Firefox Down

After a few days of pushing our luck with the wind my Killerbee had a pretty serious impact yesterday. As best I can tell there was no pilot error excepting being too close to the ground in such windy conditions.

Given that she went in at almost full speed I am absolutely astonished by how little damage occurred. Let me describe the situation as best I can. I had her on her level about 5 metres from the ground at Wide Open Throttle. A wind gust tipped her up on her left side. I pushed back to the right to correct (I've thought this over a few times - I'm absolutely certain I gave the correct input). However, rather than correct she turned through 90 degrees so her nose was pointed ag the ground and went in. I closed the throttle just before impact, but she basically went in at full tilt. I know it isn't me that put her in because no control input because no input on an elevon aircraft can make it rotate along it's vertical axis (which is exactly what happened). Anyway, that's what I think happened.

When she hit there was so much energy that debris (like my 4s LiPo) flew about 1.5 metres into the air and scattered out in a small pattern around the plane. All that being said, the damage is very light. The EPP wing core is undamaged. The control surfaces are undamaged. Servos seem fine, engine seems ok (have only tested under no load at the moment), the LiPo took a charge and seems OK. The main damage was to the canopy and engine mount. The motor ripped the cable ties that mount it, and the battery bashed its way through the polyeurothane canopy. This is one tough bird.

The scaring you see on the engine case is just where the heatsink separated (a small amount of CA held it in place)

Now the only question for me is whether I just get her back in the air as is (which should be reasonably straight forward), or whether I take the opportunity to mod the elebee for better and greater things. One idea is to cut away about 4 inches from each wing tip to reduce drag - she wont glide as well, but she will be faster under power. Not sure. With the RV4 out of action due to battery issues I am a bit short on servicable aircraft at the moment (although the TigerMoth seems to have arrived back in action just in time).

Speaking of the TigerMoth I had some more fun with her yesterday and have figured out how to get some enjoyment out of this plane. Get her to about 50 meters, and then just give random control inputs and watch the crazy stuff she does. Anyway, no flying today unless the wind buggers of, so I'd better get some mundane domestic stuff done.