- Joined
- Feb 13, 2017
- Messages
- 125
- Reaction score
- 48
- Age
- 67
After 6 months of only a couple minor incidents (2 landing tip overs) I put my H in the dirt today. I know there are two types of pilots; those that have crashed and those that will. I have now joined those that have.
I was experimenting with different ND filters on a bright sunny day and was standing near a tall lilac bush (that is now a tree) on the side of my house to get some shade on my controller. I wasn't paying attention to the fact that as the day went on, I needed to be closer to the lilac to get shade.
On my last flight I was landing after another successful flight and reached up to hand catch as I always do (flame on about hand catching). A big gust of wind came up and pushed the H into the lilac tree and I heard that fateful sound that nobody wants to hear and down she went.
The landing gear took the bulk of the hit from about 7 feet up and it broke a strut along with putting both retract motors out of wack and loose. The impact also detached the camera. The rail mount on top of the camera was distorted but not broken as a result. The two unrestrained rubber dampers on the camera mount also popped loose.
I've been collecting various spare parts over the last 6 months in anticipation of this day and had everything I needed to make repairs. I flipped the H on it's top and cycled the gear and got the retract motors back to rights after a couple cycles. I replaced the broken strut and replaced the top camera mount and rubber dampers. I installed the camera and it linked up and recovered my video. The bird is all back to rights and ready for the next adventure.
The point to this is thread is two fold:
1. Regardless of how comfortable you become with your flying ability, always maintain situational awareness. Which I did not do.
2. Don't be afraid to fix your own H. As someone new to this sport, hobby, profession, I've been somewhat intimidated by the technology. While the interworking's, electronics and programming is far beyond me, putting the actual parts back together is quite simple, and in this case relatively inexpensive (approx. $20).
I was experimenting with different ND filters on a bright sunny day and was standing near a tall lilac bush (that is now a tree) on the side of my house to get some shade on my controller. I wasn't paying attention to the fact that as the day went on, I needed to be closer to the lilac to get shade.
On my last flight I was landing after another successful flight and reached up to hand catch as I always do (flame on about hand catching). A big gust of wind came up and pushed the H into the lilac tree and I heard that fateful sound that nobody wants to hear and down she went.
The landing gear took the bulk of the hit from about 7 feet up and it broke a strut along with putting both retract motors out of wack and loose. The impact also detached the camera. The rail mount on top of the camera was distorted but not broken as a result. The two unrestrained rubber dampers on the camera mount also popped loose.
I've been collecting various spare parts over the last 6 months in anticipation of this day and had everything I needed to make repairs. I flipped the H on it's top and cycled the gear and got the retract motors back to rights after a couple cycles. I replaced the broken strut and replaced the top camera mount and rubber dampers. I installed the camera and it linked up and recovered my video. The bird is all back to rights and ready for the next adventure.
The point to this is thread is two fold:
1. Regardless of how comfortable you become with your flying ability, always maintain situational awareness. Which I did not do.
2. Don't be afraid to fix your own H. As someone new to this sport, hobby, profession, I've been somewhat intimidated by the technology. While the interworking's, electronics and programming is far beyond me, putting the actual parts back together is quite simple, and in this case relatively inexpensive (approx. $20).
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