Crash severity, damage and cost...

[Psgatlanta]

Been on a mini vacation here in St. Augustine for the past few days. Friend had his wedding on the beach so wasn't that hard to be the best man.... Also made it an opportunity to bring my helis so I could fly them while down here.

Found a nice sports field/complex nearby that had a large, open soccer field that was completely empty of obstacles and people. Aside from being attacked from every flying menace in a mile radius, it was a good spot.

I flew the SR first. Wind was about 12-15 steady and was manageable. I took the SR up and did some circuits and lazy 8's at about 50-65 feet or so. Got up a little higher and after a few minutes I completely lost my orientation.

Next thing I know, nothing took me out of that steep dive towards some palm plants at the edge of the woods. I hadn't made it through one entire battery pack. I was being very brave so I wasn't upset (although I'd like to have had it on video) but walking up to it I figured, a torn up canopy, bent tail, torn up blades etc. Oddly enough, the only damage I could see off hand was the main gear completely stripped. This is what caused the crash. I'd been flying with a few teeth missing for a few weeks (no one had any gears) and under some of my horsing around, it finally gave way.

Just a slight curve to the tail boom and I managed to straighten it out. Feathering shaft was bent slightly as was the main shaft. Drove up to Jacksonville and bought some gears, and a feathering shaft kit. Took it all apart and put everything back together. Blades were fine as was canopy. Only damage were those three things - gear, main shaft and feathering shaft. Total cost to fix was about $10. I thought I'd trashed it for sure too. It was coming down fast and sharply. Only thing that saved it were those palms.

If only I could say I had something to do with controlling the crash! I guess if you are crashing and can control it, head for shrubs....

Gotta say this thing is durable.

I did spend about 20 mins flying my Trex250 after this though and got video of it...

Whole point of the post is that if you are new to this and nervous about crashing, don't be, it's gonna happen. Thing is it isn't the end of the world (unless everyone is out of parts) but those seem to be the things that go when you do crash. The bolt that goes through the main gear to secure it was even bent up bad.

I'll be out flying it again this morning as I've already gotten it up and flying - tested it in the hotel room on the bed.. lol

[M1abrams]

I have to say it's a robust little heli, and cheap to fix too. Yesterday I flew it for the first time and it was a bit too windy...I managed to fly it into a tree somehow. The heli fell from the tree straight to the ground but all that broke was the canopy, blades, and the landing gear. I took it apart later and the main shaft or feathering shaft weren't bent, after a trip to the hobby shop (luckily they had all of the stuff I needed and spares even) she was ready to go again. I didn't even realize until today that I had left the radio on the high rate...not smart. I moved the second set of flybar weights out towards the paddles as well as turning it back onto the low rate and it's much easier to hover. I think I'm gonna save the new canopy until I know I can hover it good.

[Psgatlanta]

Yeah I'm getting to the point where I am really pushing it. A month ago I could barely control a hover well. Now I'm used to getting it up 50-75 feet to do the scarier stuff.

[weelee]

I crashed my 450 two days ago. bent all the shafts main, tail and feather. Blades and 1 tooth on my aileron servo, but a quick look on ebay and i found a shop with all the spares. Ended up getting 5 of everthing for about $30 so if i crash again, I should be up and running in no time

[marcoeldragon]

First major crash today oh what fun! Was flying nose in towards myself and almost hit myself in the head. Spun back to tail in too late and smacked the ground tail first fairly fast. Shattered nose of canopy, bent tailboom, bent shaft on new tail motor. Probably bent the feathering shaft too. Total cost about 35 dollar not including shipping or gas to the LHS.

[Psgatlanta]

Originally Posted by marcoeldragon

First major crash today oh what fun! Was flying nose in towards myself and almost hit myself in the head. Spun back to tail in too late and smacked the ground tail first fairly fast. Shattered nose of canopy, bent tailboom, bent shaft on new tail motor. Probably bent the feathering shaft too. Total cost about 35 dollar not including shipping or gas to the LHS.

Nose in training definitely gets costly... no doubt about that. I was practicing some pirouettes yesterday and had some really close calls. If the weather calms down today I'll try again.

I'm taking my head apart again this morning - seems I've got a lot of vibration and I may need to redo the orings and shims... These things keep you busy!

[Jumna]

OK, I was learning to do pirouettes yesterday, spun out weird, veered away from a tree, and the veer was the bad kind, and broke the landing gear, center hub, and a pitch link totally vanished, and I have no spares of those links. I'll be getting some soon, tho.

The other day I had a one point landing on the tail sharply, and the tail motor continued to work afterwards! I bet if you crash it just right, the axle gets bent straighter than factory, and no overheating.

[SeanM]

Originally Posted by Jumna

The other day I had a one point landing on the tail sharply, and the tail motor continued to work afterwards! I bet if you crash it just right, the axle gets bent straighter than factory, and no overheating.

haha, it's a cheap motor... but not that cheap. If you smack your tail in anyway, you should try and feel if the motor is vibrating more than it used to. If it is, the brushes probably won't last too much longer.

[marcoeldragon]

I'm thinking of taking my head apart too, my real one for thinking I could fly CP. I can fly fixed wing just fine, never had a bad crash except when I was doing something I knew was going to end in disaster. On the plus side I have been looking for an excuse to switch out the blue canopy for the orange one so I can look like Sean.

[Jumna]

I've got the orange canopy on order, since my stock is starting to pick up a lot of tape reinforcement...

We all could form an orange air squadron, with high visibility even with extremely far assignments in foreign fields. I myself have skill in SR kamikaze tactics, having taken out enemy trees and even a parked car! Well, the car is my wife's, but it was asking for it...
(couldn't find a mark on it, luckily)

[Psgatlanta]

hahaha... I'm finally getting to the point where I just laugh when I crash. I'm usually having fun and horsing it about so I pretty much expect to crash it. Thing is, it's so damn durable that when I do crash, most of the time there is no damage and I can quickly take back off.

Today though I had the best crash to date. I'm loading video to YouTube now...

Actually crashed it twice. I just finished putting the head back together this morning too. First crash was just completely losing orientation about 100 feet up and I managed to go through some pine trees at the side of the ball field I was flying in. Good thing was they softened the damage. Just some slight bends to the tail boom and broke the bottom off the tail fin.

Flew it directly after that only to come in crazy fast at the ground. Was really pushing it hard and just completely lost control. Nice smack when it hit and parts flying. Again, only real damage was the blades, main shaft again and feathering shaft - boom has had it and jacked up that tail motor again. I have most of the parts so I'll rebuild it again and try not to crash it for another week....I'll put the video up as soon as it uploads.

[Psgatlanta]

Here's the youtube of me crashing this thing today. Sorry in advance for the distance. I was just using my iPhone shoved in my heli bag. I wasn't planning on crashing - at all. So I didn't have perfect footage. First crash was to the left and into some pine trees at about 30-35 feet. Was able to fly again then I did a really fast header into the dirt.... pretty obvious what happened to it....

Maybe it will rain tomorrow so I can rebuild..

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IcTEkmVNlJ4[/ame]