ORIGINAL: DarkWombat
Ugly crash today, I was doing great and having a lot of fun when I went backwards too far, and the heli crashed into a little tree with those wooden supports on a slope that runs behind the softball field. The crash was so nasty that the rotor head actually SPLIT apart, the spindle snapped and the rotor blades took off in opposite directions, landing about 10 feet from the heli. One rotor blade was split at the point of impact, but the other was fine. Main shaft moderately bent, main frame toast, canopy busted and worst of all...my 2-in-1 shorted out due to the instant stress on the motor, so the main motor MOSFETS actually shorted out and the main motor was STUCK on running full power, very scary situation. Fortunately the rotor blades were gone so I grabbed the heli by the tail boom, stuck it upside down into the ground and unplugged the battery. The 2-in-1 seems to have this nasty shorting-out issue, it happened to my first 2-in-1 before I even started flying so I got a replacement, but it seems that if the unit shorts out, the current goes right through the MOSFETS and the motor is stuck on full power, it even bypasses the arming procedure so the second the battery goes in the motor is running full power. All other functions work fine so it is an issue with the main motor speed control chip.
Anyways, this gives me a reason to get the CNC aluminum main frame assembly. I'm going to wait a week or so to give some breathign time after this crash, but I hope to be flying again in two or three weeks. And I'll tell you guys about that CNC frame. It also comes with a dual tail motor mount, which effectively uses two tail motors instead of one two drive the tail rotor, you split the wiring between the two so each motor gets half the voltage, resulting in much longer motor run times because of reduced brush wear. The CNC frame also has an aluminum tail boom that bolts on using a set screw, as well as aluminum skids so they're very tough. And I'll paint the new canopy I get as well.
Gryphix: that Blade canopy is looking WICKED. How did you make it all white, did you just paint it and then stick graphite-looking stickers on, or did you manage to find a white canopy?
I had a crash last night but it wasn't quite as bad. I just finished dialing it in and it was flying pefectly. I picked it up and accidentally hit the "Idle Up" switch on the radio. It flew out of my hand and hit the ground HARD. Luckily the battery disconnected before any major damage was done. I lost both blades and the canopy was cracked by a blade at some point. I wish I could disable that switch until I'm ready to use it!
Anyway, as far as the painting the canopy - I just painted it with standard Tamiya model spray paint then added the "carbon fiber" flames. It took almost an entire can to completely cover the yellow though. Does anyone know where to get a replacement canopy? Maybe even a clear one?