First of January 2002, and with the prospect of work the following day, I decided to drag myself to Howard's for a quick session. I very nearly took the CAP, but after some thought, I chose the less challenging option of the Limbo Dancer. The Limbo does have one challenge, that being keeping the MDS running for one tankful, still yet to be achieved.
Howard's was in good condition, but surprisingly only Clive Parsons was out. We exchanged pleasantries as one does; Clive was flying his 52-powered Cub, and commented that it was not dissimilar to my CAP in the way that it flew and bemoaned why he had built it. I managed a couple of reasonable flights, all terminated by the customary dead-stick finish as soon as I started to get exuberant with the model. This brought on a bout of engine tweaking, which only served to make things worse.
Keith Dalton rolled up at this point and helpfully commented that he rarely interfered with the carburettor settings once set. I even changed the prop to a 10x6 before suffering two aborted take-offs, and walked dejectedly back to the pits, wishing I had brought the CAP.
What happened next is not entirely clear to me - which probably says a lot about why it happened! More tweaking, with Keith assisting by holding the model, and finally I was satisfied. I walked the model out, full throttle and it hardened up and stalled. Walked back to the pits again, this time staring at the fuel line looking for bubbles. Now my first mistake, and the third time I have done this, I didn't close the throttle and re-started the engine. Fortunately, I had remembered to anchor the model with the tail strap. Unfortunately though, I think the strap must have been slack, so when the engine started, it went to full power and the model slewed sideways into my left hand, which was holding the glow clip - at least I think that was what happened. I looked briefly at my injured hand and placed it behind me and hard against my leg, while I set about taming the aeroplane. Keith had by now grabbed the model but it wasn't going anywhere. After a panic flurry of switching the transmitter on and off, I finally managed to regain my senses, close the throttle and back off the trim to stop the MDS.
Clive was on the scene by now, and I brought my hand round for inspection. Oh dear, bit of a mess, a big chunk of flesh missing at the base of my thumb just below the knuckle. Clive and Keith assisted with kitchen roll and a temporary bandage. I quickly unpacked my car medical kit, looked blankly at the nicely packed contents, wondering what I should open. Clive by this time returned with a recognisable bandage and tape. I was feeling a bit strange, tunnel vision and sweaty, so I sat for couple of minutes. Oddly enough, the injury was only slightly uncomfortable and once I had regained my equilibrium everything was fine. Keith offered to take me to casualty but I declined as this would leave the car etc. at Howard's and to be honest I hadn't got a really good look at the injury because of all the blood. Clive and Keith helped pack the Limbo away and I headed home.
When I arrived home a lot more blood had wicked out through the kitchen roll. Sheila was quite insistent, and off we went to Bournemouth A & E. I was still concerned that this was all over the top, but when the Triage nurse removed all the bits of paper towel it was fairly obvious that the visit was justified. A doctor introduced himself, examined the injury and said that he was going to get his boss! Another doctor duly arrived, prodded, poked and asked me to move my thumb. There appeared to be some numbness and they discussed sending me to Salisbury, this apparently if there was nerve or tendon damage, but I managed to convince them all was okay. There then followed discussion as to whether the wound could be sewn up. At first they thought not, but then decided that this should be done. I waited another half hour or so, before a very nice young lady who was the A&E manager (staff nurse I think) sewed up the wound. She commented that it was going to be a bit of a trial and error job, but thankfully it went back together first time. Unfortunately, Sheila made a point of reminding the nurse that a Tetanus jab was required and so I got needle in the backside, much to her amusement.
By far the worst part of the entire incident, was having to explain how I came by the injury. This of course continued when I returned to work the following day. I consider myself very fortunate that, so far, the only permanent damage appears to be a slight loss of feeling on the back of my thumb. I am only really doing IC power as preliminary before jets. It's incidents like this that make me question what I am doing - if I can get in this much trouble with a two stroke, imagine what I could do with a turbine!
(Readers will be glad to hear that Jim's thumb is recovering well and, judging by the fact that he has ordered the ECU for his turbine, so is his confidence - Ed.)