Spectra Crash

[Brett]

Yesterday I was flying and did a right bank and all off a sudden it wanted to roll without any control input from me. I corrected and then it was in FF and I was trying to turn in and land. It felt like I had control and then did not. The heli hit hard. On inspection I found that the muffler was loose to the point that it could move up and down. The heli did not crash on the muffler it came In on the other side. I think that the muffler was the cause of the crash. I am using the 14Z with the 2048 receivers. I have had no hits in any of the flights that I have done with it to date. I know the muffler was not loose prior to flight because I cleaned the baked oil off of it the day before.

I was wondering if anyone had and comments or suggestions on how to avoid this again.

Thanks

[rbort]

I seriously doubt the muffler coming loose caused you to lose control and crash it. You need to ask yourself was your failsafe set and if so what was it set to do? For example was it set to throttle back? If so, did it? If it didn't throttle back then you had no failsafe. If no failsafe and you lost control then you probably had a servo go bad.

Think about the situation and check the related parts carefully. The muffler coming loose just makes more noise and you land. How many times have you heard someone's muffler come loose and how many times did you see them lose control and crash? Many times seen mufflers come loose for me, and never seen someone crash due to it.

That's about all the advice I can give right now with the info you've given us. Good luck in finding the cause.

-=>Raja.

[DavidH]

I have seen models go into failsafe several times due to the muffler being loose and ratting around on the exhaust port. I was flying two of the models when it happened. Had failsafe set for throttle to go to idle. So when this happens, I just hit throttle hold. When it comes out of failsafe, that way it is only going to idle and still have control of the collective and other controls.
The other models that this happen to, the pilots didn't know what was happening. They crashed.

The 2048 G3 receivers are more sensitive to noise ( metal to metal) interference.

David

[r2160]

I agree with you David

I have also seen aircraft go into failsafe because the motor bolts came loose.

Glenn

[Brett]

I think it was the muffler. I looked it over and can't find any other reason. Whats a bummer is that here I am 6 months later and have not had the initiative to rebuild. This hobby is getting old.

[Caleb Phillips]

Took me 5 months to rebuild the Stratus when I crashed and to make it worse, I had to buy a new one since I totaled the first one. I never found the cause of it either. When you get it back in the air, you'll remember why you started in this hobby in the first place.

Good luck! :thumbup:

[hozer]

I had trouble with a Duralite regulator coming unplugged from the RX , everything would be fine then no
control,changed the RX end to a Futaba no more troubles.

[DavidH]

I had trouble with a Duralite regulator coming unplugged from the RX , everything would be fine then no
control,changed the RX end to a Futaba no more troubles.

Don't understand why that would happen unless the receiver or regulator was moving around.

David

[hozer]

The Duralite installed connector did not fit the Futaba RX well at all.

[DavidH]

The Duralite installed connector did not fit the Futaba RX well at all.

Same as the Futaba connector. Just doesn't have the key on it. The key is only on the Futaba plug to assure that the user plugs in it correctly.

David

[hozer]

The pin sizes did not match,the female was too big. It had nothing to do with the indexer.

[hoot]

I felt the same after crashing my Vario Acrobatic last year. Took 6 months for me to get the initiative to rebuild it. Now it's flying better than ever and I'm always looking for an opportunity to fly it.