Tell me about your worst day, please!

[Grandpa]

Today I was just going to take some simple pics on long standing problem. Had transmitter and heli powered up when all of a sudden the swash went full neagative pitch. It buried the swash against the washout arms so tight that everything just locked up. Elevator servo stripped out the the gyro quit. I had to undo all the wiring harnessses to get the servo out and promptly lost the mounting screws. Removed control horn and lost that screw. Decided to take the servo apart and ended up with a bunch of parts that I couldn't put back together (more garbage). Got po'd and started misplacing tools. In short everything I touched turned to sh*t. Every day this week has been like this with the heli. Never in 25 years have I had so many mystery problems I couldn't fix. More money!!

Thanks for letting me bitch,
Eric

[John Shipley]

Eric, I feel your pain.....some days just go that way. I once put 3 heli's into the ground in less than 10 minutes. The first one I was sure was a heli problem, the 2nd I was sure it was the heli too.....when the 3rd one went in, I realized the problem. ....me...........A heli is basically a machine with a million ways to crash it.....J

[Cman]

Worst RC day.

Flying my Parkzone Slo-V for my nephew and parents. about 3 min into the flight, the motor dies in the middle of my second loop smash into the ground it goes.

20 min later. "wanna see my helicotor fly?" response was sure we will see another crash

hovering my Blade CP around my parents backyard it started sounded odd, then smoke started comming out of it and down it went. 4-1 got so hot it actualy melted the plastic. it did land right side up with little damage other then the 4 in 1 and the motors.

It hapens fixing it is part of the fun for me

[Cheatum]

My 450 has been through 4 sets of main blades, 4 main and feathering shafts, 3 servos, 2 booms, and 2 sets of landing gear in four days. Even my neighbors are tired of seeing me crash.

[litehawkdown]

Hey don't take this the wrong way but there are people in the world with much bigger problems out there. Take a deep breath. Life could be worse.

[Cheatum]

Originally Posted by litehawkdown

Hey don't take this the wrong way but there are people in the world with much bigger problems out there. Take a deep breath. Life could be worse.

Hey don't take this the wrong way but unless you have worst day, week, etc. story to post go elsewhere. We all know there are bigger problems in world and this happens to be the place where all the "helicopter" problems land. I'm not trying to be dick but most of us come here to get away from all those other problems just for a minute or two.

[Thalios]

I crashed 3 times in a single day + 2 blade scrapes. (In august 2011)

Damage report:

5 sets of blades
4 flybars
5 blade grips
2 tail cage
2 tail blades
1 boom
1 frame
1 skid
1 seesaw
6 main gears
and many more parts I can't remember.

Starting to learn helis with a B450 without a sim can be expensive...

[litehawkdown]

Originally Posted by Cheatum

Hey don't take this the wrong way but unless you have worst day, week, etc. story to post go elsewhere. We all know there are bigger problems in world and this happens to be the place where all the "helicopter" problems land. I'm not trying to be dick but most of us come here to get away from all those other problems just for a minute or two.

LOL if you can't laugh at a crash you might be trying to get away from your daily and world problems in the wrong way. It is a hobby. Working on helis and flying them is supposed to be fun. Relax and enjoy. Your post is kind of hypocritical IMHO.

[TZZDC1241]

My worst day was my first crash so far. Put a new set of KBDD paddles on my b450 and I'm still learning (yes I put the flybar in the forward most holes). Something didnt feel right, focused too much on punching right stick up right to compensate for left back drift. Didnt pay attention, hit the throttle way to high, quickly brought it down to avoid hitting the ceiling of this garage, smacked tail first into the bumper of a parked car, no damage to car.

https://fbcdn-sphotos-a.akamaihd.net...65847137_n.jpg

CF blade strike into boom:

https://fbcdn-sphotos-a.akamaihd.net...29552076_n.jpg

I'd estimate the damage at ~$100. Broke the tail end, lost a bearing, bent something in tail grips, snaped the tail linkage arm, bent the tail boom, flybar seesaw is shattered, feather spindle slightly bent, lost ONE bearing from the feather shaft when removing the blade grips (I'm sure I'll find it once I dont need it), etc. There's maybe a list of 12 part packages that I need to get this bird flying and another list I wouldnt mind having to avoid driving 80 miles away for parts.

[InFocus]

Ouch sorry to see that.

Some of the parts you'll buy will come in packages of 2.
Main gear, tail boom, feathering shaft, main shaft. I hope your bill doesn't reach $100.

