First Inverted Hover right into BMW 740 hood!

[mclaren]

Well it has been windy in Texas lately and got home from work with little wind today so I went for quick fly at the local park. I parked my car on the street about 10 yards from where I stand and an additional 20 yards from where I fly.

Anyway I rolled it a few times and then went into an inverted hover for the first time. In the sim I can move around some what controlled while inverted but today I just lost it and froze as the bird came at me and then past me inverted. I must have not had enough sim time inverted because I was thinking about which direction to move the pitch to get some altitude.

Just thin I remembered I can just roll it back over and gun it. At this time the heli was about 2 feet in front of my 740i and as I rolled it over it went right into my hood!

The Hyperion main blades exploded as the bird climbed the hood as I hit the throttle hold. The white foam core of the blades was all over like fake snow. The car has 4 one inch long dents with one that cut threw the paint.

Other than the car dents and the Hyperion blades the only other damage was the main shaft screw at the top. Not bad at all from the Helli perspective. Different story for the car.

[veegor]

Sorry to hear about that MClaren : ( ..But At least You didn't get hit by the inverted blades coming at you ?? Now your going to be constantly reminded of what happen when you drive your car . : (

[trilerian]

That is the most expensive crash I have heard of, as of yet. All I could say when I read the title was; WOW! Next time it gets close to you just hit the throttle hold and move away. It will be cheaper than the heli hitting you and cheaper than it hitting the car.

[socal]

[fiveoboy01]

Originally Posted by socal

+1

[T-wrecks450]

+2

[swannking]

Another reminder of safety. I am glad that it is your car and not an innocent bystanders. When noobs (including me) try new tricks esp. the ones that require reversal of your stick input, we really should give a little more margins for errors.

[j bomb]

What did you say to your insurance agent?

[swannking]

Originally Posted by j bomb

What did you say to your insurance agent?

A big bird fell on my hood from the sky!!!

[Skiddz]

Go buy yourself a nice chunk of dry ice and some heavy gloves. Run the dry ice over the dents (you may have to push hard to get it into the dents) The ice will contract the metal and pull the dents out. It won't help the paint, but it won't hurt it either.

I watched the door ding guy do this very thing on my old BBPOS (Big Blue Piece Of S**t) Suburban a few years ago. Worked like a charm.

[kamtsa]

Originally Posted by mclaren

... Not bad at all from the Helli perspective. Different story for the car.

Considering that the car is insured and the heli is not, this is not a bad combination.

;-)

Kam

[zurie]

Insured or not. That is a minimum 500 deductable + rental + time spent. And increased insurance costs. Sorry to hear about it. I can do inverted backwards flight on the sim. I can barely inverted hover at the field.

[mclaren]

First things first, the M2x12 screw and the blades were the only bird damage! Back in the air with my Radix Blades with a small tracking issue.

OK I used some 3M Finesit (a wax with some grit that removes wax) and some elbow grease that made the damage look a ton better by simply removing the black scrapes from the blades that were in the clear coat. I should have took some before pics but went right to fixing the damage.

Never heard of the dry ice trick. With the amount of hail in Texas there are "paint less" dent removal places on every block. These guys use very bright lights sucktion cupped to the car and chilled spoon looking tools from the inside to work out the dents.

I think they will be able to remove all but the one that cut the paint. I will get a color match from BMW and should be able to hide 90% of it.

[ChasHeliCop]

If you try the dry ice trick, make sure the car hood is hot before you start.. Think I will leave my Bimmer at home from now on........ I will take the van to go fly.

[fiveoboy01]

Dented that thing up pretty good for a "mini" heli with wood blades...

I'd hate to see what it'd do to my tender flesh

[Pinecone]

Actually a good shop should be able to handle all of them.

We have had work done on our M Roadster at the factory during the Homecoming event, and those guys can do amgic. Although it is a bit disturbing the frist time watching them whack on your car with a hammer.

You will need to touch up that scratch, the pros use the same little bottles of touch up paint, but use a TINY brash to actually just lay paint into the scratch. Then buff the result.

We had a rock chip that dented the hood and chpped that paint THROUGH the clear bra, and when they got done, you couldn't see the repair,e ven if you knew where to look.

[mclaren]

Originally Posted by fiveoboy01

Dented that thing up pretty good for a "mini" heli with wood blades...

I'd hate to see what it'd do to my tender flesh

Not $12 wood blades, $45 Hyperion Carbon blades @ 3100 rpm that now have had a dremel taken to them to make a cool set of short "setup" blades.

[DebianDog]

I guess you are "lucky" it was just the BMW and not a person

Moving to safety

[fiveoboy01]

Originally Posted by mclaren

Not $12 wood blades, $45 Hyperion Carbon blades @ 3100 rpm that now have had a dremel taken to them to make a cool set of short "setup" blades.

Ah I see, I must have missed that.

I'd guess wood blades would hurt pretty good too...

Wow, I have a very similar set of setup blades! I was sick of the blades poking me in the eye during setup so I bought a new pair of blades and cut the ends off:wink::wink:

[rdlohr]

Originally Posted by fiveoboy01

Ah I see, I must have missed that.

I'd guess wood blades would hurt pretty good too...

Wow, I have a very similar set of setup blades! I was sick of the blades poking me in the eye during setup so I bought a new pair of blades and cut the ends off:wink::wink:

Wow, I'm surprised you had to use a new set. My crash drawer could have fixed you up many times over.


Sorry about the BMW. I'm just glad you didn't get hurt! Inverted flight freaks out everyone in the beginning. I still haven't mastered all orientations.

Rick