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Gyro Hobbies . E-flite . Next D

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Century Hawk - Falcon - Raven - Predator > Falcon SE II crash!!
 
 
Lift
Elite Veteran
Location: Houston, TX

Well, last night on my third tank I was working on low inverted hovering and just fell asleep at the sticks. Kind of a brain fade but not really because I knew what to do but tried it to low. Instead of climbing out and rolling over I just tried to roll it over and didn't manage the collective during the roll......THUD!

It landed on the front right corner of the canopy and whipped around 3 times fast. UH OH, was that the battery I just saw???????

Yep, it was. So, the motor is screaming(throttle return spring was not tensioned to pull a no power servo closed. Darn!) but the rotors are sitting still. I'm thinking man the clutch must be toast. Run up, yank the fuel line and after a few seconds all is calm(except the butt cheeks of course ). Apparently, on impact the lower "Jesus" bolt sheared right at the autorotation hub. Typically these bolts are shouldered but not on the Falcon SE. I did put a shouldered bolt on the headblock/mainshaft but the kit gives you a threaded bolt for the lower one. It is good thing that this broke. Otherwise I would have had a chicken dance big time!

Well, the impact was pretty hard. Total damage minus blades is gonna be ~$70. But, what saved me was that Jesus bolt.
*Boom
*Flybar
*Mainshaft
*Torque Tube bearing holder( because I tore up the O-rings on removal otherwise I wouldn't have to buy the bearing holder. Unless they sell the O-rings separately.)
*Landing Gear Struts (broke the rails clean off. They are in perfect condition. Just the rails broke. )
*Upper mainshaft bearing (has on notchy spot)
*Pushrod set.( somehow the links from the swash to the bell mixers are AWOL)
*Windshield
*Spindle(I think it is OK. But, I am gonna get one anyhow)

I would be buying boom supports but they are carbon fiber and came out perfect. As bad as the boom was bent I am amazed that the torque tube was ok. Crashes are usually no big deal but I haven't had one since February so it is a good reminder. I bought the Falcon SE for the purpose of learning 3D and it is doing the job. Crashes are cheap and you get very few issues to work out.

So, where is that UPS dude??
07-31-2002 Over year old.
 
 
the Wasp
rrProfessor
Location: Vt

life

Lift,,, sorry about your crash,,, you crashed your Falcon last night and I flew my new Falcon for the first time last night,,, life is funny that way, but thank the heli gods the there was only $70 in damage, I had 2 crashes on my Hawk V2 that I thought was going to be costly and there was only $30 and $35 in damage including the $20 Airotec blades,,, my new Falcon is noticeably smoother than my Hawk V2, and my Hawk was smoooooooth !! Have your parts delivered by US mail, that way you can have them delivered on Saturday !! Good luck,,, I bet you'll be flying your Falcon this weekend !


Jim
that up-side-down thing can be tricky !!
07-31-2002 Over year old.
 
 
Donald D.
Heliman
Location: Stevens Point Wisconsin

Lift, sorry to hear about the crash. I am now on number two with my Falcon, so I know the feeling. My first one happened when the fuel line pulled apart right after going inverted, I managed to upright her, but hit the ground on the skids pretty hard. Lower frames, struts, main shaft, feathering shaft, flybar, tail boom. Never scratched the main blades on that one though. Put it all back together and three flights later got disoriented on a windy overcast evening when I flipped to inverted at about a hundred feet up. By the time I figured it out, I was in the ground landing hard on the right side of the machine. This one took the main blades and all the above except for the frames. It also bent the radio tray frame into my GY 401 gyro and busted the case, as my gyro is on the lower deck of the radio compartment. The good thing is that those Century parts are quite reasonably priced, which takes away some of the pain. I bought mine for the same reason as you, to have a cheap 3-D learning helicopter. Hang in there, things will get better . Of all the helicopter wrecks I've had, these two bother me the least just because I don't have to break the bank with replacement parts. Hope you get her back in the air soon.
Don
07-31-2002 Over year old.
 
 
oldfart
Elite Veteran
Location: Vancouver, Canada

Crash

Hi Payton & Donald

Sorry to hear of the crashes.

But I am glad to hear that you got back in the saddle so quickly. The parts availabiity and low prices really defy the quality of the machine. All others helis I have had that were "Special Edition" units (not requiring a lot of upgrades) were all very pricey to repair and some where a bit difficult to get parts for.

Keep those blades turning

Phil
08-01-2002 Over year old.
 
 
kevlar11
Senior Heliman
Location: Edmonton

crash

Hi Payton,
I did almost the same thing on my Hawk SE rrrrrr! That’ll be the last time
I fly while tired. I was flipping from upright to inverted about 10 ft off the deck and got hit with a case of dumb thumbs. The only good part was the low cost to get back in the air.
KD
08-01-2002 Over year old.
 
 
gforce
Veteran
Location: Jacksonville FL

do do do do, do do do do, zing!!!!!!!! You are about to enter the twilight zone. The names have been changed to protect the innocent.

Payton, this really is strange.

I dorked up my Fury monday afternoon, at about 7:00 pm eastern time. Tipped it over cause I got tangled up in some brush. (To embarrasing to explain why). Crash damage was exactly the same as yours, with the exception of my Canopy (I was hovering with it off). But I did bust my CF boom supports. And of course the price tag is different. My crash costs are $170. That is excatly the reason I bought the Falcon. Less cashola out of pocket in the event of a mishap. I wish I would have been flying the Falcon instead of the Fury monday. Would have saved myself a bill. The Falcon is on the bench because I am changing out all the servos (another story, see my post on Hitec 605's if you want to know about it).

