1 CPII just paid for the other 10

[nightflyr]

Well I thought today would be a good day to break out the 600>800 Ap rig and get the camera's cranking a bit..

Well into the 3rd flight and dealing with the wind gusts with some heavy collective management..

Up around 70 feet with no warning I lose the tail and this monster starts a high speed piro.
I hit TH and start praying

Sitting with a building to one side and a treeline on the other didn't leave a whole bunch of area to shoot an auto.

So I'm stuck trying to due a basic hover auto... the tail slowed down and managed to come down flat and level although a bit harder than I cared for..

I watched this 800 hit the ground and spring back up a few inches before it settled.. I put the radio down and walk over expecting the worst, what I found was the tail was free spinning..( I thought I burnt the servo).. every thing else looked to be fine.

As I reach over to start to disconnect the batteries.. I see the swash tilt way over....I pulled the batteries and went back for my Tx..

Surprisingly, I found that when I hit TH I also flipped on the CPII which was the reason the heli came down flat and level..

That unit saved this machine from getting totaled not to mention saving 3 on board camera's

Final damages..
My own fault.. when I made up the TT for this 800, I forgot to JB Weld the ends, so all that torque was being held by 2 very little screws..I'm shocked that it lasted as long as it did.
The only other damage was to the camera mount cracked through 2 support arms but was easily repaired.

Lesson learned triple check everything..then check it again!!!
Because this was the result of not...

[vanguy]

Night, it wa very windy in Philly and cold. I took my 500 up and doing some rolls when a big gust of wind blew my bird into the sun and I lost all orientations. No worries, just let cp2 go to work and all is well. Glad to see your damages were minimal. Cp2' don't fly without it

[nightflyr]

Thx..all repaired now, if the weather holds I'll try it tomorrow depending if i have any daylight left by the time I get home ( I hate this EST/DST)

[Luvmyhelis]

This should be posted up for histories sake for all the unbelievers out there! Nice work bro! (again, lol )

[pril250]

Any save by what ever means is a good thing in my books Well done on a good recovery

[Bri]

Great to hear about your save.

Do you happen to have any video of the incident?

I remember viewing post a while back of a tail failure of some sort and the on board cam captured the entire incident. Amazing video and recovery on the part of the pilot. I will attempt to locate the post, as the incident was quite similar to yours.

Thank you for sharing nightflyr.

[nightflyr]

I had the tail failure before I turned the camera's on.. was planning on getting some altitude before I started video taping...

I would like to say hopefully next time ...but under those conditions I hope not

[n6nev]

Like this?


[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cDGCwcFTCRA[/ame]

[nightflyr]

That's was about what it would have looked like except I managed to stay on my skids in the end

[Bri]

I can't seem to find the one I was referring to. The quality of the on board vid was very good. The pilot had it in a high hover when something let loose on the tail. He hit TH rather quickly and autoed into a very nice landing. I do remember it being a pretty high $ AP rig. I will keep searching for it.

EDIT:

Finally found it.

Here is the OP with his explanation about what happened.
https://www.helifreak.com/showpost.p...53&postcount=1

Here is his video

[Navigator53]

That had to be an instant Pucker Factor of about 9.5 with sooo much riding on a safe landing with no time to think, just react.

Looks like you still have those cat-like reflexes Night

[nightflyr]

Mel..let me put it this way ...

it scared the CRAP outta me