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Post by jgpncll on Feb 26, 2012 22:20:14 GMT -4
Well I flew my Chaos 550 today. I took my time putting it together(not much of a choice with Chaos) and setting up my flybarless. Had to wait until my Digital pitch gauge came. First flight went well. Just got it off the ground without any issues. Tail held solid while hovering and while doing pitch pumps. Heli was locked in and did not drift at all. Hovered it for over 6 minutes without any issues at all. I was very pleased with the way the heli hovered and how well it seemed to climb. The good times with Chaos was very short lived(after many frustrations while building/assembling). Second flight not so well. Took off, went well. Hovered for a few seconds, all well. Switched to Idle up, all still well. Did some forward flight, all still well. Did a few climbs, all well. Did a forward flip, a little shaky. Though gain issue. A few seconds after the forward flip I saw something fall off of the heli. Immediately after the part falling off of the heli it started to pirouette uncontrollably so I had no choice but to hit throttle hold while about 60 feet in the air and just watch the heli slam to the ground. The tail flew off while in flight. At first I thought that it just fell off. But after going to pick up/collect the carnage I saw that the Carbon boom broke off cleanly inside the tail case where the pin goes through the boom to hold the tail case in place. Seems that there was an issue with the boom at the tail case end being too thin or something else because when the heli hit the ground the other end of the boom was strong enough to rip the tail block/transmission assembly in half. The worst things about all of this is that the helicopter is NEW and PARTS are not listed on the RCAerodyne website. And it's not like I can order all of these parts for an Align from somewhere else because some of the parts are not interchangeable. Luckily all of my electronics except for the tail servo(DS650) survived. Parts needed are: Tail servo Main Blades Main Shaft Feathering Shaft Swashplate Main Gear Main blade grip control rods and end links Canopy Canopy mounts Canopy clip Tail Case(front) Front Torque tube gears Tail boom Torque tube Tail support rods Tail control rod Tail case assembly Rear torque tube gears Landing gear struts Landing gear skids Tail blades Tail slider Tail lever Tail boom clamp Horizontal fin
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James V
PARK FLYER
Proud Chaos owner
Posts: 57
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Post by James V on Feb 26, 2012 22:53:03 GMT -4
That is very strange. I have 29 very hard flights on mine trying to break it and have not had the first issue. And when I say hard I mean brutal. I would say its far from junk from what I have experienced. I am not saying this because I am a team pilot either. I honestly thought I would have broken something from flying it so hard and the heli being so new but nothing so far. If you are worried about parts you can purchase every part on the helicopter. I would contact RC aerodyne and pass along your experience and see what they will do. BTW what flybarless unit are you using? Just curious.
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Post by jgpncll on Feb 26, 2012 23:17:48 GMT -4
I'm going to contact RCAerodyne tomorrow.
I can't find any of the parts on their website. I hope they are available so I can get this thing back together and get rid of it.
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James V
PARK FLYER
Proud Chaos owner
Posts: 57
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Post by James V on Feb 26, 2012 23:49:39 GMT -4
something to think about. how did your tail shaft get bent? if it came off the heli in flight it would have fallen to the ground. that fall would not bend that shaft. you also dont have tail blades on? they wouldnt have broken from a fall either
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Post by jgpncll on Feb 26, 2012 23:54:53 GMT -4
something to think about. how did your tail shaft get bent? if it came off the heli in flight it would have fallen to the ground. that fall would not bend that shaft. you also dont have tail blades on? they wouldnt have broken from a fall either Tail shaft get bent? The torque tube? As far as the tail blades, a few of the guys at the field an I were trying to figure out what happened to them. We looked all over the field trying to find them. My theory is that one of them broke at the root, flew off causing the tail to be out of balance. Which caused the tail to be under a lot of stress which in turn caused the boom to break, bending the torque tube and then slung the other blade off. And the front torque tube bent when the heli hit the ground and the tail block broke. This is just a theory. It happened so fast we couldn't really tell what happened. Either way it's a faulty component that caused this carnage, whether it be the boom or the tail blade. All I know for sure is that the tail fell off and then the heli went out of control. The boom and shaft were still on the heli when it crashed. Just the tail case fell off where the boom broke.
