Gyro mounting on a 450

Written by Ashley Davis Tuesday, 21 June 2005 00:00

I recently had a crash after a rather too low flip from inverted. The T-Rex went in sideways under full power. The main blades snapped at the roots and the flybar wound itself round the main shaft. Nothing new about this.

However, the flybar paddle had hit the gyro as it wound round the shaft, cutting it in two.

I thought this was just a freak accident as I've always mounted gyros in this position on my Raptor and never had a problem. This is where the T-Rex is different, the flybar is quite narrow gauge wire and bends very easily, a full power crash will frequently end up with the flybar wrapping itself around the main shaft and the gyro is highly exposed in the rear mounted position. I've now heard four separate accounts of the same thing happening to other people.

This type of thing rarely happens on the Raptor as the flybar is above the main blades rather than below.

Below is a picture of the gyro and it's mount position before the crash.

• 
•  

I suggest mounting the gyro either upside down under the boom in the same place as before to keep it out of harms way or alternatively between the main frames. Given the possibility of electrical inteference I'm going to go for an under boom mount, anyone following this should make sure the gyro is well secured in this position as if it falls off you are looking at a highly uncontrollable tail problem and almost certain crash.

Here's a picture of my trashed Align Gyro so you can see just how hard an impact it took (ie. gyro case disintegrated).
It may still be functional as the electronics look intact but the case was smashed to pieces.

• 
•  

( 4 Votes )