Some time ago I decided to alter the settings on my Trex 600 to activate the slow start and governor. Everybody said the governor was useless, but I figured I would try it anyway. They were right and the tail was all over the place. So I put it to one side remembering that I had to fix it before I flew again

On Saturday March the 7th I took it to the field, with the instructions, and started to set it up. I decided it would be easier on the picnic table in front of me so I followed the instructions on making the connections in the right order, to the amusement of one or two of my fellow fliers who have never seen me read an instruction before, never mind follow it.

The one in question said, turn on the transmitter at full throttle and the ESC will go into setup mode. I did and it didn't. The heli rapidly spooled up and took off heading for my head. I put my right arm up to save my face and got badly hurt.

The result was a severely torn up pinky finger, which did not have any solid bone left in the top joint, and most of the side of it was torn off. I had a very large hole in the palm of my hand just below my thumb, and another in my arm below my wrist. I had also a broken bone in my arm at this point.

The guys were on the ball and one was squeezing the holes while another was calling 911. Within minutes the fire dept with paramedics were there and they had the bleeding under control. Then the ambulance arrived and after some discussion took me off to my local hospital so I could get home easily later on. Little did I know.

After some 6 hours in the ER me and my Xrays were shipped off to downtown Orlando to ORMC. I lay in the ER for 3 hours and then they took me upstairs and put me in a bed. Fortunately my daughter arrived shortly afterwards and got me a sandwich as I had eaten nothing all day. The good thing about the room was that the Medevac helis arrived within 20 feet of it and they were busy all day so at least I could watch them coming in on finals

Next day, I hung around waiting, got an IV with some antibiotics in it but didn't see a doctor until late in the afternoon. He explained that the specialist hand guy was not answering his beeper and so he was going to leave everything as it was until the specialist arrived. However, they had put me on no food again in case they found him and he wanted to operate. He arrived a little later and examined the mess, wrapped it up again and said I could eat, they would operate in the morning. I got a grilled cheese sandwich!

Next morning I was wheeled down to the operating theater at 5.30am, Sorted and back in my room in bed before I knew it. Mid afternoon they said I could go.

This morning Tues 17th, I went to the clinic for a follow up. More x-rays, a bit of head nodding and come back and see me in 2 weeks and that was 2 hours out of my life. Now they bandaged me up so I can use my fingers. The wounds are healing nicely, the pinky has a nail in holding it together and the broken wrist will take up to 3 months. I'm going to be ok, but it will take time. The doc mentioned the possibility of bone grafts on the top of the pinky. I'm going to tell him no, chop it off and I'll scratch my nose with another finger.