Crash Report : Align T-Rex 450SE V2 #2

I went for almost a month without a single major crash and in the last week I've crashed two birds pretty badly. Last week it was the Belt CP and today, sadly, it was an Align T-Rex 450SE V2, my silver one.

As you can see from the photographs the damage was not extreme and no parts of the CNC head assembly were broken or damaged.

Damage Included:

• Flybar (bent 75 degrees)
  
• Main Rotor Blades (both cracked badly)
  
• Feathering Shaft (bent 10 degrees)
  
• Main Gear (cracked)
• Main shaft (bent 1-2 degree)
  

One of the HS-65MG servo arms cracked as well and the ball-link screw was thrown from the crash (not recovered.)

The servo was not damaged in the crash (no servos were) which is nice.

Regarding the servo with the cracked arm I am curious if having the nut on the screw to hold the servo ball-link (which I was not using on this T-Rex) would have made the damage transfer into the servo itself. The way it was set up the ball-link gave and that was that.

The loss of the main blades is unfortunate but seemingly impossible to avoid with low-weight Carbon Fiber Main Rotor Blades no matter what brand you use. Wood blades are much more durable (partially from running lower headspeeds with them I think.)

Anyway, the crash cost less than $50 and I had it back up in the air flying great in about two hours.

While no one likes to crash this did give me the "opportunity" to check everything on the head for locktight and proper assembly. After some more test flights I think I will take V2 #2 into idle-up mode tomorrow and see just how well I did with my rebuild.

Crash Report : Esky Belt CP #1

Had a crash yesterday with the my E-Sky Belt CP. Some damage:

• Flybar Rod (Bent) $2.50
  
• Feathering Shaft (Bent) $1.80
  
• Flybar Case (Broken) $7.00
  
• Carbon Fiber Blades (Cracked) $32.00
  

One thing that surprised me about this crash is that the main gear survived without damage. The E-Sky Belt CP crashes like clockwork, these are the standard parts that break during a crash, next would be (after the normal main gear stripping) control rods breaking, the main shaft bending, the tail boom cracking, . Usually if you have enough force to crack the tail the frame suffers minor damage as well.

So the total crash cost was around $11 without the blades, which is not bad.

The crash was a tail in crash on the end of a forward flight piro, a move I'd been doing over and over and for some reason I just lost it into the deck. The Align tail assembly held up very well, no damage done.

Mounting 2217-04 BL Outrunner 3500KV in E-Sky Belt CP

D2X_9273
Originally uploaded by digital2noise

Mounting the 2217-04 BL Outrunner Helicopter 3500KV motor in the E-Sky Belt CP is not terribly difficult but does require a small frame modification, show in the photograph (and in the photo-notes.)

A small portion of the frame needs to be remove to accommodate the motor's wires. The Belt CP motor mount and frame are really designed for E-Sky brushless outrunners and they have wires at a particular angle, this motor just doesn't match perfectly.

The modification is simple, does not weaken the frame if done carefully and the power this motor provides makes it well worth it!

Advanced Battery Factory Flight Record

• Align T-Rex, Radix CF 325mm Blades
• 430XL 12T
• Advanced Battery Factory 11.1 volt - 2100 mah 20C 3 Cell Li-Poly Pack
• Idle-Up (100-100-100) and -4 to +11 pitch

No bogging during big pitch changes, good climb performance. Economic power consumption for performance (lighter than Kong Power) and low temperature (105 after 4 minutes.)

I like these batteries a lot. I have four of them so far and they have all performed well with no puffing at all and hold charge well even after 100+ cycles (on one of them.)

Flight Record

• Kong Power 2100mAh 11.1V LiPo (25C)
• Align T-Rex, Carbon Fiber Rotors 325mm
  
• 430XL 12T
• Fast Forward Flight in Normal
• Throttle 0-55-65-75-100 and -4 to +11 pitch curve
  

E-Sky Belt CP #2

D2X_9284
Originally uploaded by digital2noise

E-Sky Belt CP #2

• Stock E-Sky (Plastic)
• CNC Swashplate Upgrade
• 3 HS-65MG servos on swash
• LogicTech 2100T Heading Hold Gyro
• Futaba 9650 Digital Servo on Tail
• E-Sky Carbon Fiber Main Rotor Blades
• Align Tail Rotor Case
• Off-Brand Carbon Fiber Tail Rotor Blades
• Castle Creations Phoenix-35
• Suppo 2217-04-H-S 3500KV 10-pole brushless outrunner

My Charging Station

D2X_9259
Originally uploaded by digital2noise

- Three Battery Bunkers
- Two DN Chargers (with AC Adapters)
- One BC6 (AC Powered)
- Steel Tool Box
- Balancing Plug Extensions
- LipoSack

E-Sky Belt CP + Align T-Rex 450 SE V2 Tail Case Mod

D2X_9268
Originally uploaded by digital2noise

This photograph shows my E-Sky Belt CP and Align T-Rex 450 SE V2 Tail Case Modification. The basic idea is a high quality CNC tail case mounted and geared for the E-Sky Belt CP drive train.

As you can see in the high resolution version of photograph the tail rotor shaft and the tail belt drive gear are both from the E-Sky Belt CP tail. The parts fit the Align T-Rex tail case, however, you do need to use a Dremel to grid down the smaller piece of the E-Sky gear. The E-Sky gear separates into two pieces and the smaller one (the one that doesn't have any teeth) should be ground down 50%.

Once the E-Sky gear has been resized everything fits together perfectly, and you will have the same RPM on your tail as before.