Today I say goodbye

[GeeForce]

Hi all HF's

Today I say goodbye to my T-Rex 600N .

Went flying on Saturday and all was good and I mean extremely good.
After 5weeks of struggling with the engine I finally got it up in the air. Also had more confidence than usual and I threw it around like no one's business ( in my own mind though ).

I even racked up the confidence to do my first tic-toc and just after I did that the heli stopped responding......the receiver had no power!!

It was going in reverse at a slow speed, slight pitch, but full rpm.
It went up very very high over a highway ( this was at a club ) and then a gust of wind sent it forward, nose down over the same highway. about 500m or so away from where I left off it finally crashed.

Luckily the heli didn't hit any cars, I was praying like I've never prayed before, and that would have been so bad. But anyway, when I got to the crash site, there was the lifeless body. I couldn't find the tailboom or pieces of the other blade. The only thing I managed to pick up was the canopy and the frame.

I consider the state of it a write off, it will cost me more to fix than to replace. My theory as to what happened, the battery reached the end of its life cycle. I was concerned about the slight puffiness it had, but on Friday it looked ok to me so I told myself I'm just too overly careful....now I know why

The receiver is set up to throttle down to 50% with little pitch to bring it down steadily when signal is lost and from the vid you can hear no change in the engine note from the tic-toc to where it was unresponsive.

Learned two things:

1. When in doubt, believe yourself and don't try to convince yourself otherwise.
2. Always have a secondary battery pack on the receiver if possible.

Just thought I'd share.

[mr_squiggle]

Oh man, that's not good. Sorry to hear about it. I hope you're going to persevere with nitro.

[GeeForce]

I'd really like to stay with nitro, but for now and what the expected budget will permit is kinda pushing me into the gaui X5 way. 600's are a bit too expensive for me now, so I need to go smaller, also less expensive to repair.

But, when I do get the bucks, I'll go for the Gaui NX 7
That thing looks like a monster!!

[xxxntwv]

There was a new 600n kit on eBay for $225.it flybar but other than the head I think you can use the rest of it.

[GeeForce]

Thanx, I also thought of maybe just getting another airframe at least, but first have to rack up the cash. This couldn't have happened on a more tighter budget.

I'll see where I go from here, but I will fly a heli again

[Dawiev]

Consider a rebuild using the frame from Custom Heli Parts. It might be cheaper than replacing all the align parts. :
http://customheliparts.com/store/ind...product_id=412

I carried the habit over from my electrics and use an Optipower Ultraguard.

[GeeForce]

I actually stumbled on a awesome deal. A Gaui X5 with spare parts, spare blades, spare canopy and 2x LiPo's. The heli is also complete with a BeastX gyro. If I convert it roughly to dollars, $780.

I think I'm just going to do the leap for now and then look at getting back into nitro a bit later when the dust has settled so to speak.

But thanx for all the advice, definitely appreciated

[ticedoff8]

If had worse. that is totally fixable.

But...
Three Things for the next one:
1) Your battery may not have "died".
Most likely, it disconnected.
"Tick-Tock" followed by "Receiver died" typically equals "Battery ejected"

2) Buy a OptiPower Ultra-Guard 430 battery backup and make sure it is directly connected to the receiver / FBL gyro.
I have personally seen at least 8 cases where the heli would have been a total loss without an Ultra-Guard install.
Two were nitro and six were electrics.

3) Use a spring on the throttle arm that is strong enough to pull the throttle servo closed if it loses power.
If your throttle servo is a tail rotor servo (like the Align DS-650 or DS-655), it won't have to be a strong spring

[GeeForce]

It did not happen right after the tic toc but like 20 seconds or so afterwards. But I agree, it could've been the battery wire that pulled out from the reciever or something.

That's a great tip to put a spring on the throttle, would have definitely helped.
Unfortunately, I will now never be 100% certain.

Attatched is what was left of the heli, everything else except the tank was broken. Even the engine head took a knock so hard that it badically broke in two. Luckily the engine itself is ok, just the head was lost.

[mugen 1]

It could have been your Align power regulator, I've heard many bad things about them. I run an unregulated 2100mah 6.6V LiFe battery with a power switch, just to keep things simple.

[GeeForce]

I actually did not run the align regulator but the Maytech UNEC-20A.
If it was that, would I still be able to switch on the heli, cause after the crash I was still able to?

[Ah Clem]

GeeForce,

Sorry you lost your ship, sir.

If you have to run a separate receiver pack (which you have to do on a nitro), the safest way to go is 2S, 2P. If one cell fails (shorts or goes open) on one side of the pack, you have the other to keep the on-board electronics powered.

Also, check the pack under load before each flight-this saved me several machines in the old days with 4S NiCads and works just as well with the newer packs. Sometimes a pack will have good voltage with no load, and drop precipitously under load (in which case, you don't fly.

You can also run a BEC with a 4S pack-if one cell fails you still have enough power to get the ship down.

[GeeForce]

Thanx for the good advice.
How can I check the voltage under load?

[Ah Clem]

Futaba used to make a tester, Duralite still has one, I think.

What you are looking for is a digital meter with a one or two amp load built in. The Duralite one gives you the unloaded voltage, then you can push buttons to get a one or two amp load (which will really show you how good the battery is.

Futaba made one.


JR has one (I have not seen this one in person yet):

JR - JRPB04037 - BC580 Digital Battery Checker (not sure what the load is on this one).

[GeeForce]

Thanx, I think that's a great investment.
Will definitely help in the future.

[Ah Clem]

Good luck to you sir!

Again, sorry this happened to you.

Please keep us posted!

[GeeForce]

Thanx, and thanx for all the help and assistance.
Very much appreciated.

Will update with my new heli soon.

[Dawiev]

I'm sure you will soon miss the smell of nitro burning .....

Keep in mind that electric is much more demanding, puts much more load on electronics and (in my experience) more susceptible to shutdowns.

Design it with redundancy, dual power feeds etc, etc.

Over and above all : have fun !

[GeeForce]

You're absolutely right. There's no smell like burning nitro in the morning

I do plan on getting a NX7 in the future

[ticedoff8]

As I said in my earlier post:
2) Buy a OptiPower Ultra-Guard 430 battery backup and make sure it is directly connected to the receiver / FBL gyro.
I have personally seen at least 8 cases where the heli would have been a total loss without an Ultra-Guard install.
Two were nitro and six were electrics.

That is the safest $35 you will ever spend
Add the super bright LED option and you know you are in trouble before it turns catastrophic