[Masjo]

A nice morning flight ends in a crash. My tail somehow fails while Im inverted. I decide not to flip the heli over in case of miss orientation, so I decide to hit Throttle Hold and invert auto with a spinning tail. Damage was only a bent flybar. For some strange reason after bench testing, all electronics were fine, gyro, tail servo, and tail controls were all working. What I did find was the plastic tail rotor gear in the stock 450s tail assembly disintegrated. To fix I disassembled the tail assembly and pressed on a copterX 450 metal tail rotor gear I found at the bottom of a pile of spares.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j-fS-2luKAY

While Im at it may as well post these two from the day before.

The drive end bearing in the stock 430L 3550KV failed after a few crashes. I dismantled the motor to replace the bearing and discovered it was not much use. For 1. I could not find a bearing and 2. The shaft was worn where the bearing seats. So I bought a no name brand 3680KV brushless motor off EBay for AUD$12.00. This flight is the 7th flight with this motor.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LvnuBnMwO3M

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Eo1QjKMnWsA

 

[Friar Fnord]

Wow, I didn't even know you could autorotate while inverted! Awesome.. well done for saving your baby from a potentially costly crash.

Good to see that even in an emergency you managed to land fairly well. How on earth do you practice something like that? On a sim maybe?


- Richie