Pantera made it less than 1 week...total loss

[skunkworx]

Well, my buddy got his heli up and off the ground on Monday. It was kinda cool because it was my birthday and the heli's so to speak. Everything was going great. Discovered that the motor heat-sink had jst about completely rattled itself off. Tightened it down and the motor really started to sing!
After that, he got in 2-3 flights per day, good response from the motor, heli was nice and nimble on the sticks. I even got to hover it for a couple minutes myself. Not too bad.

Anyways...today he had it up, doing a little bit of light pitch pumps and aggressive hovering (for lack of better words) and then Kablooey!!!!!!! It just up and exploded! It literally looked like someone stuck an M-80 in it and blew the thing up! Much to my surprise the thing was a complete and just about total loss on a scale I've never seen before in my life!!! Usually the electronics live to see another day, but not these ones!

So here's the damage (of what we know so far):
The head and main shaft got blown up, out, and away from the frame. I think the carbons survived, but I'm not really sure. Not sure about the other components either (flybar was obviously bent).

The frame itself just dropped like a bag of bricks. When the main mast separated from the frame, it took out the lower and upper bearing blocks with it so that wasn't from impact whatsoever. The rear strut snapped and bent up the skid tubes a bit. The clutch assy was moved up inside the frame. We're hoping it didn't damage the crankshaft on the motor or damage the clucth/fan assy. Not sure what else went on the frame, but it's absoulutely totaled!

The tail boom snapped clean off right where it goes into the frame. The only thing holding it anywhere near the frame was what was left of the mangled tail control rod. The tail box itsel was obliterated and the fins were nowhere to be found or snapped off pretty bad. Same with the tail blades of course.

The electronics got ripped completely to shreds (brand spankin new GY611 and 3 Hyperion servos). One of the servo cases got completely smashed up in the pandamonium. All or most of the servo leads got ripped out and the harness itself got torn into 2-3 parts. The 611 got ripped into 2-3 parts by itself and strewn over a 100ft distance from the heli (snapped the wires off just outside the gyro case and outside the amp case. The wires themselves ended up on the other end of the field near the frame).

Talk about ouch! We're not really sure exactly what caused it. Only suspect item we can think of is one of the wires might've wiggled loose and got eaten up in the gearing, motor, or main shaft causing the entire harness to get pulled in. Then ensuing avalance failure happened, which led to the demise of the entire heli. The reason we think this way is the throttle hold didn't engage. All control went out the window as soon as it exploded (well, at least the control surfaces anyways. The head shot out and landed way down the field from the rest of it) and the motor was screaming like a banshee even after it hit the ground. It didn't chicken dance because I think the whole mast went--gear and all! Total carnage....

Good thing he bought the spare frame to go with the original purchase. He's gonna need it!

[Wrench]

Sounds like the Main shaft bolt came loose?

[The Dude II]

Some pre & post-crash pics might be helpful in trying to figure out what really happened... if you're so inclined.

There's a story to be told by looking closely at the parts.

Sorry to hear this...but don't let it stop you!

[billm]

I had the same thing happen a two years ago. All was good and I flipped the switch.
My ID up was programed to 100 th curve thru the board. I over reved the head to mach 8. Once I gave a bit of input the head it exploded.
my bad.

[skunkworx]

We kinda threw it in the back of the golf cart and went back to the house. My buddy didn't want to look it over right away because he was pretty bummed about it. Good news is that he's planning on putting it back together. Knowing how he is, he probably already did it this weekend while I was gone to the OCMA fun-fly.

Honestly, we really couldn't tell what happened because it was literally shredded to bits and pieces. The only part that looked like it actually survived was the motor surprisingly. I'll see what the prognosis was when I talk to him later on today. Maybe he got it figured out?

[jbeech]

While I hate to hear about it, I am encouraged he may repair it. We've got lots of folks flying them, some quite hard, and this machine is very tough - no question. Something went wrong, no doubt, but figuring it out may be tough based on your description.

[skunkworx]

It will be a while before he can get it going again. All the electronics need to be sent in for repair so, that will be the long waiting part. I'm sure he'll have at least a few things he can harvest off the first frame. Screws and fasteners mostly. Next time I think we will have to triple check everything before getting it up and running. I just kinda hope his story saves someone else the heartache of the same fate!

[jbeech]

It won't save anybody from the the same fate unless we can suss out what hapened!