xStatiCa
09-18-2006, 12:46 AM
I changed from the default plastic helimax tail blades to the new Align trex $4 carbon blades and on first spoolup about 10 feet in the air the heli threw a blade. I calmly took my time and landed it just like normal. The blade that was thrown was found about 3 feet from where the heli threw the blade so I was lucky nobody lost an eye or window :shock:. The weight of the blades seemed pretty close to the default blades but the trex carbon blades are a bit stiffer(even though they look plastic to me so it must be a cheap carbon).
I run at 2600 RPM and wonder what everyone else runs and what tail blades they use.
I have crashed a few times over the past couple months so I am not 100% sure if the tail housing was already stressed or if the trex carbon blades is just too much for the heli at 2600 RPM because they are stiffer.
What is interesting about this is that I was able to land the bird and it did not start pyroing out of control. It appears that Heading Hold mode of the gyro compensated for the missing tail and gave more pitch to the one that was left because besides a vibration that was visible the heli stayed in the same orientation it was in before it threw the tail.
When I landed it the tail shaft was bent and the rudder was hard right as far as it could go which just so happened to be enough to keep it flying without pyroing. Luckily the Heading Hold adjusted the tail pitch to stay straight with only one blade before the tail shaft bent. I setup the tail with the tail housing as far out as I could put it on the tail shaft and with leading edge control so it has more right pitch than a default trailing edge control configuration which I am sure is what helped or I might not have had enough pitch for the single blade :).
It is really amazing that it was still flying at all with only 1 tail blade.
The heli is all back together so I will find out Monday sometime if the tail housing is going to break again on spoolup at 2600RPM.
I run at 2600 RPM and wonder what everyone else runs and what tail blades they use.
I have crashed a few times over the past couple months so I am not 100% sure if the tail housing was already stressed or if the trex carbon blades is just too much for the heli at 2600 RPM because they are stiffer.
What is interesting about this is that I was able to land the bird and it did not start pyroing out of control. It appears that Heading Hold mode of the gyro compensated for the missing tail and gave more pitch to the one that was left because besides a vibration that was visible the heli stayed in the same orientation it was in before it threw the tail.
When I landed it the tail shaft was bent and the rudder was hard right as far as it could go which just so happened to be enough to keep it flying without pyroing. Luckily the Heading Hold adjusted the tail pitch to stay straight with only one blade before the tail shaft bent. I setup the tail with the tail housing as far out as I could put it on the tail shaft and with leading edge control so it has more right pitch than a default trailing edge control configuration which I am sure is what helped or I might not have had enough pitch for the single blade :).
It is really amazing that it was still flying at all with only 1 tail blade.
The heli is all back together so I will find out Monday sometime if the tail housing is going to break again on spoolup at 2600RPM.