hazchem88
Senior Heliman
Location: W.Mids UK
| I have had 2 recent crashes caused by mechanical failures.
Perhaps this might have been avoided with more thorough pre-flight checks, but...
1st crash;
I think a link came off one of the main rotor grips. So I had just about not control and did my best to bring it down gently.
That didn't go too well, landed nose first with a thud, broke a lot of stuff, 4 servos, shaft, boom, blades, etc.
2nd;
looks like the tail drive belt failed. Spinning like mad, had height control, but not very good direction. managed to bring it down a bit more gentler.
1 servo, boom, blades, dead.
My though is, if you have a mechanical failure such that you basically have no real control, is it best to hit the throttle hold, and kill the power to the motor, either straight away (like my 1st crash where I had no control), or at some point before crash landing (like my 2nd crash).
Then if you can try and auto a little that will help, and at least when the heli smacks in to the ground, there is no additional torque on the main rotors.Perhaps that might increase the chances of saving the blades, boom, motor gears etc.
Otherwise a heavy landing with the motor still running will increase the chances of more damage.
If you have no control over the heli and basically you are fighting a losing battle with the controls, perhaps that is an option, that might just make the difference is saving some parts.
(also as a though, if you have no control like the 1st crash, it would have been nice to have a magic button, to kill power to the receiver - to make all the servos go limp. Perhaps then 4 servos might have survived!).
So to summarise, what would you do if you lost most or all control because of a mechanical failure? (not talking about no power or rx going into failsafe, but no tail or cyclic or both).
I hear a lot about doing autos when you lose power, but I have not heard control loss mentioned |
