25 Acre fire due to Castle ESC

[Gadflyii]

Originally Posted by Goatkeeper

Ok... I think a larger fire extinguisher may be on my list of equipment to take to the field.

another +1.... damn...

[spikestabber]

One is probably not enough, I saw a thread where a crash caused a fire and it took TEN (yes 10) extinguishers to put out the blaze.

[dogdirt]

Thanks freaks,
You guys have scared the poop out of me putting my 700 together. I bought it on father's day and started reading the horror stories less than a week later. I put the 700 kit under the bed and seem happy to fly the 600 without any problems. I did send the HV120 back to Castle yesterday and will build the beast when I get the upgraded speed control back. I hope they have the problem fixed.

[smontesdeoca]

I have a V2 to be shipped. Called CC yesterday and the turnover is 4 to 6 weeks, definitely will replace the HV120.
As for all responses above, while my car extinguisher is in good condition ill get another one, bigger and keep it handy at the site.
Good to hear nothing else happened, sorry for your Loss, hopefully you can sort it out and replace your 700 asap.

[Inverse]

I'd love to see the email exchanges between Align and CC.....

[Mystic3D]

Originally Posted by Inverse

I'd love to see the email exchanges between Align and CC.....

Align could care less, they just sell more parts. If they cared they would have simply pulled the ESC from the Kits.

[mqd100psu]

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JBmlum8HNIQ[/ame]

Same thing happened here this is with a CC160HV shouldn't be catching on fire anymore, will be selling my Trex 600e Pro FBL parts soon since I crashed it today, don't know what happened but pulling up out of a loop I heard the blades just slow down to a halt and I lost control =/. Thinking about getting a 700 but after seeing and experiencing all these issues with HV fires I think I'm going back to a good old 450 Pro, at least I had no issues with failing electronics or fires on it.

[Mystic3D]

Originally Posted by mqd100psu

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JBmlum8HNIQ

Same thing happened here this is with a CC160HV shouldn't be catching on fire anymore, will be selling my Trex 600e Pro FBL parts soon since I crashed it today, don't know what happened but pulling up out of a loop I heard the blades just slow down to a halt and I lost control =/. Thinking about getting a 700 but after seeing and experiencing all these issues with HV fires I think I'm going back to a good old 450 Pro, at least I had no issues with failing electronics or fires on it.

Now that's funny, my 450 Pro fell out of the sky today. Minor damage, blades, landing gear. Any heli can fail anytime


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[smaze17]

You know - my Co2 extinguisher is required when I fly my turbine models. I guess it's "required" for when I fly my 700e too

I have been a long time supporter of castle and have vehemently defended them in the past but this is just flat out embarrassing. I have an 80HV on my 600 Pro. The maiden was successful today but flying it from this point on is disconcerting to say the least.

I have had nothing but success with every single one of my Castle ESC's but it really sucks when you are not totally confident with your equipment. Not to mention having to worry about the thing spontaneously combusting mid-flight.

I will continue to use my 80HV with caution. I am using EC5 connectors and the wires are well under 12 inches from the ESC to the batteries. The ripple voltage was also well under 2 volts.

I have already sent in my 120HV from my V2 700 kit.

S

[sniper_iron_man]

Originally Posted by gergob@gmail.com

Our AMA Field in Sacramento had a fire after my 700E with the Castle 120HV went up in flames mid flight. My bird had 315-320 flights on it, I thought my ESC was from the better batch. I auto'd to heli down only breaking the landing skid. If it wasn't for the flaming ESC on the back I could have walked away with $15 damage. I suppose it's just a matter of time for all Castle 120HV users. Due to the dry weather and strong wind 25 acres burned down, no structural damage. Funny thing I was just gonna send the ESC back monday for the recall...

If you own a Castle 120HV and fly over a non AMA senctioned field please keep these pictures in mind.

Could u please let us know if CC replied back to you about the esc flame up? I really think cc should replace your whole heli . yes electronic do fail but cc already knew waaaay ahead of time that some esc were faulty. Most helis that have failed are from spool ups and some during flight i dont know how maney helis have been saved or crashed but man from the looks of your pics it was more then just a esx on fire and some broken parts CC got a whole field burnt and your heli toasted that could not be saved at all during the esc flame up i hope u really push them to replacing your whole heli. Im not againts cc as i just sent my esc in for replacement but after reading what happend to it just really sucks that the ending wasnt just some broken blades or links if anything they should really consider hooking you up with a new heli.

