Hibrass

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Well I finaly got help trimming and tuning my Trex 450 SA...

Took it home to practice flying and got way over confident... I think the end result is called the "Dead Chicken Dance." :-)

New parts required as a result of said "Chicken Dance."...

1 new main rotor Head... Decided to upgrade to a V2 metal head.

New Tail Boom... New Vertical and Horizontal Stabs and stab mount... Plus Main Blades and such...

Lessons learned....

Don't just chop the throttle like you would on a fixed wing when you get into trouble...

And practice newby Hovering with more space... :-)

Oh and sorry for the lack of Pictures I couldn't bring myself to take any... ;-)

ea01bg

I also came over from fixed wing and had to get over the I'm in trouble chop the power habit. During a recent mishap with my Hurricane 550 my 1st reaction was still to redue power ( old habits die hard) but caugh myself not that it save me from the crash[:@]

noobflyer01

anytime a heli goes down i am sadden.[][&o]. hope you get it fixed soon. and keep flying!

Skarn

Yep, usually to get out of trouble, it's the opposite of chop throttle...give postive throttle/pitch to gain altitude and give yourself the time to recover.

Oh and the throttle hold switch is your friend.....say NO to chicken dancing

Skarn

noobflyer01

the throttle hold is defintely my best friend. i didn't really use it until week and half ago. now i'm auto it in for a landing when in idle up.

Hibrass

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Thanks for the encouragement!!!

New parts are on the way, I should have it flying for this weekend..!

I have the Throttle hold programmed but the old left finger was too slow... LOL Speaking of Throttle Hold, how do you auto one of these little things in??? I mean you can't glide so how do you get them to the ground without doing the Chicken Dance???

Thanks!

noobflyer01

auto-rotation is when you hit the throttle hold switch and bring it down without motor power. your blade will still spin due to inerta. the bigger the blades the better auto-rotation. i bring mine down to about 1 feet in idle up and hit the throttle hold switch. it lands perfect everytime. also my throttle hold is set at -5 negative pitch.

Hibrass

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Ok..

Another question... You go into Throttle hold.. Do you push the Throttle lever up or down after throttle hold??? Or does it matter...? And can you still stear with Cyclic???

Sorry for the stupid Heli questions... I didn't know there was going to be such a steep learning curve from Airplanes...

Thanks again,

Kaelan

when you go into throttle hold.. you still continue to fly the heli.. pushing up on the stick will add pitch which will produce more lift... it will also slow the rotor down faster which means you start to lose lift. if you hit TH about a foot off the ground, the heli will slowly settle into place (if you had good head speed to begin with).. if you are doing an auto from higher up (50+ feet) then you'd actually give a little negative pitch in order to keep you head speed up while the heli drops towards the ground.. then flair and slowly add in positive pitch to land... doing it with a 450 sized heli is very difficult and could very well end up as a crash...it can be done, but 450's don't have the blade mass to make it easy. .30 sized heli's and larger are much easier. I'd suggest that if you have a decent sim, practice there first. On a sim I can auto a hurricane 550 (.30 sized) from 200+meters up and fly it in including a 180 degree turn with a nice soft landing... but on a 450, most of the time it ends up taking a dirt nap.

ginnz

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wow. you say youll need a whole new head? was the head totally destroyed? or was there some parts usable?

im just wondering, as ive never totally wrecked a head.... yet ! :-)

Hibrass

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Ginnz,

It was the Plastic S/SA head and yes for the most part it was completely wrecked, Flybar, Flybar cage, main grips/both and blades... The only thing I salvaged was the swash and swash links and the metel head.. Strangely the Mainshaft appears to be perfectly straight go figure... :-)

Kaelan,

Thanks for the info on Autorotation... I will need to check that out after I get the bird back together and trimmed out..

Skarn

What radio do you have? Most people have the throttle hold on the upper right side of the radio. But you said your "left finger" wasn't fast enough.

You should always use throttle hold...when plugging in the battery it should be on, after landing it should be on before you walk up to it to unplug, anytime you have it plugged in but not ready to fly it should be on.

Skarn

Hibrass

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Skarn,

Yeah I'm using my 8Usuper airplane TX so the gear switch on the left side acts as the Throttle hold by default.... Since I don't know any better that is what I have been using...

