Ben74
Senior Heliman
Location: Long Beach, CA
| i'm a bit surprised by the poll results. i expected higher numbers. i guess i've just been unlucky with my four failures. none of them could have been prevented by inspection.
when my tail belt broke, i had actually inspected it only a week before. it looked fine, but when i inspected the broken belt, i found that it didn't take much force to break it. i was able to snap the belt in several places with my bare hands, even though the broken belt didn't have any other knicks or signs of weakness in any other spots. i guess it was just an old belt. it was black rubber, with fiberglass reinforcement. i would like to find one of the urethane belts that have kevlar reinforcement, but so far no luck. i need a 592XL or something close to it.
when one of my TR blade grips flew off, the M3 bolt holding it on just snapped, probably due to fatigue. even if i had disassembled the TR and inspected the bolt, i think it's unlikely that i would have been able to see the fatigue. if it had been bent at all, i certainly would have noticed the heli flying funny before the crash. i guess i could have prevented it by replacing those bolts on a regular basis, but i never suspected that such a thing could be a problem. i will certainly be replacing those bolts regularly from now on. i think i'd better replace the bolts that hold the main grips on too. those bolts see a lot of wear and tear.
my other two failures were electronic, and you usually can't prevent those by inspection either. both times were due to problems with the electronic speed control. these were top of the line units too.
how many people here have a regular maintence routine that includes replacing bolts, belts, and bearings even if they're not damaged? such a routine would probably prevent crashes, but it would be sort of expensive and time consuming too. i'm undecided about whether i should be more diligent about replacing parts, or if i should just accept the costs of mechanical failures as part of the hobby. |
