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So… I decided to work on the heli. Got the motor, gyro, tail servo, already had the ESC. So I install the motor and decide to test the "Killer". I clamp the skids to the bench, hook up the receiver, ESC, battery, fortunately, I decided to leave the main blades off; this will prove to be the only smart thing I did in this whole episode. I am kinda in a hurry at this point cause I want to see something spinning, now mind you, I have absolutely no intention of flying this beast, but I just spent money on this thing and damn it, I want something to move under its own power. I can't take the time at this point to read the manual on the radio to find out how to set up a heli program, after all, I'm just going to test the motor. I'll just use the Extra 300 program, now the fact that I just killed that plane last weekend should have told me that was a bad idea…but no. One of the first things I notice is that the throttle is backwards, I could change it easy enough, but, as per above, I didn't have time to be pressing those two or three buttons to make it work the proper direction, besides, I could remember it was backwards! So, I get it all set up turn on the transmitter and plug in the battery throttle is on high (low) and the ESC arms itself, things are lookin good and I'm feelin like a pro. So I throttle it up a bit, things are going great. Now I don't know if you remember the first time you spooled up a heli, but , its more than a little intimidating. I noticed at this point that the belt seemed to be "skipping" a little and it looked a little loose, now, I could have powered it back down and taken a look at the belt but my mechanically inclined self decided that I should take a ball end allen driver and push gently on the side of the belt to see if it quits "skipping". It did quit "skipping", and I was impressed, I had just successfully done my first bit of troubleshooting on a heli.
Looking back, I should have accepted my success, grabbed a Beer and watched some TV. But… I decided that I could apply a more steady pressure with a larger allen driver, it was on the other side of the heli and it might have worked had I gotten that far. If you remember, I'm an airplane pilot, there is nothing on the ass end of an airplane that spins, not so on a heli! Yep, I promptly stuck my fingers in the rapidly spinning tail rotor, DO NOT let their small size fool you. I think the cats knew what was coming as they jumped up on the other bench, safely out of the way, to watch. Naturally I pulled my fingers back out of the rotor, quickly I might add, and promptly grabbed them with the other hand in case there were pieces ready to fall off or something. That action, of course, didn't go un-rewarded as the elbow attached to the remaining good hand hit the still spinning flybar, not hard, but… just hard enough to loosen one clamp, ah crap! Quickly my highly intellectual mind jumps into gear and says "throttle back down with your elbow" as I'm still tightly hanging on to what's left of my fingers with my good hand. So my elbow moves the throttle to the OFF position just like it was commanded by my highly intellectual mind to do. Remember the throttle issue from above? Yep, the OFF position was actually full throttle, that thing was screaming like a banshee the tail's bouncing up and down and it was trying it's best to get out from under that one remaining clamp.
Well, I finally decided that the fingers were just going to have to fall off or whatever cause I had to stop this man eater before it killed me, I swear, that thing was screaming like the demon in the exorcist, and looked about as evil. Well I managed to get it turned off without being attacked any further, counted the digits and surprisingly they were all there and no blood. Battery's unplugged, transmitter's off, the beast has been tamed…that will teach it to mess with me! I think I'll count this as a success, grab a Beer (or two) and watch TV. |
