Lesson Learned

[Doozer]

Flew 4 helis today, Crashed 3. All mechanical failures.

A servo fried on my 600 and caused it to do the roll of doom. I was actually just playing around about 40 feet off the ground trying to go through a pack to get a new time down. I had just changed the pinion from 14t to 15t and I guess the load was too much for the Hyperions. FBL puts a heavier strain on the servos because there is no Flybar to take some of the load. I'm guessing the extra head speed was just too much. Broken skids, damage to the race of the swash (not sure I can fix it), bent and broken linkages, and $70 dollar blades are toast. Oh... and a toasted servo. I have skids, and blades. I'm not sure I can fix the swash, I haven't removed the head yet.

Now it was time to fly the new Gaui. I'm using two 3S 2100 packs until I get some 6S 2450's. This was the Gaui's maiden flight, so I was just taking it easy. Again, I was trying to get a time down. I had set my timer for 4 minutes. The timer went off and I go to set it down. As I drop the head speed with the skids almost on the ground, I notice a ton of roll and it looks like the helis going to tip. So I put it back into a hover with no issues. I bring it back down and the again there's the roll. I hit throttle hold and let it drop. It rolled to the left, and the blades struck the ground. No real damage, I chipped the blades but that's about it. I put it back in the air and it hovered just fine. I did find out what caused the roll. The servos push-rod caught on the canopy and wouldn't allow the swash to go all the way down when I powered down.

Next I flew the G5. I flew through one battery pack just fine. Then I flew my 250 through a battery pack. I put another battery in my G5. Spooled it up and just before the skids lifted I threw the blade grips. Don't know what happened. I took extra care to thread lock those screws, but one worked its way out. The plastic washout arms were sheared in half, and all the linkages were damaged. the blades and grips are fine. There was no other damage.

So, I titled this thread lesson learned, because I'm getting sloppy. With three birds having some sort of mechanical failure, I realize my focus is spread too thin. I've got too many helis that I'm trying to fly and maintain so i'm going to cut back the fleet. I'm not going to have a big sell off, but I am going to retire a few birds. I'm only going to fly one 250 and use the other for parts.... one Mini T and use the other for parts. Retire my HDX 450; Ricco; and all other sub micro helis I have. As I lose helis through attrition I wont replace them. I love the G5, 250 and Mini T, but I'm growing tired of the smaller helis.

[Solitaire]

The "For Sale" section is gonna be busy.

Methinks you're being way too hard on yourself, Dooz. Upping a pinion only to find the servos can't handle the extra load isn't necessarily a mechanical failure per se. Well it is, but it's not something you can put down to lackadaisical care and attention. At least you know the cause.

I guess the canopy interference could have been prevented, but some of those canopies tend to hug the swash a bit too tight. Nothing a bit of trimming can't fix and not happen again.

The G5 loose screw was a freak occurrence, especially when you threadlocked the crap out of it. Unforeseen situation, and no extra care would have prevented it.

BTW, on another note, have you done anything about the Aurora Tx yet?

[Doozer]

Yeah I guess theres no way to know that a servo is going to go bad, but I've known about load issues with avg servos. I just didn't think about it when I changed the pinion. I was thinking about 4 helis in the air instead of concentrating on the one I needed to think about. Had I remebered, I probably wouldn't have changed out the pinion.

I've sanded back the canopy on the Gaui so it shouldn't catch, and threw some reflecting tape over the chips at the edge of the blades (same weight on each side). So it's ready to roll again.

On my G5, I'm going to try to use some Align 450 washout arms. I failed to check the grip bolts after each flight. Had I done so, I'd be flying this heli tomorrow.

As for the Aurora. Had I been ready to purchase one, I couldn't now. I've got to drop a couple hundred in parts. I'm going to pick up some crash kit parts too. I do want one. I know a few guys at my LHS that own one and love it. Every switch is programmable, telemetry, touch screen, and back lit. It's hard to get one at the moment anyway. Hitec can't keep up. Another problem would be rx's. For me, that's an expensive proposition.

[19000rpm]

I've developed a "one crash a day" policy. That policy did not come about by accident. Pun intended. ;D Whatever the reason(s) crashes seem to come in multiples for me.

I really try hard to inspect my aircraft either before or after each flight. I think that helps alot. It's very time consuming though and I think we all get sloppy in this area from time to time, or simply caught up in the excitement of getting them in the air, and overlook even obvious problems occasionally.

Nothing much you can do with servo failure except test them by rotating them manually to feel if the movement is smooth and look for jitters, but that doesn't tell you everything about an electronics failure and little if a gear still feels ok, but is just about to pop.

I use mostly inexpensive servos so I replace them every so often as a precaution.

[McKrackin]

I had to cut my canopy around the rotor head for that exact same reason but with a worse end result.My link got caught in the canopy in a roll about 8' off the deck and did a second roll unexpectedly.Dirt nap at 50+mph....

