"Fury down"

[john ingleby]

Had a bad "wipe out" with my Fury over the weekend. £200, (US$400) and still counting. Trouble is I don't know why. I'd been flying reasonably well and, (so I thought), within my limits when things just stopped working. Might have been my thumbs or the brain but like any accident you hear about, people don't remember the last few seconds before it happened. When I got to the carnage, found the engine stopped ant the power switch in the "off" position but that was probably caused by the impact. The only other thing I found was that the pressure pipe from the exhaust was broken at the fuel tank connection. Would this cause fuel starvation at the engine if it happened in flight, which could be a reason for the mishap or am I clutching at straws. Given my age, (I remember Elvis), should I seriously just look at gentle hovering from now on in? Gave the guys at the club a bit of entertainment, if nothing else. Bless 'em.

Sh^t happens!

[conrod]

loosing the pressure line will lean out the motor- you should have heard the engine start to pick up rpm's if this was done in flight.
I always set my switch's so that the on position is closest to the nose of the heli. that way if it goes in on the nose the switch should stay on. If it vibrated off during the flight, then of course you would have had no control at all and would give you the feeling that "you didn't know what happened". Been there 2 times, except the wires in the switch harness vibrated loose each time. Got to the point of changing out the Heavy duty switch harness once a year regardless, that is until I got the duralite setup and switch harness. (fails in the on position and have yet to have one fail :) )
sorry about your loss, but be sure to check the harness.

[rbort]

As we need more info from you. Think back as to what happened. Did the throttle change (go to idle) indicating a failsafe issue? Did you set failsafe to idle? Did the heli just continue doing the last command you gave it and hit the ground? Did you hit throttle hold before impact? Was the engine throttle arm open or closed at the carnage site? Did you feel that you lost control in one control surface but not the others? How high were you, and how long before the impact after loss of control?

There are way too many questions and if you can answer some of these it will help me determine what advice to give you.

-=>Raja.

[john ingleby]

Thanks for your interest guys. To be honest I don't really remember what happened in those last few seconds, if it was dumb thumbs or whatever. I'd been doing a few loops, rolls and inverted FF but when it happened I think I was just carrying out a turn to bring the heli back towards me at about 15 to 20 ft.

Like I mentioned in my first post there was no screaming engine after the crunch but I also didn't notice any change in the engine note before the crash. But the fact that after the crash it was stopped and the pressure pipe was broken made me wonder if that would cause a problem with the power the engine was producing. The switch does move forward to turn on but it seems pretty tight in its movement and it''s hard to think that was the problem. Checked the looms and all servos and as far as I can tell all is well there, just have to wait until after the rebuild to test it all under load.

It was almost certainly me and my thumbs, I'm only on my fourth gallon, been mostly on the sim since I started flying, and I know I was trembling a bit either with excitement of pushing myself or the cold. Maybe a bit of both. Anyway, I'm not giving up, yet.

[DavidH]

Since your only on your 4th gallon of fuel. I don't guess you have considered learning to do autorotations yet have you? Anyone that is into forward flight should make learning to auto rotate the heli a priority. Learning to do them will save many dollars in crash fixes. As you have learned, the engine is prone to quit at anytime and when you least expect it.

David

[john ingleby]

Hi Dave
Like my flying I've practised autorotations on the sim for many hours. I'm not too bad at them, but then again it's always been my choice when to cut the engine and obviously I'm ready for it. My job takes me away to the north sea for four weeks, after four weeks leave, and every evening, when on watch I take my laptop to the control room with me and get at least two hours practice in on it.
Got to admit, I haven't tried them for real yet but I think from the height and orientation I was at when everything went wrong the other day, I will never be good enough to stand a chance of recovering from that situation anyway. I'll never be a Youngblood, too old and started this hobby too late.

[DavidH]

Age has nothing to do with it. Just learn to do them. LOL If you can do them on the sim successfully all the time. Then your chances of doing them with the real model are higher. IT is best to learn to do them and be ready to do all during a flight.

David