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mike
ROOKIE
Posts: 8
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Post by mike on Feb 26, 2012 23:58:36 GMT -4
Man sorry for the crash, post your outcome with RCA. Once you contact them tomorrow.
Mike
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Post by lazor22 on Feb 27, 2012 0:07:47 GMT -4
I can vouch for this being 100% true
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Post by jgpncll on Feb 27, 2012 0:13:05 GMT -4
I can vouch for this being 100% true lazor22 was present and watching when this happened
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mike
ROOKIE
Posts: 8
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Post by mike on Feb 27, 2012 0:43:45 GMT -4
Lazor
You still messing around with the cd stuff. I used to mess with that and went under the screen name armyrcer.
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Post by lazor22 on Feb 27, 2012 0:52:49 GMT -4
cd = coasterdynamix?
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mike
ROOKIE
Posts: 8
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Post by mike on Feb 27, 2012 1:08:57 GMT -4
Yeah I have gotten back into rc full time now just wondering if it was you or not.
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Post by lazor22 on Feb 27, 2012 1:25:48 GMT -4
Yea i still have a couple scorpions, I havn't touched it since I got into helis though but i could never sell them.
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Post by Dr. Evil on Feb 27, 2012 10:23:39 GMT -4
I'm going to contact RCAerodyne tomorrow. I can't find any of the parts on their website. I hope they are available so I can get this thing back together and get rid of it. Sorry to see that this has happened dube but to say that it's "junk" is a bit harsh don't you think? I understand you're upset that it crashed. Yes, there were a few minor issues with the build process but thats exactly what it was and not poor materials being used to produce this kit. As the way you've described the incident, the tail had came off at mid flight and from seeing the pics. where the carbon boom was separated seems to me that this was caused by over tightening of the tail clamp bolts (the 2 bolts that holds the vertical stabilizer). It's pretty clear from the photos that the break is exactly where the "fixing hole" of the boom and the clamp area of those 2 bolts are. I've learned this along time ago not to over tightening those bolts as it can break the carbon boom. (Something to think about: the carbon boom is already slightly weakened by having a hole there so any extra force can cause it to break easier). Those 2 bolts needs to be only snug with "threadlock" applied as it's basic purpose is to secure the vertical stablizer and to hold the boom but as far as the boom going anywhere is being taken care of by the stud on the tail with the fixing hole. Once its properly tighten, the boom isn't going anywhere. The spare parts should be arriving soon if it hasn't already by now. I know even the 550 kit is not listed as it is currently out of stock. Try and contact them and see if this can all be resolved. Good luck.
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Post by Valkman on Feb 27, 2012 11:06:16 GMT -4
I did not see till now you posted on rcgroups as well. Here is my post if you missed it.......
Would the part you saw flying off the heli be the linkage ball on the tail bearing holder? Your missing it from a pic above and you then said straight away after you saw this it started the piro's so this could explain that. Looking at your 8 pic down it looked like it was spinning on its side when it hit because the tail supports are bent to the side. The hard landing would then have done the damage to the boom and the other parts.
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Post by jgpncll on Feb 27, 2012 11:19:33 GMT -4
I did not see till now you posted on rcgroups as well. Here is my post if you missed it....... Would the part you saw flying off the heli be the linkage ball on the tail bearing holder? Your missing it from a pic above and you then said straight away after you saw this it started the piro's so this could explain that. Looking at your 8 pic down it looked like it was spinning on its side when it hit because the tail supports are bent to the side. The hard landing would then have done the damage to the boom and the other parts. And here is my reply from rcgroups, Quote: Originally Posted by The Valkman Would the part you saw flying off the heli be the linkage ball on the tail bearing holder? Your missing it from a pic above and you then said straight away after you saw this it started the piro's so this could explain that. Looking at your 8 pic down it looked like it was spinning on its side when it hit because the tail supports are bent to the side. The hard landing would then have done the damage to the boom and the other parts. The part flying off the heli was the tail case assembly, without a doubt. A large shiny piece of metal with the vertical fin, flew off the heli. It started to piro because there was no tail on the heli. The linkage ball on the tail bearing slider was broken when the tail flew off. There were 3 other people at the field that saw it happen. I'm not asking for diagnostic/troubleshooting help, just posting what happened.
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