[frank26all]

I have an 85hv on my 700 and so far I have had good luck but I'll be carefull not to overdischarge my batteries,I'm wondering could the batteries have anything to do with this sudden combustion. Couldn't faulty batteries be at fault also,I'm no expert but an esc gets all of it's power from the batteries so it seems to me the batteries could be at fault as well as the esc and after such destruction how could one determine what the problem actually was. I'm sorry about the heli and hope you get a new one soon.

[Lee Estingoy]

To all,

Let's all just agree not to fly HV 120 controllers until they have received the latest modifications. We have no idea what exactly caused this controller to fail.

We are all grateful no one was hurt.

Again, stand down all HV 120 controllers.

Thanks,

Lee Estingoy
for Castle Creations, Inc.

[XSTAR]

Come on CC get this guy a new Heli thats what we want to hear this is just not fair...

[backburner1955]

Originally Posted by XSTAR

Come on CC get this guy a new Heli thats what we want to hear this is just not fair...

This is an "At Risk" hobby, if they give him one for the failure, they need to give one for all of the failures. Dont see that happening.

Get the new controller through the recall.

http://www.castlecreations.com/suppo...xicehv120.html

[XSTAR]

Oh well so be it i know if it was mine i would want another, most cases it wasnt the entire heli gone just the esc....

[gergob@gmail.com]

I found out today it was over 50 acres that burned down. Nobody got hurt, no damage to property. The firefighters had a good training excersize. Apparently they were out all night. As far as the heli is concerned I think the bolt for the blade grip survived

I've been replaying the incident in my head. 6 months ago I used to be able to push the 700 full throttle up and down 200 feet without bogging the motor and even changing Headspeed. Yesterday the heli felt week. It flew it gently compensating for the times the headspeed bogged during my routine. I've been complaining no stop for 2 weeks that my Castle gov no longer keeps up with my flying. I was getting ready to buy a Kontronik and sell this one after the service recall. Can ESC's degrade quality over time? I use the batteries from the 700 in my 550 at times, I know they are good. They make my 550 explode with power. internal resistance is still under 1.5. I don't remember correctly but I think the ESC ignited 20 sec after I switched from 2000rpm to 2058 idle 2. I was upright doing a figure 8. It ignited when I wasn't even pushing it.
I also remember taking the ESC apart 2-3 months ago following castle's service advisory to slide a business card inside the esc to check for gaps. My esc was fine. My setup has not changed, but The governor maybe got weaker over time. My Skookum 720 logged around 315-320 flights, i guess my number was up.
I used to have to peak under the canopy each time I plugged the heli in to make sure my Skookum initialized with a green light. Man I was always nervous putting my face 12 inches from that ESC.

[maarset]

I fly with this guy on a regular basis. I was there when he did the business card check. Since there was a gap he decided not to send it in.

Gergo is a very smooth flyer and not much of a smack flyer. He absolutely loved that helicopter.

I went to the flying field today and it was blackened grass as far as you could see. We share the field with airplane guys and all the fire damage was on the airplane guys side. Not good for us heli guys, but I think they realized it was a mechanical failure. A bulldozer was there all morning making a trench around the burn area in case there was a flare up.

And to make this worse, the area was an old bombing run training area so there are old ordinance out there. It was searched pretty good last year but you never know.

[WBFAir]

Originally Posted by smontesdeoca

I have a V2 to be shipped. Called CC yesterday and the turnover is 4 to 6 weeks, definitely will replace the HV120.
As for all responses above, while my car extinguisher is in good condition ill get another one, bigger and keep it handy at the site.
Good to hear nothing else happened, sorry for your Loss, hopefully you can sort it out and replace your 700 asap.

smontesdeoca, just to ask to see if this is what you meant, you called CC and they told you the turn around for sending in a HV120 and getting one of the new ones was 4 to 6 weeks???

[Inverse]

You can't ramp up a new production run overnight.

[WBFAir]

Originally Posted by Inverse

You can't ramp up a new production run overnight.

Yeah I understand, just trying to find out if that is the projected time line.

For me, I got a good amount of time and money into my first 700e build and just about done. As well I live in the NE of the US, so despite that its almost Aug, still am kinda thinking of the end of the season isn't all that far off.

Basically was thinking of getting a Hobbywing 120 just to get the bird in the air to work out all the stuff, so if 6 weeks is what I'm looking at, I might just do that.