50 Crash - Lost control and no warning?

[chilipepper]

Was flying my 50 yesterday and at the end of the 2nd flight I did a half loop and then and inverted climbout on the top. When I nosed it over heading straight for the turf, intending to pull out of it, she just went straight in nose first from about 75 feet. I fought the cyclic all the way to the ground trying to get it to go somewhere. I hit hold just a second before the ground which either the contact or the combo of the two killed the motor.

I had a PCM receiver and failsafe didn't kick in on so I'm ruling out radio lockout. Battery/switch checked out fine. I'm not sure if I threw a link somewhere or canopy came off or whatever but ended up being a pretty good crash! :^)

Servo tray, main frame, blades & misc typical crash items - the part the really sucks is that the case on both the gyro controller and the receiver are pretty much wrecked so I'll have to send those to Hobby Services.

Anyway if anyone has any insight/guesses as to what may have caused this I'd really like to figure it out to prevent it from happening again!

BTW, the picture on the ground is so bitter-sweet what a contorted mess! :^) Oh well, rebuild and give her hell again!

[DebianDog]

Boom supports look O.K.! Love that first pic.

[Tintin]

Yieks, you make me reconsider my recent Raptor buy...

You're the first I've seen that uses a Venom temp gauge on a heli. I have one on mine that used to be in a truck where it showed expected temps in the range of 100-130 degr C. On my heli I get 45 tops. Where have you put the sensor and what readings do you get ?

Btw sorry abt the crash...

[chilipepper]

Dan, that picture is pretty cool - I think I may save the one blade because it is broke in 5 spots and still together.

Tintin - the temps I'm getting are in the 140 - 150 degree F range on my raptor. The sensor is wrapped right around the jug below the head and the sensor ends up right around the exhause port somewhere.

[Tintin]

Thanks, you're slightly above mine but I'm just finishing breaking it in so it's still very rich and I fly it very carefully which would account for the difference.

[flyinfool]

A few questions,
Did you have any control of anything on the way down?
Did the engine go to idle when you hit hold?
Do you have a screw thru the canopy clip into the landing gear to ensure it stays on?
Of course as you mentioned a link could have broke or popped off. There's really no way to tel if that happened in the air or at impact.
I have seen the pins at the bottom of the elevator "A" arms work loose and lock up the elevator.
I have seen canopies come loose and lock up the elevator.

[Deftone45075]

Canopy?

I've also seen one come up and cover the swashplate. A screw through the canopy clip and into the strut is a good cheap fix for that.

[chilipepper]

flyinfool, If was fighting the cyclic stick on the way down which did nothing - I don't think I tried much on the collective/rudder side - all happens kind of fast and I was in shock that I was just a spectator.

I hit hold in right before impact and really was not able to tell if it did anything or not. The motor did stop however, not sure if from hitting hold or the impact or both! :^)

No screw in the canopy which is my own fault :arggg: and is the highest probability of what caused the crash. It has been said here a hundred times - but did I listen?

Pins in the A-arms were still fine. Thanks for the response.

[EKIM]

I had the same exact thing happen to me! I was in a nose dive tilting the swash plate forward and the aerodynamic force of the dive lifted my canopy on top of the swash plate preventing me from pulling out with aft elevator. I thought I had a lock out too but the canopy was the culprit....It cost me 300 bucks because I didn't install a 12 cent screw in the canopy clip...Well lesson learned, I put the screw in and its been fine since!

[EKIM]

hey Deftone are you a member of H.E.L.I. on Long Island?

[Deftone45075]

Yeah mike... it's Jeff. See you sunday probably.

[Deftone45075]

Yeah mike... it's Jeff. See you sunday probably.

[EKIM]

Yep, I'll be there Sunday. As long as i can survive flying out east on saturday. I have to figure out this GV-1 too. Even if I can't I'll be there Sunday to see if Tommy has his Synergys flying yet. Mine is still floating around on a truck somewhere.

[savage]

Come to think about it, that is what happened to me. I could roll it side to side, but couldn,t get the nose down. Came in tail first. As many times I have read about this never thought about it. I guess next time I'll put a screw in there.

[Eric Lis]

sounds like Jeff hit it on the head "No Canopy Screw"

[chilipepper]

Thanks guys for all the insight! I guess I'll be putting in a $0.02 screw and solve the future problems.

[Whirly-Girl]

chilipepper, Don't you remember me having a minor crash last year at the Bismarc Skids-Up event???

IT WAS LACK OF A SCREW THAT DID ME IN TOO!

BTW, how's the flying out there this year? Mosquitos better? :glasses2:

Jeanette

[flyinfool]

Sure sounds like a lot of people have heard of this issue but still have a screw loose. :roll:

[chilipepper]

teehee - yeah a screw loose is definately the culprit!

Whirly-girl - I remember your misfortune but didn't realize it was diagnosed as no canopy screw!! Now I really feel like an idiot :^) Otherwise, flying has been really good it has been pretty hot though (with the exception of the skids-up weekend in June which was cold and rainy). Mosquitos really weren't that bad on this end of the state though. There are some good pictures of the heli (and plank as well) action on our club's site: http://www.slopeareagoldeneagles.com.

Missed you at skids up though! Hows the Intrepid coming along?

[Whirly-Girl]

I LOVE my Intrepid! I had an unfortunate meeting with Mother Earth right after Albert got back from overseas...had a gyro failure - I believe.

Futaba Service Center replaced the gyro after I sent it in for diagnosis. I just got the parts ordered from Bergen a couple days ago and I'll have it back in the air in no time!

I'll have to post some video of it soon.

Jeanette

[chilipepper]

Jeanette,

Yeah I read about your misfortune with the Bergen - sorry to hear that. We've had a bit of inconsistancy with the tail on the Observer as well but I think things are getting sorted out now. Just haven't had the time to really do it justice by flying it and working on it.

Look forward to the video!

[Seeker]

One other thing I will add here... I had a nose in dive going.. I was pretty high just playing around... when the time came to pull out of the dive I pulled on the elevator... nothing... another pull... nothing... pull and hold... nothing...

It took collective to add to the elevator to pull out.