Gaui woodies + 16t

[mrivers]

I just found out the hard way that I'm not flying Gaui woodies anymore. I just threw a blade, the blade bolt pulled right through the end of the blade. Throttle curve was 95/85/95, and I've been beating on the heli pretty good, so maybe I should have seen it coming.

I tried to auto it, but I lost too much head speed, and I could not generate sufficient control and lift from the blade grips.

As a result, the 250 suffered some damage...

The canopy, the ears have cracked across the mount hole on one side. It's very flimsy there now. Might be a loss.

Flaybar, bent.

Both Paddles broken.

Antirotation bracket, loss, it's ripped to shreads.

Main shaft, bent (though the spindle appears to be fine)

The frames were damaged by the screws attached to the battery tray and tail boom support being ripped out side ways. (1 upper and 1 lower) The bottom tray and battery tray have matching tears where the screws ripped out as well.

My Outrage pack is a little twisted.

Yay!

[heli-on]

That's an awful lot of damage! I've been finding these little guys crash pretty well because there's not much weight behind them. I can't imagine how you were going to auto down a one-winged bird. They tend to go completely limp when that happens.

Do the woodies have a brass collar through the center of the root? I'm flying the FRP blades and they do.

I've noticed the frames have a couple of weaks spots. What I recommend you do on the canopy posts is thread as little as possible into the AR Bracket so that if you do crash, they'll pull right out. Then you can just move 3-4 threads out of the pin itself to re-mount. The AR bracket should be good for at least 3 crashes ddoing it this way.

The other weak points on the frame are the front-most mounting holes for the battery tray and the boom support mounting holes. The latter can be repaired by backing it with a bling washer and one of the main shaft retaining spacers.

I'm going to leave the screws for the forward-most battery mount out because the plastic tray mount has broke in all my crashes. The canopy holds the batt tray just fine without it. Someone needs to make a metal battery tray mount.

One last thing I'll mention is you probably do have feathering shaft damage. You can tell by putting a 1.5mm allen and turning a single side. Real hard to see any skewing because everything is so small, though. It'll be impossible to track the blades properly with a bent spindle. Since there are no thrust bearings, you should probably plan on replacing the grip holder bearings (H2058T - 682XZZ). They get notchy as heck with any sort of impact.

[mrivers]

Originally Posted by heli-on

That's an awful lot of damage! I've been finding these little guys crash pretty well because there's not much weight behind them.

Yes, I'm actually a bit disappointed in the crash damage.

I can't imagine how you were going to auto down a one-winged bird. They tend to go completely limp when that happens.

The auto thing was a joke

Do the woodies have a brass collar through the center of the root? I'm flying the FRP blades and they do.

The gaui woodies have a plastic base with an integrated plastic collar. The blade grip bolt ripped through the plastic collar and base.

The AR bracket should be good for at least 3 crashes ddoing it this way.

In my crash, the AR bracket was damaged by the swash twisting.

The other weak points on the frame are the front-most mounting holes for the battery tray and the boom support mounting holes.

I agree, Align should beef up the cf around the holes.

One last thing I'll mention is you probably do have feathering shaft damage. You can tell by putting a 1.5mm allen and turning a single side. Real hard to see any skewing because everything is so small, though. It'll be impossible to track the blades properly with a bent spindle.

I had already tested it like you said, and I don't see an indication of a bend. I have spares, so if blade tracking is problematic, I'll replace it. The grip bearings did not feel notchy, but it won't hurt to have a few spares

[eightythree]

this also happened to a fellow at the indoor golf dome where we fly at on the weekends. his threw out on spool up!
im pretty sure his was stock on 15t pinion.

ive been running the gaui woodies and im soooo glad ive got carbons on there now.

[jujiro]

Originally Posted by eightythree

this also happened to a fellow at the indoor golf dome where we fly at on the weekends. his threw out on spool up!
im pretty sure his was stock on 15t pinion.

ive been running the gaui woodies and im soooo glad ive got carbons on there now.

Wow .... thanks for the warning I've been using the gaui wood blades and haven't had any incident but I'd hate for anything to happen seeing as the carbon blades are only like 9 dollars more . thanks a lot for the heads up and sorry for the crash.

[Coolice]

Hey,

You guys using the Gaui wooden blades are you gluing the plastic balde cuffs to the roots of the blade?
If not then that could also be a contributing factor to the failures as by gluing them on your spreading the load over more than one point.
To do so cut away any heatshrink that will be under the plastic cuff, apply some glue and I reckon in this instance thin CA is a good option as it will penetrate the wood a little, then apply the plastic cuff.

Also bear in mind that most wooden blades are not designed to run at very high head speeds, apart from tracking problems the other side of it is failures.
Mind you there is no substitute for carbons blades when running high head speed.
.

[jockstrap]

Wow - yet to build my 250... but that's a lot of scary damage...

Dumped my ep200 the other day from about 15ft doing a wide turn in a little too much wind...

Broke only one landing skid and the 2 feathering screws - cost <$5 au...

One thing I've noticed different in the ep200 is the main shaft is not as high from the top bearing as the trex250 is - thus less leverage effect to bend the main shaft... I've had approx 10 crashes in my ep200 and still have not bent a main shaft yet!

The gaui plastic blades are great.. they can withstand a lot and are a softer plastic than the align ones - which are more brittle). In some crashes I have simply bent the blade out of shape slightly or burred the trailing edge of the blades... a pair of flat plyers simply straightens out the trailing edge and flexing the blades in your hands can reshape them straight - no tracking issues!

Given the plastic gaui blades are not really 3D - but fantastic for FFF and beginner-intermediate... I've only damaged one gaui plastic blade so far in over 100 flights and that's because it hit my pergola dead-on and one blade got split in two as it directly hit the metal edge of the pergola... they are tough blades!

I've yet to try the align plastics yet - but they seem more fragile and stiffer.. better for the advanced flyers... beginners - try the gaui plastic ones! They won't throw either as they are solid plastic and tough!

I'm desperately waiting for the align carbons to come back in stock over here so I can give them a try thou! I suspect the ep200 with come alive with them!!!!

[jujiro]

Originally Posted by Coolice

Hey,

You guys using the Gaui wooden blades are you gluing the plastic balde cuffs to the roots of the blade?
If not then that could also be a contributing factor to the failures as by gluing them on your spreading the load over more than one point.
To do so cut away any heatshrink that will be under the plastic cuff, apply some glue and I reckon in this instance thin CA is a good option as it will penetrate the wood a little, then apply the plastic cuff.
Also bear in mind that most wooden blades are not designed to run at very high head speeds, apart from tracking problems the other side of it is failures.
Mind you there is no substitute for carbons blades when running high head speed.
.

yea but the gaui 200 runs at a similar headspeed to the 250 though and it has been reported to throw a blade but only on a rare occasion. Now the main difference is that I find the stock motor on the 250 to be WAY more powerful than stock motor on the ep200 so the additional torque could be causing the blades to fail more *shrugs* I just wouldn't risk it though seeing that the carbon blades are 14 or 20 dollars.

[mrivers]

I just scored some 205D blades from Ready Heli. They have the plain 205 as well.

[eightythree]

sweet. wise choice. you will like em!