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Crash
Posted Wednesday February 7, 2007 at 1:14 am
(4 years ago)
Had a pretty bad crash yesterday. I was flying in the dog yard when April pulled into the driveway. I got distracted by this and let it drift into a bush. It came out of that alright, but I was annoyed that I had let that happen. April thought it was pretty funny. To show her how it was supposed to fly, I picked it up, dusted it off, and tried again. I'm not sure exactly what happened, but I think I was transitioning from tail-in to nose-in flight, got a little sloppy, and ultimately forgot my orientation. It hit the ground skids-first, but it was coming down fast and also moving laterally pretty quickly. It somehow got flipped over and was upside down before it stopped moving. I knew a lot was broken, and I didn't even want to look at it until tonight, 30 hours after the incident. Here's the damage:
- Broke the skids in 5 places. I'm not sure if the attached training gear made it better or worse, but this part—worth about 40 cents—was not broken. These are still the original skids, by the way, and they've already been glued back together more times than I remember. I don't think they're worth repairing this time. I'll have to speed up work on the new set I've been building.
- The battery hanger, which was suspending the heaviest single part of the helicopter, and which is really just two 2mm rods integrated into the annihilated skids, miraculously survived. This is a sign from God that He liked my modification to balance the helicopter by moving the battery forward.
- Broke one of the balls off of the paddle control frame.
- The 4in1 controller snapped loose from where I had glued it onto the frame.
- Broke the tail rotor gear. The tail rotor itself flew off its drive shaft but looks undamaged. The rubber tube that holds the rotor on the shaft is lost, though. I don't have any idea where to get rubber tubing that's that small of a diameter, but I'll figure something out.
- One flybar paddle was turned about 60 degrees out of alignment, which I think happened because one of the main rotor blades hit it. I don't think I'll have to replace any parts for that, though.
I stripped off all the broken stuff and plugged the battery back in. Amazingly, the 4in1, the servos, and both engines seem to still be working normally. I could be flying again in 2 days if I feel like making all the repairs, but I might put everything on hold for a little bit.
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