AZ ChopperCam
10-07-2006, 03:49 PM
shooting out in the middle of the desert on a desolate road today..... getting some various shots for my new demo reel and testing some changes to the mount.
About 9 minutes into the flight in the middle of a turn I got locked out for a second. Motor went to zero and down she came from about 50' AGL.
radio came back out of lockout about 5' from the deck. Just enough time for a full flare. I thought for sure it was going to be a disaster. Just bounced a little and came to rest perfectly. Blades still spooling down as I jogged up to it.
Those Vario landing gear are tough buggers.
I think my Deans whip went south. The wire going into it had fatigued over the years. I'll add that item to my "yearly replace" list.
Put a new antenna on it and shot another 3 flights.
Now that's what I call crash survivability!
http://www.azchoppercam.com/raptorcam_auto.wmv
For the record... this is a desert road that has cars come by maybe once every 30 minutes. Had it been a busy road I'd have not been flying over it.
About 9 minutes into the flight in the middle of a turn I got locked out for a second. Motor went to zero and down she came from about 50' AGL.
radio came back out of lockout about 5' from the deck. Just enough time for a full flare. I thought for sure it was going to be a disaster. Just bounced a little and came to rest perfectly. Blades still spooling down as I jogged up to it.
Those Vario landing gear are tough buggers.
I think my Deans whip went south. The wire going into it had fatigued over the years. I'll add that item to my "yearly replace" list.
Put a new antenna on it and shot another 3 flights.
Now that's what I call crash survivability!
http://www.azchoppercam.com/raptorcam_auto.wmv
For the record... this is a desert road that has cars come by maybe once every 30 minutes. Had it been a busy road I'd have not been flying over it.