Strange crash

[Mbuemi]

So i was on my 3rd tank of fuel - just hovering around 3 feet...

all of sudden the main blades start to wobble - shake kinda - i start lowering it down and both the main blades fly off - one shoots off away from me the other comes right at me - misses me and lands 4 feet to my right..

The strange thing is - the blades werent broke - they had seperated from the head.... one dampener is gone - all the bearings and thrust bearings are gone...

no arms are broke - in fact none of the swashplate tie rods snapped - even the washoust assembly is in tact...

here are the pictures.... anyone know what i may have done wrong? was a screw not tight enough... or too tight?

http://ghostsquad.us/Sitefiles/Misc/heliwreck.jpg
http://ghostsquad.us/Sitefiles/Misc/heliwreck1.jpg
http://ghostsquad.us/Sitefiles/Misc/heliwreck2.jpg
http://ghostsquad.us/Sitefiles/Misc/heliwreck3.jpg
http://ghostsquad.us/Sitefiles/Misc/heliwreck4.jpg
http://ghostsquad.us/Sitefiles/Misc/heliwreck5.jpg

[Ciprian]

My guess is no locktite used

[piromaniac]

Exactly, a spindle bolt has come loose.

[Hotshot Charlie]

No Blue Locktite, would be a good guess !

[Bayou Talker]

Looks like it is unanamous! There sits the spindle shaft with one bolt missing. I'll bet that if you take the other one out it will be clean and dry also. I would check ALL of the bolts for locktite before flying it again.

Good thing no one was hurt.

[flyinfool]

I'm glad noone got hurt.

Yup I gotta agree with the above.
Or, if Loctite was used, it could have been that the oil and/or grease were never cleaned out of the hole before the Loctite and screw were inserted.

When you grease your dampers and then push the spindle thru it is very easy to get some grease in the threaded hole in the end of the spindle. If you do not clean this out the screw will fall out.

[heli]

I know this has been said but it is probably 99.9% because no locktite was used when you attached your Blade Grips to the Feathering Shaft. If it was used maybe over-tightening the screws caused the threads to strip. Doesn't appear like much else could have caused this.

I agree with Bayou Talker, check every screw that attaches to metal and make sure it has BLUE Locktite. Glad to see you or anyone else didn't get hurt.

[Heli_Shuttler]

I had the same thing happend to me on my dad's Trex, the blue stuff is needed :mrgreen: