Aloha and Welcome to my small speck of cyberspace! Dec 8, 2010 is the birth date of my blog. Never had one before, but my son encouraged me to have one, and it seemed like a good way to at least keep a log of my RC airplane building and flying. With the initial design kicked off by my son, I'll carry on from here and have fun with it. Now that I have it, I will use it to also keep track of my oil painting efforts, and any other ideas, hobbies, travels, or whatever else that come up. LIFE IS GOOD!

Update on 02/25/2011. It's been a few months since I began this blog, and I am enjoying creating and having it! I like documenting the things I have done in my hobbies, and sharing with my small family. I think Jer and Tad actually view it fairly regularly, as a means to see what I've been up to lately. At worst, it serves as a reference for my own use.

Update on 12/22/2011. This blog stuff is habit forming. My blog is a year old now, and I make an entry about every other day or so as that seems to be the frequency of doing something in one of my hobbies. Like my hobbies, this blog is a lot of fun, and it has become in itself another hobby that I enjoy.

Years are flying by...update on 01/11/2013. Still enjoying maintaining this blog even though hardly anyone sees it. I don't advertise it anywhere or to anyone, and it is mainly just a way for me to keep my own notes and thoughts on my flying, painting, and cars. If a stranger happens upon it, I think it is by pressing NEXT at the top of the current blog they are visiting, lol. It's a great device for me.

August 2014: still here! Took up flying RC helicopters one year ago and got hooked. Had flown micro Helis up to then, but got serious with 450 size for a couple months, then bought the Goblin 500 and Gaui X5 . Also got my Boxster in April 2013. Most importantly, Ariel was born 12/02/12 followed by Skylar 07/20/13, and they are little beacons of joy in our lives. Life is indeed good!!!

Monday, August 4, 2014

Toast

The Goblin 500 took a major dirt nap Sunday morning!  I had 3.5 great flights through it, and was on the 4th pack when it happened.  Flying towards me about 100 feet out and 30 feet high, the Gobby took a sudden pitch down and also dropped fast.  I tried up elevator and higher throttle to no avail. In just another second, it continued to pitch more and more nose down and might have been about 60 degrees nose down when it hit terra firma.  Not a pretty sight.  Tacoed the battery pack.  Came home and did an assessment of the damage, and so far it is about $350.  It would be higher than $400 but I already have a canopy replacement received as a Christmas gift from Tad and Becky.  Surprisingly the boom and all tail parts seem undamaged.  Pics to follow when I extract them from my cell phone and iPad later.


Taco supreme!
Oh, Tad and I autopsied the remains and our guess is the swash plate ring failed, causing an unavoidable catastrophe.  I researched HeliFreak last night and found many threads about the stock swash plate failing.  Too bad I did not know about it before the crash!  Oh well, let's move forward with a repair, and rise of the phoenix.
Ready for autopsy at home.
Surprisingly no damage to boom and tail!

Dirt in the motor.

Busted swash ring

Bent blade holder and spindle, maybe main shaft too.

Lots of canopy damage elsewhere too.

Both blades damaged enough to be unusable.

Right main frame and battery holder cracked.
LG and braces undamaged!
 I flew the Gaui X5 twice after the Gobby crash, and it was fine, so I ruled out (generally) the transmitter as being the cause of the Gobby demise.  Also had 3 flights with the Sbach 342, all very crisp.  Had actually another flight which ended in deadstick at the end of a long double spin.  The engine died when I reversed the spin direction half way down.  Made a safe landing on the sod grass just off the runway to be safe.  Increased the idle by a few clicks for subsequent flights.

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