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02-18-2009, 07:30 PM | #21 (permalink) |
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Join Date: May 2008
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Ouchie! Sorry to hear that. Any idea why the tail grip came off like that? That cement block definitely added insult to injury no doubt!
I lost the tail on mine twice, once in December and again on New Years Day. 1st time the cf tail tube fractured inside the plastic clamps which hold it in place between the frames allowing the tube to back out and disengage the tail drive... lost my night blades (mains and tail blades) and the tail tube of course, but otherwise not too bad. Then on the 3rd test flight after fixing it the tail quit again.... autopsy suggests that a roll-pin in 1 of the tail drive couplers sheared off in flight for reasons unknown. That crash was a bit worse, busting the SE canopy's windshield and breaking the landing gear as well as the tail tube and another set of cf main blades. Ughh! So I've taken the past month or so to totally rebuild the heli, replacing the aluminum main frames with cf main frames so the bird is now almost entirely cf (and I can tell the difference, it's lighter now), and added a few other CNC blings to it that I've had sitting around waiting for the right moment. Got a good smooth test-hover in the backyard this past Sunday! My glowire is all in a box, and I have another canopy I need to finish painting which I intend to make my night-canopy. A new set of night mains and tailblades are en-route now too. I really enjoyed flying this heli at night last November... I only got maybe 8 flights total on it at night but they were really awesome and I look forward to doing it again sometime next month! Maybe put some glow-decals on it as well this time. Keep in touch and keep us updated on how things go Brian! I have no idea if a Fury canopy can be made to fit a Stratus mechanics but I'd imagine it's possible. Min Air heli's are wonderful in that so many parts are interchangeable between the various models.... you can kind of pick and choose what parts you like the most for your heli. - Michael Last edited by Michael211; 02-18-2009 at 07:32 PM.. Reason: fixing typo |
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02-18-2009, 07:37 PM | #22 (permalink) |
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Join Date: May 2008
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ps. I learned on and flew this X-Cell (originally an ST model, now upgraded with 99SE parts) for over 3 years before having this pair of inflight failures.... I'm certainly not complaining, it's been a wonderful machine and I hope I have the tail drive problems worked out now! The cf tail tube fracturing like mine did in the clamps is extremely rare I've learned but it can happen. Only solution is to epoxy or JB weld the tube into the plastic clamps so that it can never back-out if it ever cracks, which I will be doing in short order.
- Michael |
02-18-2009, 10:40 PM | #23 (permalink) | ||
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Thread Starter
Join Date: Jan 2008
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I know exactly what happened, the heli was telling me something was wrong but I wasn't listening. For 2 days (flying days) prior to the crash, I'd been getting what seemed like a sloppy tail, or a gyro that wasn't holding, or a quick flutter. Almost as if a tooth was missing or something. The tail blade grips always had some slop in them (I bought the heli used and think it was an original fury80, then upgraded to an extreme)
but I checked all the gearing and everything was fine, so I kept flying. Well 2 things happened that caused this crash. 1)since installing the 451's i redid the settings and quickly found that for the past year I haven't been flying with the throttle at 100% so for the last 2 flights during 3D mode I was running a Flat 100% throttle curve which drastically bumped up the head speed. 2)the Nut that holds the tail blade grip on backed off.
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-Brian Barton Team Xerogear
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02-20-2009, 01:32 PM | #24 (permalink) |
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Join Date: May 2008
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Brian, what's a "451"?
Did the tailgrip nut strip the threads or did it just vibrate loose? My tailblades on each of my 3 X-Cell's always have a small amount of back-n-forth looseness to them, but I've checked and the nuts are tight. It seems though that when you pull the tailblades straight out by hand that the back-n-forth slop goes away... so under rotational forces there should be no sloppiness. I still check them frequently to insure they don't start getting looser! - Michael |
02-20-2009, 03:40 PM | #25 (permalink) | ||
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Join Date: Jan 2008
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I think it just backed out. I bought the heli used, and checked them a year ago, loctited them and hadn't checked since. I chalk it up to user fault. I wasn't doing my usual maintance, cause I've been very pressed for time lately.
Oh and 451's are the Futaba BLS451 Servo's I have on Collective and Throttle, I am running a BLS251 for Tail. (and on the new stratus will be running 6v instead of 4.8)
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-Brian Barton Team Xerogear
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04-02-2009, 03:47 PM | #26 (permalink) | ||
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Thread Starter
Join Date: Jan 2008
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Ok I found so far the best videos of MS Composit Blades I've seen.
Marcus Kim flying at the XFC 2008 http://www.runryder.com/?v=/helicopt...-MarcusKim.wmv daniel kattzav http://www.runryder.com/?v=/helicopt...nielKatzav.wmv
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-Brian Barton Team Xerogear
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