Piro-Flip saved my butt!!!

[elkmaster01]

WOW,,,,did I ever pull one out today . I had been practicing piro-flips on the simulator,,,,no-way am I anywhere close to trying one. But,,,,today I HAD to do one to save my heli,,,I wish I had this one one video,,,it was priceless.

I was flying my 600 ESP with the Helicommand (it helped save my heli too). I have just starting doing, what I'll call, verticle 8s. I start with a FFF and a loop,,,when I come down the backside,,instaed of continueing the loop,,,I push forward and fly inverted and go right into an inverted outside loop,,,,when I come over the top I'm upright and go right into another dive,,,loop,,inverted outside loop,,,,,verticle 8s.

I was on my second verticle 8 and when I pushed forward while inverted,,I was really close to the ground(oat field,,the oats are about 3 feet tall). I like coming close to the oats,,it just looks way cool. This time I was too close and when I pushed forward to climb the outside loop,,,my tail blades hit the oats. Couldn't have been more than a stalk or two. One of my tail blades busted off and went flying past me.

Soo,,,you can guess my heli was in an uncontrollable spin. I gave it negative pitch and climbed up about 15 feet. Here's where the Helicommand really earns it's keep. It kept the heli level but inverted and spinning. I had time to think it out,,,while applying full opposite rudder it slowed the spin enough for me to do a piro-flip to get it upright. I went the wrong way first attempt but figured it out quickly. I got it upright,,,lowered the heli to about a foot above the oats,,hit throttle-hold and gave it full pitch to settle it down in the oats.

Here's the damage,,,,,,one tail blade,,,,forward torque-tube gears missing a couple teeth,,,,,feathering shaft bent,,,, an oat-stalk wrapped aroung the head to bend the feathering shaft and bend 3 control linkages,,,,,one mixing arm slightly bent,,,,and one set of grundies soiled!!

Could have been MUCH, MUCH worse. I can't say enough about the Helicommand. And without a doubt the time I spend on the simulator paid off big-time. And having the Pheonix sim is priceless.

I can't say I know how to do piro-flips,,,,but in this case,,,practicing them on the sim at least gave me a chance to save my heli. I was back in the air in two hours.


WHEWWWW! Talk about a severe pucker!!! ;D

Randy

[Solitaire]

Nice save, elk.
You've been in pucker mode a lot lately ;D

[Dave]

Heard he hasn't changed his shorts in over a week.....can't get them out of his...well you know

Dave

[flyinghigh]

More great testimony on the value of the HC. Sure would love to see a vid of those vertical 8's ;D Sounds very cool

[fergie]

nice job elk ;D