My post crash disorder (you know, where your all bummed out because you damaged your new bird, are thinking about just throwing it all in the trash and giving up, considering selling it as is for $50). lasted about 4 hours, how about yours?
08-01-2002 Over year old.
 
 
Lift
Elite Veteran
Location: Houston, TX

Post Crash

Well, I have two boys ages 5 and 3.5. They saw it hit the ground and motor screaming. Ran up to me "Dad, what happended?" said age 5. I'm bending over collecting the pieces of Hurricane blade ALL over the place and reply, "Well bud, Daddy dorked it!"

When I got home in about 1hr I had disassembled the heli back to what was staying for the rebuild. Made a list and went to www.Heli-World.com and priced the damage. I decided to get some Aerotech woodies till I get more proficient in the inverted flying and hovering. No need to tear up good blades for that stuff.

I haven't crashed alot in my heli experience. This is only my 3rd crash and the 2nd that was pilot related. So, all in all I have had some good success. But, crashing does damage your pride if you let it. My experience has always been to not let the heli sit around un-repaired or looked at to long. At the least if I don't go home, investigate the repair bill and rip it apart I may lose motivation. So, getting it back together as soon as possible is imperative to me.
08-01-2002 Over year old.
 
 
oldfart
Elite Veteran
Location: Vancouver, Canada

Blades

Payton,

For a good inexpensive FRP blade order some of the 600mm FK's from Heli-World. You can get two pair for about the price ($94.95) of one pair of Hurricanes ($89.95) and they fly a lot better then the woodies. The woodies (any woody because of their CCG relative to their center of lift) are pitchy in FFF. Although the Aerotech 600mm woodies are some of the best I have ever tested, they are a lot lighter with a far less efficient airfoil then the FK or Hurricanes so they do not auto as well neither.

Phil
08-01-2002 Over year old.
 
 
Lift
Elite Veteran
Location: Houston, TX

Woodies

Phil,
I am all to familiar with the quality of the Aerotechs. I was going to order the Falcon SE crash kit # CN2230F assuming that these came with the Aerotech woodies.

I already have a set of the Gamma 600mm CF blades NIB. These are superior in every aspect to the Hurricane and Funkey blades and can be obtained for $55 a set. While I enjoyed the Hurricanes I will not be replacing them. They are pretty darn good but there is better for the $. Namely SAB and Gamma. Not sure about how I feel about the Model Sport blades, and the NHPs are just to brittle.

Even thought the woodies don't auto as well it shouldn't be that bad considering how well the Falcon SE autos in the first place!
08-01-2002 Over year old.
 
 
gforce
Veteran
Location: Jacksonville FL

That is what I did. Tore it down to the good stuff, ordered the new parts, and set her on the work bench. I really don't like looking at the bird all twisted up. Just get the bent parts off as soon as you can and move on, right.

Hey, I will race you back into the air again. Ready set go!!!
08-01-2002 Over year old.
 
 
oldfart
Elite Veteran
Location: Vancouver, Canada

Crash Kit

Check with Century, but I think the crash kit is available with the FK blades for about $20.00 more then it is with the Aerotechs.
08-02-2002 Over year old.
 
 
voclain
Senior Heliman
Location: Houma, LA

Payton.....

.......I'm not going to say I'm sorry for your crash. WHY???

WELL my feelings about crashing is that unless you are crashing, you are not really learning because you are NOT pushing yourself!!!

Thus, I have not crashed my FALCON yet, but I'm looking forward to a good crash!!

NOW you have once again inspired me to PUSH ON!!

First you inspired me to get that Falcon, NOW you are inspiring me to CRASH it!!

Thanks buddy for the inspiration!!

Yours,

Kirk Voclain
08-02-2002 Over year old.
HOMEPAGE  
 
 
blazen
Senior Heliman
Location: California

hitec 605’s ????

Sorry dont know how that post wound up here. I moved it...
08-02-2002 Over year old.
 
 
Lift
Elite Veteran
Location: Houston, TX

Flying buddies.......

Kirk,
What are good friends for after all?? Get a few hundred out of ya and then encourage you to crash it!!!! Geez, what are we thinking???

Blazen,
You are spot on regarding electronic failures. Some servos are more resilient to high frequency vibs than others. My experience has been that JR, Futaba, Hitec all have some servos in each of their line that don't hold up as well as others. IMHO the JR digitals ALL are very vibration sensitive. In the last year there has been a rash of JR digital failures and it seems to be with heli mainly. All the guys flying 1/4 scale prop and turbines at our field run these and have had ZERO failures. On the otherhand I had a 8411 on throttle fail after 10 flights!! Another flying buddy has had two 8417s fail. So, there can be rotten apples.

But, for the most part the majority of electronic failures come down to binding, high frequency vibs, and improper installation.
08-02-2002 Over year old.
 
 
blazen
Senior Heliman
Location: California

Hi lift

I’m not sure why my last post was here I must have pasted in the wrong window
I will agree that some servos are more resistant to High frequency vibrations. It could be as simple as components within the servo having sympathetic / Harmonic wave lengths.

73’s
Blazen
08-02-2002 Over year old.
 
 
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Century Hawk - Falcon - Raven - Predator > Falcon SE II crash!!
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