My first heli crash

[bbagle1]

The hurricane was my first heli and I have maybe 50 flights on it. I was flying pretty well today and decided I wanted to do my first auto. I can do them on the sim no problem. i hit throttle hold going into the wind about 50 feet up and it fell like a brick. I had lost enough headspeed that when I went to flare there was no response. My heli is a bit heavy so i do not think that helped and I do not know how wellthe Gaui CF blades auto. Damage was not too bad. Broken CF tail boom, tail fin, and landing gear. I was surprised for as hard as it hit.

[Mark A Smith]

Hey Bbagle,sorry to hear about that:(.How many degress of neg pitch are you running in throttle hold/stick down position? -2 degrees pitch should give you a nice rate of desent and keep the headspeed up.Don't give up on autos.Once you nail the first one they are a blast to do and then you can experiment with different nose up/nose down positons to find the perfect rate of desent.the hardest part is to get the timing down as when to come back in with the collective. :thumbup:

Mark Smith:cheers

[saltydon]

bbagle, you are not alone. I was just getting mine the way I like it and I rolled it up pretty good today. Blades, tail and supports, main shaft and gear, etc,etc. Here's a before and after. Flight is just throwing a heli at the ground and missing!! Back to the paypal.

[mjdee14]

bbagle and salty....sorry guys....that sucks...

i was out flying and wanted to try an auto but couldn't get up the guts....I know it needs to be done, BUT I hate to ruin a good heli.

One of the training guides recommends...and people tell me thay also do this on most landings...and that is to hit the TH from about 5 feet and let the heli settle to the ground.

the training guide said to then try a few feet higher...then higher still. before you know it, your at 50 ft and there is no problem. I may try that first before "purposely" shutting down a good motor from 50 ft !!

It does look pretty when done properly and there may/will come a day when it will come in handy.

Iv'e crashed the Trex MANy times on the sim trying to autos...

[papafoster]

Hi all
Bad luck on the helis guys I feel for you, mjdee thats the way I learned how to auto and that was 15 or so years ago but don't give up they are great fun and when you start to nail it every flight you will be able to save your heli when thet electical or run out of fuel gremlin strikes
Good luck Allan

[wespen]

I got a friends mayhem on tape :)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_cOpumWslos

it was his 10th flight with Hurri and with helis :)
Lockout, unintended inverted all in one :)

Z30 mashed all gears, bent main shaft, woodies and one blade grip gone.
Arround 40$ in parts :)
PayPal already worked.

Wesp

[mjdee14]

I
Z30 mashed all gears, bent main shaft, woodies and one blade grip gone.
Arround 40$ in parts :)
PayPal already worked.

Wesp

$40 is pretty cheap for the way that heli went in...I crashed an ECO8 in less of a crash and just about totally destoyed the heli....needed a new kit...

I think the 550 is built pretty solid and parts are cheap compared to others...

Another reason to buy a 550. imho

[ke6d]

If you want to practice auto, you need to learn set up a TC so that you can do bail out if you want, then use that TC to simulate TH and proceed to auto. Flip the flight mode switch back to whatever mode you were flying to bail out. You should practice this first at higher altitude, bail out as often as you need until you are comfortable with the timing then try it for real with the TH switch.

The idea with the bailout TC for auto is that you want to keep the ESC from spooling down (thus preventing it from spooling back up in time for your bail out) It is quite easy (and less damaging) to practice this way. You can search for this subject on HeliFreak to setup the bailout TC for autorotation.

Good luck,

Dan

[modelholic]

You're definitely not alone. Donked my Hurri on Sunday when the motor pinion slipped on the shaft leading to a stripped first gear. 75+ feet up and 120+ feet out. By the time I realised I had a problem the head speed had already decayed considerably. Main blades, right skid and undercarriage strut, bent flybar (I believe straightenable) a few cracks in the canopy and a broken main frame at the rear strut attachment. This has been mended by drilling across the break gluing and using dressmaking pins to peg the joint. It looks like everything else has survived intact. I've ordered main and feathering shafts as well just in case but this prang might only be a $25 wallet hit. I think that's a great endorsement for this heli for new or improving fliers.

Strangely I had something similar when I tried a punch out - stripped gear. This was much closer in and I think I still might of had some drive as I got the heli back in one piece.

Can the stock wooden blades perform an acceptable auto or do you need a heavier blade?

p.s the cause for the slipped gear - the output shaft of my stock Gaui motor had dropped about 5mm which I hadn't woken up to the last time I changed the first gear. This meant the grub screws at the pinion end hadn't properly engaged the flats on the output shaft leading to the failure. The motor shaft is held in the motor by two grub screws and these hadn't been doing their job - no threadlock!!