500 Derek has first crash with Trex 500

[Derek]

Fortunately, the damage is very minor. Only broke the landing gear in one spot. I'll upload a picture of the damage in a bit.

I was doing some hovering in the front yard...nothing out of the normal. I do this a lot. Started in Normal Mode and was just moving around a bit. Went to Idle Up 1, was moving the 500 around a bit more. Pitch pumps..yep...no problem. Pirouette...yep..did a couple of those. Decided to do one more Piro before landing...the wind gusted a bit (I think) and the 500 jumped unexpectedly. I lowered the left stick to counter the lift and lowered a bit too much then raised the left stick and I must have had a panic moment because I lowered the left stick, obviously too far and down she went. I tried to catch it before it hits the ground and it jumps in the air...panic moment again (clearly not thinking correctly) and I lowered the throttle and smack to the grass. THROTTLE HOLD ENGAGED!!! Bummer! The 500 spins down, resting on the busted landing gear, never tipped over.

I bring the heli indoors for an inspection and it seems that the only damage is the busted landing gear, on one leg. I think I got away with it this time. I'll send the wife to the hobby shop tomorrow to get me new landing gear. I have the old Trex 500 gear still, but I really like the 600 gear that I put on it. It's more of a cosmetic thing for me.

Anyway...picture to come!

 

[Tony]

Check your feathering shaft. But sounds like you got away with it somehow lol.

 

[Derek]

I did take the head apart and I did check the feathering shaft, on glass, and yes...I was lucky to get away with this one. I need to take it easy on those panic moments, lol. I've done over 100 pitch pumps and piros in my yard before. I'm trying to get more and more familiar with the heli and what it's going to do. I just had a brain fart today and it cost me some landing gear. Whew!!!

 

[stokke]

Sorry to hear it Derek. But sounds like you got of rather lucky with only a broken skid Get back up there

 

[Derek]

You got that right, stokke. It was a bad moment to loose my focus but I did get lucky and after further inspection of the feathering shaft and frame....only damage was a broken leg on the landing gear. My wife is going to get a replacement for me today. Unfortunately, I have to work tonight, but then I'm off for the next 8 days and we have IRCHA 2013 this weekend. All kinds of flying coming up!!!

 

[Slobberdog]

Glad to see it was only minor for you Derek, I am glad my undercarriage on my 130X is springy otherwise I think I would have had to have shares in HH to get the amount of replacements I would have gone through from hard landings and bounces.

Hope you have great fun at IRCHA, make sure you have lots of batteries charged for the video recorder we want loads of videos on here, like wise for the camera.

 

[Lee]

Def need a stock on landing gear mate. I have a bunch for my 600, especially for practicing autos.
Cracked my carbon warp skids the other day. Bit of super glue did the trick.