I've recently had a boomstrike that destroyed the holder that connector to the main body needless to day the boom is no longer connected to the main body. I was wondering however after this incident what could we do to lessen the damage or even prevent a boomstrike caused by rough landing.

I'm thinking this time the boomstrike was caused by the flex provided by the plasti-blades. This is unfortunate. This leads me to believe that this could be prevented by putting on my CF blades or my woodies.

What would the well established community recommend, I've already placed some shock absorbing material around the area of the boom that gets struck but this time it's the frame that gave way.

like you mentioned, wood and cf blades are stiffer and lighter, both factors that will reduce the chance of a bad boomstrike over plastiblades (lighter blades=less impact momentum & less flex). also, adding shims to the feathering shaft to stiffen it up will also help a bit, however it will also make the heli less stable too.

the main thing to remember about boomstrikes is they are most likely to happen when the rotor rpm is very low. if you know you're headed for a crash, try hard not to kill the motor and slam it down. instead try flying out your crash landings so you are level and still have good rpm at the moment of impact. you need to try and be level, since this is obviously not going to work if the heli is upside down or on it's side (if you're sideways or inverted, killing the motor is the prudent thing to do).

this is why i believe in using wood blades throughout the early stages. woodies force you to be careful since you know the slightest mistep will cost you $16. similar to the effect that passengers have on full scale flying, with woodies you tend to imagine there is precious cargo on board and you absolutely cannot even come close to crashing. when you have plastic blades, you tend to get the feel that you are playing with a fischer price toy that won't break if you step on it. that's not a good thing for a pilot's head. also, there are many good arguments over what is cheaper, but woodies will break away on impact which will save your head and frame. in the end, it's skill and finesse that will make a heli crash proof, not plastic blades.

just my $.02, hope it helps.

Vortex05,

Boom strikes are very difficult, if not impossible to avoid. It all depends on your type of flying. You could get boom strikes no matter what type of blades you use. Just kinda gear down and avoid the strikes. I've done that a few time, usually doing something crazy. Being to aggessive. Slow down a tad.

Dave / Choppersrule

Tighten your blades up until you have to use some force to fold them, but not alot. The blades should not swing freely in the blade holder, if they do your blades are too loose.

yea good old plastic blades.....thats one reason why I will never use plastic blades, too heavy and it just transfers the damage to other parts.

If you want to keep the plastic blades you can add some shims to the o-rings in the center hub. this will make your blades less likely to flex up and down.....but it can also make it a little harder to control.

Also check and make sure you don't have a bent spindle. That drove me crazy for a while, I added shims, worked great, also switched back to wood blades.