[dm-digital]

Sorry about your loss, sounded like a good machine. At least you figured out the cause of the crash so you know what to look at a little more closely next time. I hate not knowing why a machine came down.

Flying in this weather sucks. Yesterday didn't seem too bad so I decided to take my little T-Rex 450 out for a quick flight in front of the house. A few seconds after lift off it started to fly horribly. Wherever I moved the cyclic it wanted to stay in that position. When I landed I discovered the head had completely tightened up from the cold. After a few minutes in the house the head went back to normal. Guess I won't be doing any flying until temps are closer to 0C or slightly above.

[jfarsang]

Darren,

You're absolutely right.

With the Rex's having thin plastic pieces on the head, they get brittle very fast.

I actually took some old parts and tossed them in the fridge and freezer to see what would happen.

Sure enough, they're hard are rock and appeared to shrink just a hair. Enough to cause a disturbance in the head

[Heli3dflyr]

Originally Posted by dm-digital

A few seconds after lift off it started to fly horribly. Wherever I moved the cyclic it wanted to stay in that position.

I had my SE ouside for a couple flights last week, and I noticed the exact same thing- it felt really lethargic. I ended up flying 2 minutes out of the pack before packing it up. I thought people flew these little birds outside in the winter with no problems?

Myzee, is it a complete right-off, or are you going to re-build?

[jfarsang]

I think anything under below 5-10 is too cold to fly in with the smaller micro's . At least the stock one's. You can always run a full metal gear on it.

On thing I noticed was that the plastic ball links seem to be the first to shrink which would cause the stiff/lethargic cyclic movements.

[Credence]

Even with the full metal head, your ball links will still be plastic. They're not as likely to break on bigger birds, but on the smaller micros it seems really dangerous to fly in extreme cold (i.e -10 and below). I've seen enough posts this winter to convince me of that!

I'm still waiting on some warmer weather so I can test out my e-conversion on a Century Hawk Pro. Should be neat



It's good to know about the MG servos. I'm running MG Hitec digitals on my Rex 600, after reading this, I think i'll be putting loc-tite on all of them. It never even ocurred to me..

[tech1]

Flew both days on the weekend and the only thing affected by the cold was the pilot.

I wouldn't know much about sluggish though, I don't do any 3d with this heli.
Winter is definately the time to double check things you normally don't. I had a recever battery dump after only one flight. The voltage was so low, the PCM receiver was shutting down. If it hadn't been checked before the second flight, the heli would have ended up in the lake.
( BTW, I did my check by gently forcing against collective pitch while watching the VoltGuard to see how far the voltage dipped. That time it dropped below the red. I pushed a little harder and the servo's went limp. God was with me that day. My pre-flight payed off big time)

[Jan Blom]

Hopefully your camera equiptment was OK! Perhaps a frosty lens?

[Myzee]

Heli3dflyr,
Well no a complete right off. The aluminum main frame, engine clutch assembly, and swash plate "seem" to be ok. I'll no more when I do a full tear down tomorrow.
I was using Rotortech carbon blades on the heli and i got think thinking about something when I was standing there looking at the wreckage......am I ever glad it didn't hit me or my son! The damage these blades did to my all aluminum camera mount was scary. Could easily cut off a hand or even killed someone!
Camera was a little full of snow but I let it dry right out and it's working perfect today.
Myles