aceman365
03-04-2008, 08:25 AM
I'm a relative newbie to helicopters as experience would go, however last weekend I logged my first flight, and as luck would have it, my first crash with my Trex 450se. I made the mistake of being over confident, and chose not to put training gear onto the helicopter. Having been the instigator and observer of the crash of my helicopter, I'm fairly confident that I could have avoided the entire accident had training gear been attached to the skids.
I began researching training gear immediately. I searched the internet high and low for the best solution. I've seen the $10-15 dollar options on the internet, but also read how people were having issue with getting them to fit the 450's skids. And several people suggested just making your own for free. So that's what I did using 2 wire coat hangers, some solder, and a little electrical tape.
It was as simple as first unwinding the neck of the wire hanger, snipping off the corkscrew shaped ends, then spending 10 minutes with snub nosed pliers straightening the wire out. I did this for two lengths of wire. I then cut them so they were both 35 inches long, and then found the exact center of each. I placed one over the other, putting their center points together forming a large wire "X" and put a decent amount of solder around there area where they crossed. After it cooled a wrapped that area with some blue electrical tape, criss crossing the "X" till the area was well wrapped and secured. Using needle nose pliers, I grabbed each of the ends of the "X" and twisted the ends up and over making a small eye-let. This will allow the ends to slide and not embed themselves into the ground. Finally, I pinched to of the adjacent ends closer to one another and push them between the braces of my skids and centered the "X" area under the chassis of the helicopter, I then bent the lengths out a little to ensure my "X" arms stayed relatively close to 90 degrees to one another. Using some mirco zip-ties I secured the training gear to the skid supports.
I haven't yet flown with the training gear on the helicopter. But I will be doing that tonight. I'll report back any odd experiences I may have with this setup. I MAY bend the training gear downward a 1/2 inch out from the skids of each so the training will rest on the ground when the heli's skids are on the ground, it could cushion a hard landing a little. Additionally, I've considered making the eye-let ends alittle larger in diameter to ensure they will not stick to anything on the ground, but rather slide along the ground in the event I come in at an angle.
Have a look at the attached images to see what I made, and how I may revise this design. If I'm way off one on this, I hope a pro would point out my mistakes.
I hope this helps someone else. Enjoy and happy flying.
Aceman
I began researching training gear immediately. I searched the internet high and low for the best solution. I've seen the $10-15 dollar options on the internet, but also read how people were having issue with getting them to fit the 450's skids. And several people suggested just making your own for free. So that's what I did using 2 wire coat hangers, some solder, and a little electrical tape.
It was as simple as first unwinding the neck of the wire hanger, snipping off the corkscrew shaped ends, then spending 10 minutes with snub nosed pliers straightening the wire out. I did this for two lengths of wire. I then cut them so they were both 35 inches long, and then found the exact center of each. I placed one over the other, putting their center points together forming a large wire "X" and put a decent amount of solder around there area where they crossed. After it cooled a wrapped that area with some blue electrical tape, criss crossing the "X" till the area was well wrapped and secured. Using needle nose pliers, I grabbed each of the ends of the "X" and twisted the ends up and over making a small eye-let. This will allow the ends to slide and not embed themselves into the ground. Finally, I pinched to of the adjacent ends closer to one another and push them between the braces of my skids and centered the "X" area under the chassis of the helicopter, I then bent the lengths out a little to ensure my "X" arms stayed relatively close to 90 degrees to one another. Using some mirco zip-ties I secured the training gear to the skid supports.
I haven't yet flown with the training gear on the helicopter. But I will be doing that tonight. I'll report back any odd experiences I may have with this setup. I MAY bend the training gear downward a 1/2 inch out from the skids of each so the training will rest on the ground when the heli's skids are on the ground, it could cushion a hard landing a little. Additionally, I've considered making the eye-let ends alittle larger in diameter to ensure they will not stick to anything on the ground, but rather slide along the ground in the event I come in at an angle.
Have a look at the attached images to see what I made, and how I may revise this design. If I'm way off one on this, I hope a pro would point out my mistakes.
I hope this helps someone else. Enjoy and happy flying.
Aceman