A friend was flying his Trex 700 in front of him, just taking off and the bolt that holds the blade grip broke, it sent the blade right passed him and landed about 70 yards away.

He is an aggressive pilot that fly's hard 3D, many flights on the heli. It made quite an impression on him and was visibly shook up by what happened, It nearly missed impaling him in the chest with a 710mm CF blade by about 2 feet.


Some better bolts may be in order but the main thing is to fly as far away from yourself as you can comfortably.

Be safe and have fun.

M

Damm, that's awfully close! I bet he had to clean his shorts out after that one...

To become a father is not hard, to be a father is, however. ~ Wilhelm Busch ~

TT Mini Titan E325, Spektrum DX7, Phoenix Sim

I'd be interested in what failed.

Blade grip?
Blade root?
Bolt?
Was the nut loose?
Was the bolt too short and the nut didn't engage?
Did he forget to put in the blade spacer washer and over-tighten the blade bolt thereby cracking the blade grip?

Material failure is one thing, screwing up on the maintenance or assembly is another.

ticedoff8 (Yahoo IM)
Shogun V2 - daily flier (retiring soon)
3 - GMP "King Cobra" .61 w/ 620mm blades - 25 yo heli.
AMA 171886

Soooo Glad your Buddy didn't buy the farm! I have a few stitches scars from blades. . .OOPS!

TREX 450SE X2
Augusta fuse#1, MD500#2
Mini Titan SE w/ Super Cobra Fuse
Logo 10 3D/Hacker B50-14XL(1725v)
JR X9303 2.4 ghz (love it)
GY401
GY240 (X3)
servos all hitec HS5065 for mini heli's
Hitec 81 MG for Logo 10 3D

Yeah, I have this thing about hovering above head level. Anytime someone is hovering anything big low I get the creeps, especially when it's head level.

Sell the farm; buy RC helis!
Trex 450, Hirobo 50&90(w/D3 head), Vibe 90.

Yes me too Ots, Now I have a 90 its treated with great respect as are all of my heli-s but a 90 with 710's on board Sheeeeesh
I try and keep it above my head and a fair way out, actually our MAAA which is the same as your AMA is saying at least 9 meters out from the pilot, also - I think these days a lot of guys are really spinning these things up, like 2200,2300 RPM and beyond, not good IMHO..

I'm glad your mate is ok

Align T-Rex 450 SE GY401,S9650, HS65MG's, Kong's 2200Mah 25c
Kyosho Caliber 5 OS50 Hyper, GY401, S9254, 4x JRDS8231's,B6T Glow/Reg 1900Mah, Radix SB's & TR's,TJ RevMax Limiter, RJX pipe
Avant Aurora Ultimate 90... OS91SX-H Ring C-Spec, RJX Pipe, Spektrum AR7100R, 2x SPM9545 Sat-Ant,
SPM9540 Onboard Data logger,
Outrage XPRX 7.4 2S2P 5000Mah Rx pack, 4xJRDS8717's, Spartan DS760, Futaba BLS251 TR Servo,
Curtis Youngblood RadiX 710's, 105 TR's, 105 Super Stubz.

I've gotta admit, that's one thing that's always in the back of my mind. Every pre-flight, I'm always checking my grips for end-play. That's one failure I never want to have. I've had a tail blow apart and that was only on spool-up. It wasn't even up to full speed. It scared the crap out of me. Thankfully noone was hurt and the heli wasn't damaged...aside from losing the tail grip.