7 hours ago
I’m currently working on a rolled over EXEc 90. I’ve seen the short flight that resulted in what I’ll call a light rollover, blades hit the ground , but like most roll overs this didn’t do quite as much damage as usual. Main shaft only had about .010 TIR. Frame shows no damage and tail boom only minimal damage between 1 and 2 bulkheads. Passenger side horizontal stab slight damage to aluminum but no damage to the fin, not sure how they did that!
As I said , owner showed me a short video of the experienced helicopter pilot doing the first flight which resulted in this damage. Upon looking this thing over, I noticed the pedals has a breakaway pressure of, I’m guessing here with out putting a spring pull or something on it, of maybe 30 or 40#!!
I’ve never flown a certified ship that was over maybe 3 or 4# or even less.
Where is all this friction? In the cross shaft, cable is totally free , nothing hooked to the pedals at all.
My opinion is the longtime helicopter pilot picked up slowly started turning left started moving forward some, was probably pushing right pedal with what he thought was sufficient pressure but wasn’t getting what he thought was enough. Ship did a slow left turn going forward at a slow speed and got up on its side far enough for the blades to touch. Game over .
I tested a new ship years ago with a similar problem and it was hard to hold any kind of heading, jerk right then left then right as you try to find the right pedal pressure to keep it straight. Got it down ok, but I think most pilots would have crashed that puppy, especially if they had never flown one like that.
Be advised this is a common issue with new RW builds. Get those pedals as free as possible, especially in the pedal cross shaft.
As I said , owner showed me a short video of the experienced helicopter pilot doing the first flight which resulted in this damage. Upon looking this thing over, I noticed the pedals has a breakaway pressure of, I’m guessing here with out putting a spring pull or something on it, of maybe 30 or 40#!!
I’ve never flown a certified ship that was over maybe 3 or 4# or even less.
Where is all this friction? In the cross shaft, cable is totally free , nothing hooked to the pedals at all.
My opinion is the longtime helicopter pilot picked up slowly started turning left started moving forward some, was probably pushing right pedal with what he thought was sufficient pressure but wasn’t getting what he thought was enough. Ship did a slow left turn going forward at a slow speed and got up on its side far enough for the blades to touch. Game over .
I tested a new ship years ago with a similar problem and it was hard to hold any kind of heading, jerk right then left then right as you try to find the right pedal pressure to keep it straight. Got it down ok, but I think most pilots would have crashed that puppy, especially if they had never flown one like that.
Be advised this is a common issue with new RW builds. Get those pedals as free as possible, especially in the pedal cross shaft.