450 A Lesson Learnt by a Nooby.!!

Karubah

Member
I thought I would practice my nose on flying, so I was hovering the Trex 450 a couple of feet off the ground when the main blades came OFF. One gave me a good belt in the left knee. Damn they hurt!! :cower: Lucky the bird just sat back on the ground. Thinking to myself, why did that happen? After checking it over I discovered the screw that holds the thrust bearing in on the head had come out. The LESSON LEARNT...CHECK ALL SCREWS... just don't presume they are right even after only a few batteries. Damage sustained is it busted nearly every linkage in the head plus the loss of bearings and screw. I think it might be a good excuse to upgrade to an all metal head.:sorrow::sorrow: cheers Andy.
 

Tony

Staff member
You may have tightened them, but as MANY other members that have had this issue will attest to, tightening them and putting thread lock on is not enough. You need to put the feathering shaft and bolts in alcohol or acetone and get all of that oil off of them. Some reason, they dunk these things in an oil barge before putting them in lmao. Clean them off, dry them off, thread lock them, tighten them, and you shouldn't have this issue again.

Sucks about your knee though. It was only a matter of time before a member got hit by a blade. Hope you are okay.
 

helicc16

the Smoothie Pilot
I've had blades coming off during flight, too. Those blades flew like arrows just leaving the bow. I usually use q-tips and paper tower to pick up the oil. But there is always some oil left in the grooves of the screws.

I wish I had known the alcohol trick earlier. What kind of alcohol do you recommend?
 

coolgabsi

Super Mod & DEAL KING!
Aren't you glad not was a 450. I can't imagine having that happen to my 700.. That's why I sometimes find myself takin the blades off and reloctiting the feathering shaft the night before lol

Fly safe!! :) have fun!
 

Karubah

Member
Good tip about the acohol. Is it one nip for you and one for the screw or 2 nips for u and 1 for the srew? lol. I think I will now do all head screw on the 550 before trying it. The knee is still a bit sore, but a nip or 2 might help. Ceers Andy
 

Westy

LEGEND
I always .... ALWAYS check the tail and Main blade grips for end float on every flight! ...... Yep I have been bitten to!
 

Lee

Well-Known Member
If you look at my Warp 360 build thread, i explain about cleaning all the screws. You will be amazed at the amount of crap that comes off.
 

stokke

Well-Known Member
I use red thread lock on the feathering shaft. Feathering shaft should also be in the preflight checks.
 

coolgabsi

Super Mod & DEAL KING!
I use red thread lock on the feathering shaft. Feathering shaft should also be in the preflight checks.

I have debated that but it's just as good to clean like lee said and put blue.. Even on my big ones

I did that once and that ended up stripping the hex.. And had to cut open the hub

Fly safe!! :) have fun!
 

stokke

Well-Known Member
I have debated that but it's just as good to clean like lee said and put blue.. Even on my big ones

I did that once and that ended up stripping the hex.. And had to cut open the hub

Fly safe!! :) have fun!

I use a soldering iron when disassembling my feathering shafts.
 
Top Bottom