Oh and I most certainly do use it everytiime connect or disconnect a battery or test the collective or cyclic...

Thanks,

esc

I too come from 3D fixed wing flying, and have exactly the same instinct to chop the throttle when in trouble - it's a very difficult habit to brake, but fatal with a heli if you don't.

I recently crashed my Mini-Titan which had been fully upgraded. The crash made a nasty mess of several metal parts, fortunately all of which were carefully straightened and re-usable after some work. The canopy, undercarriage, SAB carbon blades, hardened main shaft, feathering shaft, flybar, many of the linkages and landing skids were all right-off's. She is ready to fly again now though.

The cause of the crash - I had got permission to fly on a local field, which admittedly was a little tight for space, but not overly so. I was just into a few circuits when a woman entered the field and released her dog. This animal tore up the field and proceeded to run round my legs, whilst the owner walked directly into the flight path of the helicopter.

This all happened so quickly that I had very little time to make any sense of the moment and in an effort of safety ended up hitting the deck whilst trying to keep the heli away from the dog and owner. In retrospect (easy to think of these things after the fact) I should have just opened the throttle and gained height until the danger had passed.

Lesson learned I am steering clear of that field and flying only when I can guarantee I have time and space to safely land the plane/heli before any members of "joe public" can possibly get in the way.

My sympathies to you.

Regards all,

Dave

Hibrass

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esc,

Great story... A lot of lessons in that one...

Well I'm improving as of today I can Hover tail in and land on a fixed spot.. But in the meantime I crashed two additional times the 1st one was fairly minor flybar, Main Rotors and Tail boom. The 2nd was great...! I lost the flybar, Main Rotor, Tail rotor and blades, Tail boom and Servo mounts... The rudder servo was 20ft from the impact site... LOL

Well someone once said "Stupid should be painful.." Well if Painful was money, I'm hurting pretty bad right now.. :-)

Can't wait for tomorrow..!

esc

Can I make a suggestion - get yourself a good flight simulator, something like the Phoenix offering, RealFlight (which I use) or one of the other top brands. It will save you a lot of money in the long run - and it's costs nothing to crash :-) You can practice all the dangerous stuff like backwards inverted flight without any risk to your wallet. Seriously, a good simulator is worth it's weight in platinum.

Regards,

Dave

Hibrass

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Dave,

Great suggestion....

The embarressing thing is.... I have one.. But a friend and his Grandson are currently using it and I haven't had the heart to ask for it back... LOL

If I don't do something soon I maybe to broke to fly ... LOL

hfenn

Well, I joined the club. Most of my 49 SA flights have been in the yard- an area about 125'X70', so mostly hover, forward and back, and side to side at low speed there. So, out at the club field with all the room I have trouble getting used to the open space and fly a little high and far. I got to do some stall turns with piros at the top and some very FFF. Anyway, I lost orientation in a turn and down she goes. Damage report- blades, flybar, busted tail case, tail pushrod, boom, and wiped out the one-way bearing. I won't know about the main and feathering shafts until I can spool her up again, but I have them on hand, as well as the boom and blades. I knew it would happen sooner or later, and this bird is easier to work on than some others I've tried. Anyway, I have the BH450, Venom NR3DXL, Walkera 22E, and Honey Bee CP to keep me entertained until I get some parts.

esc

Problem is once you've crashed, paid the bill and realised just how much it cost you, you get a little bit gun shy. On average a "good" crash (LOL), something I never think about when flying 3D planes, is going to cost in the region of £100 or nearly $200. You start seeing pound/dollar signs pass before your eyes every time you fly - not a pleasant experience.

The other down side is that you start thinking about all the other gear or new plane you could have bought for that money. This month I was intending to buy three or four extra li-po packs which could be used in the Mini-T or my Extra 300S. Due to that crash that purchase is on hold until next month :-( I would'nt have minded picking up a new Hyperion Cap 232 10e 2008 version either - damn that woman and her dog!

On the up side the Mini-T is ready to go and looking as good as new.

Good luck to you all - happy landings.

Regards,

Dave

hfenn

Luckily this one came to about $30. I went out this morning and flew three packs in the BH450 and I was a little jittery. I did keep it closer so I could see it well. Toward the end of the third pack I did a stall turn with piros at the top. It's good to get right back on the horse after being bucked off. I feel like I learned a lesson from that crash.