Yesterday evening, was a great evening to fly. Not much wind, very very light rain and nobody at the ‘fly zone’ to accidentally kill. When you are unleashing an 8 year old piloting a P-51 Mustang model, these are things you need to consider. To be honest, he’s better at flying it than I am.

While the P-51 was zooming around the park, sometimes slamming into the ground nose first at full throttle (foamy planes are really good trainers) I took up the two Helis for some practice.

First up was the MadHawk300. The CX3 and Foamy P-51 are both bound to the same transmitter, so I could not fly the CX3 while the transmitter was in use. I’d done some tuning on it, adjusting the motor. The last failed flight attempt was dashed when on run-up the main pinion began to slip at 1/2 throttle, keeping the heli from getting off the ground. I’ve since lock-tited those motor motor screws.

It few well. Adjustments I made to the swash gave me some really nice control. At higher speed and throttle, helicopter flight dynamics are not at all intutive to a guy that’s used to fixed-wing models. But it still went well, with a couple of hard landings, no big deal.

Then, it happened. While at the east end of the part, close to one of the Pavilion buildings, the tail suddenly started to swing wildly, it accelerated upward, then nosed rolled right and slamed into the pavement at near full throttle, doing quite a number of the landing gear and main rotor blades.

🙁 Nothing that was too tough to repair, but I didn’t have the wrench to replace the rotors on site.

At this point the battery on the P-51 was running low. I recouped the transmitter and started to fly the CX3. It was flying very nicely. Nicer than the Madhawk in fact! Zoomed round the park, turned on and off the model navigation lights, did some high speed passes, landings, just some fun landing.

Then, it happened.

Right in the same place the MadHawk had trouble, the CX3 started to go crazy, and started to go into the TBE death spin. I tried to regain control but no luck. It accellerated upward, then nosed over and went straight down, nose first into the ground at full throttle. 15′ was more than enough room for it to gain some momentum.

CRUNCH. It was not a nice scene. The following photos are after I attempted a field repair on the fusalage to fly again. Unfortunately it would not happen since the radio and transceiver were no longer talking to each other.

Once home, I tore down the heli (I’m getting far too good at this) and discovered that the radio receiver took the full-force of the crash. Part of it’s case was ripped off and one of the dipole antennas was missing. Oh oh!

Removed the plugs from the Spektrum AR6100e receiver in the heli, plugged in the 3-in-1 mixer, checked response. The mixer would not show it’s green ‘lock’ signal. It was not until later that I noticed that the signal lock LED on the AR6100e’s front was actually missing. But it was at that point I realized, that not only was the body smashed, the lower section of the frame mounts for the battery are broken, but the receiver is, completely, shot. I’ve broken at lot of things crashing R/C aircraft, but never destroyed a receiver. It’s at this point I’m thankful for using Spektrum R/C equipment. Replacements are 1/2 that of Futaba or JR radios. Still, it’s a $55 part. Ugh. 🙁

I don’t want to order a replacement receiver unless I *know* that’s what is broken. So I dug up the AR56200 full-range receiver I have, wired it in to the heli’s remains, and tested. Viola. 3-in-1 mixer lock and receiver lock. It’s a go. Now I just need to decided where, and when, to buy a new receiver. In the mean time, she’s out of commission.

At least I still have the MadHawk300 to fly. And if I crash that into pieces, well.. I’ll just say I have a contingency plan arriving for that soon as well. ):