I didn't catch the problem until after the rebuild.Put the canopy on.Moved the cyclic around.Set the radio down and heard a loud whine.The link was stuck over the canopy.

I'm getting sloppy myself.I spooled up a new heli the other day and didn't even tighten a single screw in the tail.Hovered a few seconds,hit idle up and BOOM!!!!Tail blew apart.

I had a solder joint break a few days before that that brought a heli down hard.MY SOLDER JOINT.lol....

Hang in there.I think I got my wake up call out of the way and I believe this is yours.

Remember one thing guys,I don't post ALL my crashes.lol......

[Doozer]

well, after inspecting the Guai one more time, I got a bad buzzing in my elevator servo when I gave it back elevator. Sure enough, I stripped a servo in that mild crash. That quick. So I grounded it until I got the replacement gear set.

I've stripped 4 servos since flying Hyperions and Aligns, and that's quite a few crashes. I put Spektrum DS5000's In this heli. I guess maybe I'm spoiled :/ I probably should expect to strip gears in a crash like that, but my hyperions are less expensive and have taken a pounding. I don't think a small crash like that would have done any damage to them ::shrugs::

On a positive note, only one gear was bad on the servo, but I replaced them all anyway.... saved the old ones that are good just in case. I put it in the air today and it flew as good as any heli I've flown. I didn't put it through it's paces yet because we're still trying to get to know each other. The head and tail are quite responsive.

I ordered the replacement parts for the 600 and the G5. Although for my 600, I still need to order some servos with a little more torque than the Hyperions. I thought about some JR DS821's because they are dirt cheap right now... but I can't find anyone that's carrying three of them. HD has two, ReadyHeli is out, and I'm not sure if RRE models has a live inventory. I'm not into spending my money and waiting on a backorder anymore. I'd rather pay a few extra bucks and get it fairly quick.

I thought I could find a linkage rod in my spare parts cache... no dice. I had every size pushrod except the one I needed. They were either too long or too short. I'm like a pack rat... I save everything, and I don't have what I need. Annoying!!! So I've spent quite a bit of money this payday on spare parts for all my helis.

So I only flew two helis today.... my Gaui, and my 250. I put 8 packs through my 250. I'm still needing another battery(s) for my 500, so I only flew it for 5 minutes . I'm thinking 30C 6S 2600 mah. HobbyKing has those pretty cheap. Anyway....No crashes... but I wasn't flying too hard. I'm working on stalling and rolling the heli over and coming down nose first (half flip/half roll). If you've ever surfed... it's kind of like doing a floater. I really like big fluid moves...

Have a good one....

[Doozer]

ugh.... After the repairs due to grips flying off, I finally put Outrage G5 back in the air. Right off the bat I noticed that something wasn't quite right about the way it flew. First there was such a bad wobble on the spool up that the heli tipped. So I went easier on the collective to get it to spool up. Then I noticed that the heli flew nothing like it did before. Now mind you, this wasn't a crash repair in the true sense, the blades blew off at spool up due to a loose grip bolt.

It was extremely sluggish and lacked any of the pop it had before the mishap. I was pretty upset. I checked the heli over... made sure everything was tight. So I ran another pack through it. Same, Same. Wobbled hard at spool up and sluggish as hell. So I got it back to the house and put it on the bench. I had decided I was going to tear apart the whole head and rebuild it. As I was taking the blades off, I noticed something. The mixing arms from the grips looked backwards.

The above picture shows the correct way the mixing arms should look on the grip. I had it opposite. I had the 3 hole side on left, and the two hole side on the right (the bigger holes are not functional).

After charging the packs, I went back out to the field and flew it.... it's back!!! So I'm back charging the packs again, and hopefully fly one more time before dark. I'm happy, yet I feel like a dork for missing that. Sometimes it's just the simplest things.

[akent]

Wow, Doozer!
I can sure see how easy that would be to get bassackwards. My Es-600 head has a couple of bars that could become backwards like that, too.

It's awesome you found it early!

It sure seems that all of my crashes happen in pairs these days. Not in triples yet, thank god, except for when my 500 took out the entire foamie fleet!!
Best,
Kent

[mimir]

At least you didn't crash again!

[McKrackin]

There is a post somewhere where the mixing arms were not straight by design and the heli was an RTF.
They had one angled up and one angled down and there was not enough adjustment to get the blades within 7 degrees of each other.
It took that guy over a month to figure it out.lol...

[Doozer]

ok... took out the 600 FBL today, and it rolled again and another servo failure. I think I'm done with FBL until I can afford it. Luckily, the crash was not expensive, well... not as bad as it could have been. Servo, blades, spindle, skids.... about $125 I guess. So, I'm putting the old head back on, throwing a GP750 on it for a gyro, and I'll fly woodies until I get new carbons. I had a set of Hyperion UMD's sitting around so I threw those in.

Even after the firmware upgrade I'm still getting a tiny kick and some wag out of the 3g. So I'm putting the 3g away until I get decent servos that can handle the load. Maybe I slap it on the 250 again???