600 KDS Maiden Flight - CRASH!!!!

Dirk

Dirk

Member
I did the first flight with my new KDS 550 yesterday. I shouldn't really call it a flight I suppose. As I got the rpm up to lift off speed, the Ikon very kindly decided to apply full forward cyclic. Blades stuck into the ground and tipped the heli over on its left side. I was in normal mode and pulled throttle closed as soon as the blades hit the ground (grass at least).

Damage report: One damaged blade at the root as the blade folded back and got crunched by the blade grip. DFC linkage threaded rod broke off in the plastic link that attaches to the ball. One servo horn broken off. The rotor head control arm also stripped out of the blade holder.

Luckily no bent main shaft or feathering shaft.

Some pics of the damage.

KDS 005.jpg

Interestingly, the two bolts that attach the "linkage" into the blade grip stripped out.


I ran the heli on my lounge carpet last night (without main or tail rotor blades of course) and noticed that as soon as I get the head speed up, the swash tilts forward. Any idea why it would do that?

I checked all of the settings on my lappy with the Ikon software and all is as it should be.

KDS 005.jpg
 
Last edited:
P

pvolcko

Well-Known Member
It's not in self-level mode, is it? Other option, you have a nasty vibration someplace that's skewing the sensor.
 
Dirk

Dirk

Member
Thanks for the reply Paul. I think it could have been in self level mode, come to think of it. I still battle to get my DX8 set up to be able to switch between banks.
 
pj1969

pj1969

Member
Oh man that sucks!!! I'm having the same trouble with my 450dfc i've rebuilt, want to tip over, but i only find out just about on take off. Its a problem as you need to take off to test, but am also scared to give it a little bit more stick as dont want to "crash" her again on take off. Feel sorry for you bro. Sound silly but i would get some training gear on like i have, just incase she decides to do things you arn't expecting, may save her a little by giving you that split second to hit the TH. Good luck
 
Dirk

Dirk

Member
My Align450 DFC does not scare me at all on lift off. It is super stable on lift off. I have long since chucked the training gear away! LOL. Wouldn't work on the 550 anyway.

Oh well, new parts should be here tomorrow.
 
pj1969

pj1969

Member
No sorry what i ment was, after a rebuild, you just dont know if all ok?? and you have to take off to see how she flys? i have rebuilt mine a couple of times and each time something different went wrong. May b just me then hahah
 
Lee

Lee

Well-Known Member
Did you check you had all three cyclic servos moving before lift off?
On a couple of occasions I have had one servo or another fail to initialise. This almost cost me a tip over.
I just unplugged the battery and plugged it back in, to fix it.
Always give your cyclic stick a wiggle to see that all three servos are working.
Sorry the maiden didn't work dude.
 
P

pvolcko

Well-Known Member
re: elevator gyro reversed: On the ikon that would mean you selected the wrong mounting orientation image during setup (step 9?). But, you should have been able to test that on the bench by simply picking up the model and tilting it nose down/up and side to side (and tail side to side to test tail compensation direction) to check that the swash tilts away from the direction of model tilt.
 
Dirk

Dirk

Member
Lee, I did check all my servos before spooling up. All were okay. Tony, I learnt from you, the master, to make sure that everything compensates in the correct direction. You would have been proud of me that I've paid attention in your class. Directions all perfect.

Paul, I got the mounting direction right and confirmed it by tilting the heli in all directions.

I think the culprit was that I somehow had it in self level mode. I ran it without the head and tail blades last night and within 5 seconds the swash tilts forward and it barely moves back when I pull aft cyclic. I disabled the SL mode on the Ikon and did the same test. Perfect! Ran like that for 5 minutes without the swash moving at all.

Somewhere I screwed something up with my SL, TX switches, brain fade or whatever it was.

Thanks for all the input guys, it's really appreciated. I am very confident with my 3GX, but this Ikon is still all new to me.
 
Tony

Tony

Staff member
There is definitely a learning curve in all of this. Need to get my hands on one of these so that I know what you guys are seeing when setting them up.
 
Dirk

Dirk

Member
If I wasn't so far away Tony I would have given you one to try out. You can then make us a nice video tutorial on how to do it.
 
Tony

Tony

Staff member
Problem there would be finding the time to do it lmao. I have not even had time to put my Habu in teh air. Charged up ALL of my batteries for a good weekend of flying, and things came up. That was a month ago I think. I really should discharge those, but then again, I need time lmao.

Hope you get this KDS in the air soon. This time, with video!!! :rules: :biggrin1:
 
P

pvolcko

Well-Known Member
You cna also run the software in "demo" mode in order to see what options are available in the screens and whatnot.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top Bottom