Be sure to check your servos. I'm glad no one was injured, and your car was ok.

[InFocus]

Originally Posted by Thalios

I crashed 3 times in a single day + 2 blade scrapes. (In august 2011)

Damage report:
..
6 main gears
...
..

Did you crash your heli into the parts bin, damaging an extra main gear?

Just kidding, but curious..

[Grandpa]

Thanks guys, I'm feeling better just knowing you have all been through it. I was just blowing off steam and couldn't think of anyone better than this group to understand that. Vietnam would kill you if you made a stupid mistake so of course there are bigger problems in the world but I wasn't looking for somebody to tell me to "suck it up princess and enjoy your problems"! In your case I guess that you find enjoyment when helicopters crash, either yours or somebody else's (IMHO). I feel terrible for guys who have put months of work, pay and pride into a project and end up taking it home in a plastic bag..

Eric

[litehawkdown]

Originally Posted by Grandpa

Thanks guys, I'm feeling better just knowing you have all been through it. I was just blowing off steam and couldn't think of anyone better than this group to understand that. Vietnam would kill you if you made a stupid mistake so of course there are bigger problems in the world but I wasn't looking for somebody to tell me to "suck it up princess and enjoy your problems"! In your case I guess that you find enjoyment when helicopters crash, either yours or somebody else's (IMHO). I feel terrible for guys who have put months of work, pay and pride into a project and end up taking it home in a plastic bag..

Eric

I am about to maiden my first build in a few weeks. I am sure if it ends in a crash it will be very upsetting. But I will not get angry about it. Best to laugh it off and hit the forums looking for what I did wrong then go and sweat the small things. I am a huge hot head in most things. But I manage to hang lose with this hobby. If I find things aren't going well I walk away and revisit when I am in the mood to work on the heli. I grew up in Ontario. All hustle and bustle GO GO all the time. I have been in BC now for 10 years. I have learned to chill out a bit. Makes life a little more bearable. And no I am not a pot smoking hippy now LOL.

[Thalios]

Originally Posted by InFocus

Did you crash your heli into the parts bin, damaging an extra main gear?

Just kidding, but curious..

No. As I put it back on, the motor screws got loose, and the motor stripped the main gear when I spooled up...

[tommeke]

my worst day: the first day i flown my 250, HORRIBLE. I was so exited after all that building and stuff and i was just like what a horrible helicopter. the flybar was crappy, the head was stuffed with threadlock from the factory, stripped al the screws when i wanted to loosen up the flybar because it takes way to long to get back in place. it's completely unstable and the tail is

[chuck-o]

Well, at least your helicopter didn't full throttle into the sky leaving you standing there stabbing the transmitter up in the air in futility.

[litehawkdown]

Originally Posted by tommeke

my worst day: the first day i flown my 250, HORRIBLE. I was so exited after all that building and stuff and i was just like what a horrible helicopter. the flybar was crappy, the head was stuffed with threadlock from the factory, stripped al the screws when i wanted to loosen up the flybar because it takes way to long to get back in place. it's completely unstable and the tail is

Funny heli those ones you have to build. Sometimes they force you to look at things you don't like to glare at for too long.

[caseyjholmes]

My worst day in the hobby was building a brand new Logo 10 with a 9Z WCII radio and spending about $1500 total on the helicopter and watching it get 40' off the ground into a nice hover, get a "PCM lockout", Roll 90* to knife edge and watching it fall directly back down to earth and pile in knife edge within 5 seconds into the flight from PCM lockout not under my control.

The thin plastic canopies they used to use on the Original Mikado Logo 10 were like paper thin molded styrene plastic. When the thing hit the canopy literally shattered into about 1000 pieces. I almost cried I felt so bad that my $1500 was gone in 5 seconds from a radio glitch I didn't know how to prevent, or even knew existed at the time.

That was a sad, sad day. Still remember it like yesterday even though it was back in 2005.
"The day of the exploded Mikado Logo 10".


I'm pretty sure it helped make me determined to learn to build and fly better though.

[caseyjholmes]

PS the 250 is a great helicopter I had no trouble with that thing out of the box on factory components. Worked even better when I made my own tail pitch slider for it.

YouTube

YouTube

[litehawkdown]

Originally Posted by caseyjholmes

PS the 250 is a great helicopter I had no trouble with that thing out of the box on factory components. Worked even better when I made my own tail pitch slider for it.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N7Qe8pV80Eo

I stumbled on your 250 pic's already Casey looked real nice. Hope your fling again! Your to good to be grounded.