he was hovering, just a few feet off the ground, checking on some adjustments he had recently made, the helicopter's speed controller failed and the helicopter caught on fire.  Flames were shooting up and out.  His dad was with him and he tried to smother the flames but they kept coming.  The only thing they could think to do was to pick it up and run it over to a sandy area nearby to put it in the sand to extinguish the flames.  Fortunately, that worked.  A couple areas of grass also caught fire but they were able to put them out.  This photo is of the helicopter - melted parts and electronics that are toast...burned toast.  Apparently the speed controller is connected to every other electronic part in the heli.  So, I'm really sad for my son.  He built this helicopter himself and he saved his money for a long time to buy it, even doing car washes in the neighborhood!  And this is a VERY expensive repair as all of the electronics need to be replaced.  Oh, he'll earn the money again.  And right now, he's dismantling the heli to more accurately assess the damage.  But even though it's a sad day, I'm praising God that He kept my guys safe during it all.  Fortunately, the flames did not get to the batteries.  If they had exploded... well, I don't even want to think about that.  Also, I'm thankful that the grass fire did not get out of hand.  I am a bit concerned about the fumes from melting plastic that my guys were around, but I will trust that the Lord has provided His protection there too.  And I see some neighborhood car washes in the near future!  Oh, and a fire extinguisher to take to the flying field.

1 comment:

  1. Oh Ellen, I'm so sorry for him and his heli, but you are so right as so many things could've happened. It's a good capture of an unfortunate event though. That's a pretty impressive machine there....

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