rrTV-PHOTO   New HD TV
HOME   rrTV-PHOTO   GALLERIES   MY GALLERY   HELP-FAQ
myHOME PM pmRR MEMBERS 681 ONLINE 26 EVENTS SEARCH REGISTER  START HERE
 
1 page1572 viewsPOST REPLY
Advantage Hobby . Revolution Models . CarbonXtreme

.
.
Crashed? Discussion and Photos > 2nd Auto gone bad
 
 
Sar
Elite Veteran
Location: Kingston, NY

Today I was out flying with a bunch of friends, told them I was just taking it easy because I couldn't really afford a crash at the moment.

Well at about 25-30 feet up and out the engine quit(probably too lean) so I had to auto the heli in. I was doing pretty good with it, having spent the last 3 days practicing nothing but auto's in the simulator.

I brought it down smoothly and it settled pretty easily onto the ground with a little bit of foward motion. At the point I was letting out a sigh of relief it skipped off the ground a few inches into the air, came back down and when it touched down this time one of the blades folded and tried to lop off the tail boom. The heli jumped into the air and spun at this with a thwack.

I figure $50-60 in tailboom, fins, flybar, mainshaft, feathering shaft and another 80 for the blades. Fortunately not as bad as my last mishap



--
Jon
09-01-2003 Over year old.
HOMEPAGE  
 
 
Indrid
Key Veteran
Location: Hamburg, NY

ah no not the bad auto! i have done that myself

dont you love it? just a little more and they would have lived. why does gravity have to be so cruel?
09-01-2003 Over year old.
 
 
Dave_D
Key Veteran
Location: Philippines

Don't worry, almost everybody has a bad auto.

It's still alot better than now knowing how to auto

While we're at it, once you have already started autorotation, I advise you not to stop until you do master it, it will greatly improve your confidence by leaps and bounds now that you're not afraid of an engine quit.

Stick to cheapo blades. Carbons don't really help master autos, they only make it more pricey to learn on.
09-01-2003 Over year old.
 
 
Sar
Elite Veteran
Location: Kingston, NY

I hear you on the cheap blades, but something about these carbons I ran the original set of woodies that came with the R60 for a bit and even after balancing and CG'ing them they still put one heck of a vibration into the helicopter which would have eventually shook it apart. Once I put the TT carbons on it was sooooo smooth I was hooked.

--
Jon
09-01-2003 Over year old.
HOMEPAGE  
 
 
Raffy
Key Veteran
Location: Chicago, Illinois

Tighten your blade bolts a little tight so that it doesn't easily fold.
09-01-2003 Over year old.
 
 
Dave_D
Key Veteran
Location: Philippines

Agreed... Carbons are definetely in everybody's future... But on autorotation, I always recommend that the heli be stripped to bone stock when learning to allow for the lowest possible repair costs since it's more an exception than the norm that people master autos without the "oops". If you can swing for a spare crash kit, keep one handy.
09-01-2003 Over year old.
 
 
garry keogh
Senior Heliman
Location: Wicklow, Ireland

What a co-incidence !!!!!!!

Hi Sar,
Word for word the same as my boom strike of a few weeks back!

I had put 2 1/2 tanks through my R30 just practicing auto's, no drama, me very happy.
I look at the sniff of fuel in the tank and decide to do just one more. All well, I fly a circuit, hit the hold switch, floats down nicely and lands, nothing too bumpy, then it hops up and lobs off the tailboom. I think the head speed was just a little low. The bit that gets me is that even if I wanted to do one more I didn't have enough fuel.

Why is it always the last one that catches you out???

Sorry to hear of your incident though!
09-01-2003 Over year old.
 
 
Al Magaloff
rrMaster
Location: 12,199 Posts- Enough Time Wasted. See Ya!

Jon. tighten the blades in the grips, so only hitting the ground will move them! I didn't follow my own advice yesterday, with my Rap46, and did the same as you!
09-01-2003 Over year old.
 
 
Sar
Elite Veteran
Location: Kingston, NY

Hi folks, thanks for the responses. You can guarantee I will be religiously checking the blade tightness before each flight now. I usually check them and get them right at the start of the day when I am putting the blades on, but the blade that hit was not nearly as tight as the one that didn't so either it loosened up before it hit, or when it hit, hard to determine.

--
Jon
09-01-2003 Over year old.
HOMEPAGE  
 
 
Frequency47
Veteran
Location: Port Ewen, NY

?????

Sar, It was higher than that, like about 50-60ft for that auto you are too modest. Sar almost greased it in, but the gods couldent let it be. It was reminisent of that guy that flys the Fury ETreme's, who is that again?

What the hell is the point of spending $60-$90 dollars on a crash kit when you need only 2 or 3 of the items. What a rip! Just buy the parts ala- carte. They are out of reason with the prices.

CEO Sub-Terrainian Aircraft Development Corp.
09-02-2003 Over year old.
 
 
Al Magaloff
rrMaster
Location: 12,199 Posts- Enough Time Wasted. See Ya!

I've crashed a hundred times, haven't bought a crash kit yet!
09-03-2003 Over year old.
 
 
Naomi
Elite Veteran
Location: Ontario, Canada

wow.. hundreds of time.. I wished i can really afford to crash that many times..

Naomi
09-03-2003 Over year old.
HOMEPAGE  
 
 
donlynn
Key Veteran
Location: New Zealand

Gidday

A great tip I was shown while learning is just before and during touchdown get the tail up )not too soon to give foward speed ) , like 30 degrees, make for awesome boomstrike insurance. I have dropped it on from 1.5 m in the air when I have finished my auto too soon and get the tail up and it lives !! the better you get the less tail up reqd.

Regards Don
09-03-2003 Over year old.
 
 
Raffy
Key Veteran
Location: Chicago, Illinois

I can do autorotation with my heli from practices a few years back. But I decided not to do it anymore because of the risk of making a mistake and thereby costing me fiberglass blades and parts.
I have had a couple of flame outs and was able to save it by autorotation. Would rather lose blades and parts on 3d maneuvers practices (hope it does not happen)!
09-03-2003 Over year old.
 
 
1 page1572 viewsPOST REPLY
Midland Helicopters . HeliProz . ZoomsHobbies

.
.
Crashed? Discussion and Photos > 2nd Auto gone bad
 PRINT TOPIC Advertisers 

Subscribe to This Topic

Saturday, January 10 - 4:05 am - Copyright © 2000 - 2009 runryder.com | email | link to rr | runryder needs cookie