HeliKing

I flew today, practicing my hover and forward flight skill.

Before the first flight, I filled in the fuel tank with my hand pump.
I do fueling the tank by removing the fuel tube from the carb and connect the outlet pump tube. When finish, with one hand holding the pump, I disconnect the tube and reconnect the fuel tube to the carb, than I pump out the remaining fuel on the pumping line back to the fuel container.

I started to hover, did some forward flight , landed and flew again than when the heli was hovering about 4 m off the ground, suddenly the engine stop and the heli dropped like a rock !!! [X(]

I a split second I did whatever I could to execute the outorotation I learned few times from the real flight sim, and fyeuwhhhhh... it landed safely.

What happened was the fuel line going to the carb was not installed properly and it disconnected on the air. I was very stupid mistake !! Normally I always check all the line to make sure it installed firmly, this time I forgot to do that .. stupid...stupid...stupid..!![:@]

Spaceman Spiff

My Feedback: (1)

No crash? Don't worry, there will be plenty of other oportunities for costly mistakes!

Congrats on your first auto!

ChiefG

One reason you need to develop a pre-flight check list and may want to include checking fuel line. Or use a T - filter where you do not have to remove the fuel line from the carb to re-fuel.

Also make it a point to check all electronic connectors are still connected in the receiver. Once I notice my heli will not fly in Heading Hold (Gyro) found out connector was loose.

bdphil

My Feedback: (26)

Good save!

My first auto was from about 10 ft. when I discovered what happens in battery failsafe (engine goes to idle for those not running PCM). Let's see a show of hands from all those who did their first auto out of necessity.

One good thing is that now you know what to expect when autorotating and you're ready to start doing them on purpose.

Ben