Smokinjo
Senior Heliman
Location: Memphis TN
| I went out to fly today after work. I fly a Fury Expert 60 with a OS WC. In any event, I did an auto and ran out of head speed about 6 inches above the ground. The heli plopped down (no big deal really) and i heard a click. Turned it off and went over to inspect as just sounded unusual. Turns out that one of the studded balls on my Bell Hiller Mixer came all the way out. It was still attached to the link. I put it on the bench and took a closer look at the field. Turns out that the Bell Hiller was cracked in two or three places (Like stress cracks). I imagine that this is what caused the ball to come out. I started to think that the landing may have caused it, but in closer inspection, both Bell Hiller's were cracked on both sides with stress like fractures. Now, I am no expert pilot, and I have never crashed this heli yet. So I am wondering has anyone else seen this with theirs. You really have to take a close look to see them but they are there if you have them. I missed it totally when I was checking bolts the other day. So it is hard to see if you have one. If you do, look out, you know what can happen if that studded ball comes out in flight. A FUNERAL for your heli...
I am sending them back to Tim at MA for further inspection. Just wanted to alert everyone to prevent an accident from happening if there is a problem. It may be just a fluke with mine. Who Knows at this point.
Also to answer your question about the CA, I put a tiny drop on the stud before I screwed it in. I can't imagine this causing the problem though.
FYI
Joe |
