Kens Crash Report

[Ken Jackson]

Could have been worse. Really, when I got to the crash site everything was in one piece except the battery and the canopy were laying close by. If you didn't see the video which does not show the actually impact but the lead up to it and the sounds.

Basically I lost control (tail orientation) actually saved it upside down 2 feet above the ground but then made the wrong correction and it was over.

The Damage



Had everything on hand except a pair of skid pipes.



But my supplies are dwendling



And so it begins, again



Have a fun flight and a safe landing everyone.

Ken

 

[Lee]

Ouch!!! But building is half the fun for me.

 

[Adam]

ouch have fun building again.

 

[murankar]

To bad, Enjoy the rebuild and maintenance on the stuff that still works. I need a bunch of supplies myself all I have is a spare flybar.

 

[canongraphy]

Sorry to see that Ken, looks like you already got your parts and will be back up quickly, I too am currently enjoying maintenance on my 600

 

[Ken Jackson]

Matthias - that's one reason I went Flybarless. Out of all my flybar helicopter crashes I had to replace the flybar every time but once. So that's probably 20+ crashes. Just went Flybarless a month ago and I'm very glad I did. It was worth the investment. I was worried from memories of the MCPx with the whole Flybarless thing but just like everything else on the bigger Heli's, things just work better. Lol

Lee - I totally agree. I love the challenge and on the spot engineering that goes into a build. I took up this sport/hobby because my job went more desk then hands on and I need to be challenged constantly. Probably like everyone else on this forum.

Thanks Adam and Canongraphy! Already have servos rebuilt and installed, new main gear and shaft installed. Head just needs a new spindle but I can't do that because 2 Servo Horns need to be replaced and I don't have any. My GF thinks I'm not working on my Heli so going to the hobby store is not going to work today! Go about 2 sneaky hours on it today.

Man I love this sport!

 

[wolfman76]

lol iglad to hear it going back together good ken i just got the new MSH brain flybarless controller i was waiting on a couple days ago the ikon i had was damaged so i had to send it back so i will start putting mine back together soon... happy building

 

[murankar]

All I need for fbl is the gyro, I got the head already came in the kit.

 

[Ken Jackson]

All back together. Maidened it yesterday, quick 4 minute flight. Still having trouble getting the elevator gain set. Thanks Tony for the comment you made about the nose nodding yes. I have backed it shown and am waiting for good weather. Rain and cold all day today.

I am experimenting with different blades. My recent videos were all flying with non flybar blades and I loved the feel of it. The day I put 3G blades on I crashed. Not blaming the blades but the helicopter wasn't happy like it had been and I was uncomfortable. So my flight yesterday was with the non 3G blades but I have 3Gs on it now. I will start a new post when I have drawn at least my conclusion. I have 2 sets of 3G blades, one set is at least 10-12 grams heavier then the other.

Discovered this when I had one of each and tried to spin it up in my garage, thought my brand new main shaft was bad. Couldn't believe it when I threw them on a balancer. So FYI if you mix blades from different pairs and you get vibration check the balance.

Guess those were made late on a Friday or something.

Ken

 

[murankar]

Its always a good idea to balance and cg blades. Even good quality blades. I've been lucky with the horizon hobbies blades.

 

[Ken Jackson]

This was the first time I had any problem. I was buying cheaper blades last summer, but I only buy Align blades. I should have mentioned that before, these are quality blades that I found such a large difference.
Ken

 

[Westy]

Still having trouble getting the elevator gain set.
Ken

Hi Ken,

Are you using V3.0 or 3.1? on you 3GX? have you dialed in your 2 Pots? I have set mine at 105 identical on both pots (Connnecting tothe PC and watching the value dial in on the screen) and it worked fine for me..... see my latest vids

 

[Ken Jackson]

Westy,

I watched your video on the upgrade. I am still on version 3.0. I will probably upgrade to 3.1 but wasn't in any hurry. I am finishing my rebuild of my EXI 450 I guess call it an SE. Supposed to get up to 70 here on Sunday, but this time of year warm weather usually brings rain. I almost always hook up my laptop when I go through DIR at least a couple more times because the instructions are right on the screen. I haven't messed with any of the settings yet.

I am guessing I will probably slow down the roll rates after I test my bird with the 3G blades. Last time I had the 3Gs on I crashed and remember it was really squilrly. So I'll take it real easy for a few flights before i start inverted and flips again. I may use the standard blades for 3D flying but I need some more flight time before I decide anything. I just know I was pretty comfortable with how it was flying before. I wonder sometimes why we change things when everything was working. I guess it's a guy thing, bigger, better, faster. Lol

Ken

 

[Ken Jackson]

Its always a good idea to balance and cg blades. Even good quality blades. I've been lucky with the horizon hobbies blades.

Well I'm convinced now, just opened a brand new pair of Align 325mm and they were not balanced. I just can't believe it. Been flying a year and a half and all of a sudden I'm having balance problems. I didn't even have a balancer, I borrowed the one I'm using.

Ken

 

[Tony]

The 600 blades I have are within .9g of each other and within 1mm of CoG with no weight on them. Maybe something has changed.

 

[breeze400]

I've always balanced my align 600 blades. Sometimes there right on and sometimes there not! Believe me I went thru lots of them couple of years ago!

 

[Ken Jackson]

I will check all of them from now on. I hate the wobble when your doing a spin up test, start wondering what you missed on the bench. Well anyway I got my 450 tested. It has a flybar but is a Torque tube I converted. Having trouble with tail shake. Using a GP790 and a DX8. I ran the gyro down to about 20 and up to 100 and everything in between. Couldn't shake it, Lol. My 450 is equivalent to an SE and the torque tube is a Tarot Pro. It is Approx an inch longer then the stock tail boom. I figured it would make it more stable, perhaps I was wrong.

Correct me if I'm wrong but a fast shake is too much Gyro and a slow shake is not enough?

Any thoughts?

Ken

 

[breeze400]

Any shake side to side is too much!

 

[Westy]

you will only get tail wag when you have too much Gain .... if you still have slow tail wag, you have a binding issue in your tail. The most common issue is one or both of the extender arms on the slider assembly that go to the tail rotor head are tightened down too tight.

To Check this:
1. remove your ball link at your tail ... and you whoudl be also to easily slide the tail from left to right with no binding at any part of the range. If you have, remove both of the extender arms ... and try it with the slider on its own ... sould be smooth as butter. Then add your locktite to one of the externder arms and tighten... recheck... back the screw off till it is smooth as butter. Repeart for the 2nd extender arm.

Make sure you have perfect central location on the slider as far as your mechanical nuetral set up (IN RATE MODE - or with rudder plugged straight into the RX... to eliminate gyro influencing)

hope that works for you...

 

[Ken Jackson]

I had the whole tail assembly apart and was very sensitive to over tightening. I will go over it all again because it has to be binding. Going from gyro at 20-100 and the only change was how fast it shook, you must be right.

Thanks,
Ken