kermitdafrog

The first ten times or so that I "dropped" my Honeybee onto the driveway from three or four feet because of a "panic throttle cut", one of the front landing gear legs where it plugs into the socket on the skid, broke the socket off flush with the skid. I tried CA, which lasted about one or two "drop in's" before breaking at the CA joint. Epoxy lasted a little longer, but then I broke the other front socket.

Since it looked like this was going to be a regular failure, and that I would be using the training gear for a while (and it still looks that way), I epoxied all four of the training gear retainers to the skids. This forms a three-sided attachment on each retainer (two points to the skid, and one to the leg socket), and makes for a really strong connection that makes up for the flimsy plastic skid.

Normally when you "beef up" something, it just transmits the strain to another location and breaks something else, but in this case it's transferred to the carbon fiber legs, which are pretty tough (haven't broke one of them ... yet). So far I've been "dropping it in" with my usual regularity, and the gear is still hanging in there. If I ever get good enough to want to remove the "uglies" from the skids, I'll just buy another $6.00 set of landing gear. (Assuming there is any heli left by then)

Rick

bell1684

Kermit
Great idea..!
Considering I had a crash tonite and broke my gear in the same spot your idea couldnt have come at a better time.

Thanks!
Darrell

paedbo

My Feedback: (2)

pull out or purposly break off all the carbon rods right at the skids ( the point where they all break off flush) ,, remove the plastic from the carbon rod, then whats left of the skid drill a hole all the way through it, put some super glue on the rod and push it all the way through until its flush with the bottom of the skid, it will never break again.

kermitdafrog

Darrell,

Thanks, hope it works well for you too.

I broke (actually sort of fractured) the boom and tail rotor yesterday at dusk because I didn't see one of the stakes I put in for the deck I'm gonna build. Had a spare tail rotor in my "crash kit", but had to "splint" the boom with a few wraps of masking tape, and it works ok, but I guess my next project is to replace the thin wall Honeybee boom with a thicker wall local purchase carbon fiber tube so I can break my first set of rotor blades instead of the boom again. Boy this is fun ... Heli 10, Rick 0, but hover all the way up to 10 seconds now.

(I moved my practice area back to the driveway away from the stakes.)

Rick

VinceHerman

.047 music wire and hot glue.
Absorbs massive impact, like the crumple zone of an automobile. Dnd then you just bend them straight.