RunRyder - my falcon exploded in mid air

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Century Hawk - Falcon - Raven - Predator > my falcon exploded in mid air

Wingman77
Elite Veteran
Location: Pulaski TN US

I have a century falcon and I am teaching a friend how to fly it, the helicopter has been flying great and because I was scared of a crash I ordered wood blades to put on instead of carbonfiber blades. anyway after a little hovering just to make sure the blades were in track and everything was fine I hooked up the budy box and we took off and had a good flight basicly just hovering 50-80 feet up so we had pleanty of room for me to grab it if I needed to. The flight went well so we refuled and went back up. near the end of the next flight I could see we were about out of fuel and then all of a sudden the blades made a horid noise and came out of track about 8 in to a foot, the heli shook vilentley for 2 secconds then one blade shot off and the heli exploded. my headspeed was right about 1600.
any ideas what happened?

07-14-2008 06:02 PM

RadioRob
Veteran
Location: Schaumburg Illinois USA

Well from what you described it sounds like one of your wood blades made its way loose enough to throw off tracking and then fly off. Did you glue the wood blades like it suggests?

Rob...

07-14-2008 08:41 PM

HOMEPAGE

Wingman77
Elite Veteran
Location: Pulaski TN US

like what suggests? no I did not

07-14-2008 08:44 PM

Wingman77
Elite Veteran
Location: Pulaski TN US

here is a pic

07-14-2008 08:46 PM

Ray Fernandez
Elite Veteran
Location: Guam (U.S.A.)

I think what RadioRob meant was that most of the time, wood blades need to be properly assembled. The root end had to be glued on. Was that the case with you or did you just buy/have a set sitting around?

I remember when I first started flying helis and we had to build our own blades, measuring, balancing and all.

The description you gave seems to be a failure on the blades that caused the catastrophy.

Ray Fernandez - GUAM

07-14-2008 09:54 PM

genovia
Elite Veteran
Location: N UR NECK OF DA WOODS

Quote
like what suggests? no I did not

My most important question was simple "Did you prep the blades.

Facts that I gathered this morning:

1) Baldes shot off.
2) Inch aft. from the blade grip.

"Did the blade grip broke off?"

"No, it did not broke there, it broke after the black thing that I screwed to the blades."

07-14-2008 10:03 PM

genovia
Elite Veteran
Location: N UR NECK OF DA WOODS

Quote
The description you gave seems to be a failure on the blades that caused the catastrophy.

Don't think so, just excited to fly and missed the most important think of all and that is to prep the blades.

Wingman, give me a call, 800-686-8588

07-14-2008 10:25 PM

oldfart
Elite Veteran
Location: Vancouver, Canada

The instructions state clearly that you must glue the plastic blade roots to the wood part of the blade (must cut away the plastic covering in that area). If it is a Century wood blade, I believe you will find the covering already cut away in that area.

Check through the PDF instruction manuals for the Hawk (wood blades) and the older Falcon III (wood blades). These instructions also clearly show this assembly requirement.

07-14-2008 11:07 PM

SuperSixTwo
Senior Heliman
Location: Lockwood, NV

broken pitch link or something like that.

07-15-2008 12:44 AM

Wingman77
Elite Veteran
Location: Pulaski TN US

all pitch links are still intact

07-15-2008 04:06 AM

Wingman77
Elite Veteran
Location: Pulaski TN US

I have been told that I will have to pay for 100% of the repairs.

bummer

07-21-2008 06:28 PM

oldfart
Elite Veteran
Location: Vancouver, Canada

If you had not properly glued the blade roots then it is not Century's fault.

ALL wood blades require that the roots be glued directly to the wood.

A worthy lesson learned - albeit a pricy one.

07-21-2008 06:40 PM

genovia
Elite Veteran
Location: N UR NECK OF DA WOODS

dude I do regret what happened to your heli. This is just one of those things, live and learn. I've had worst crashes due to my own negligence, do not let this bring you down, re-build your heli. Get her up in the air ASAP!

If you need further assistance, pm me, or call me at 800-686-8588

Antonio

07-21-2008 09:17 PM

Pistol_Pete
Elite Veteran
Location: Tampa Bay non-Buccaneer

Quote
like what suggests? no I did not

been there done that...indeed scary AND never again.

as a matter of fact...never found one the blades.

<><>...the lunatic is in my head...<><>

07-21-2008 11:03 PM

HOMEPAGE

andersons
New Heliman
Location: enterprise al

glue wouldn't have stopped that cracked blade!!

08-05-2008 06:39 PM

fla heli boy
Senior Heliman
Location: cape coral, florida

correct^^^

Look where the fracure is. If it had anything to do with the blade root, the blade would not look like that (don't ask me how I know:rolleyes

Sounded like something with a link. Maybe they are intact, but were they still attached??? Sounds like one of them popped off (again, don't ask me how I know:rolleyes

.

"If it flies, floats or f***ks, you're better off renting it"

08-05-2008 07:21 PM

oldfart
Elite Veteran
Location: Vancouver, Canada

From the picture it shows clearly enough that the wood split, under the blade grip, along a wood seam, between the hole cut out for the bolt hole part of the plastic root and the hole cut out for the part of the pastic root through which one of the securing screws are mounted.

If it had been glued directly to the wood, the centrifucal loads would not have been spread throughout the area of the plastic roots and would not have been able to split the wood there....or anywhere under the root.

08-05-2008 11:59 PM

fla heli boy
Senior Heliman
Location: cape coral, florida

yep

after looking at the pic closer, I believe you're right. I always glued them. We always had to build our blades back in the dark ages.
Back in the 15-1600 head speed days....