Boom Installation - Pay Attention!

[Avi_Y]

Hi guys,
Note the following mistake that has cost me dearly...
I was flying a warm-up flight (0630 in the morning), and everything went ok, until I piroed real fast during a stall turn, but the helicopter did not stop... By the time i hit throttle hold and leveled, I have already hit the ground hard.
After investigating the crash, I found out that the boom has moved a few mm out, causing the torque tube to lose contact with the front gear.
Investigating further lead to discouraging results - The two holes in the boom, that align it with the front grip and the rear gearbox, are not truely orthogonal. As a result, when I installed the boom and aligned the rear gearbox such that the tail shaft is level, the rear hole was not in front of the hole in the front grip. I did not notice this fault in the part, and also did not install the boom forward enough. As a result, when installing the screw that lockes the boom to the front grip I actually made a new hole in the boom, this time orthogonal to the rear hold, but too far outside on the boom (I did not notice I was forcing a new hole). The result was a hole with much less "edge", which after a few flights has collapesed, and allowed the boom to break loose.

I tried making a few more holes with screws, and found that it was quite easy, so I was not so much of an idiot not noticing that I punctured the boom.

To conclude - make sure your holes are aligned with the grip, and add drill a whole such that you can put a screw in the rear grip as well.

On a different note, I landed down hard on the skids, which also caused one frame to break. This is a serious damage cost-wise. I wonder if I should drill softening holes in the skids, as some have suggested, or simply replace them with the older style struts. Any comments on that?