RAK402
Veteran
Location: Alhambra, CA
| I had a lot of students, back in the 1980's. One guy had a Falcon 707, which he wanted me to trim (these were very good, very stable machines).
I checked it out and it looked good. I remember asking him if he locktited everything. He said yes.
I lifted it into a hover, and got it pretty well trimmed out. About the time I was satisfied with it and was about ready to land it and hand it over to him, it rolled violently to the right and smashed into the ground.
The aileron bellcrank had fallen off in flight because he had not loctited the nut onto the shaft the bellcrank pivoted on.
Another time, we lost a scale machine in the LA River behind the back lot at Universal, due to a broken tail drive shaft (Hirobo/GMP used a thin, wire drive shaft). This was demo for a TV show and in front of the producer. The thing piroutted down, out of site into the dry (cement) river bed. A little scratched up, and broken blades, but easily repairable.
The embarrassment was not repairable. |
