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Helis and fixed wing

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Thursday, February 17, 2011

Bent Shaft on Ground Flip

Yesterday morning I took the Cubby out (today I did too... see the account above). I was trying out the regular EP prop. It was a little breezy and the Cub was twitchy, never got her off the ground as I couldn't control her on the roll out. To prove the point on the second or third attempt she tipped forward suffering a blade strike, bending the shaft (the heavier EP prop sustained very little damage). I brought her home and could not figure out how to get the shaft off (now I know, see the account above). So I simply grabbed a pair of pliers and straightened it out. was able to get her so straight there was virtually no vibration at all and the blade tracking was tight! This pic is pre-repair. Looks like only a small bend but the prop wobbled something fierce with about 5mm to 10mm disparity between the blades in tracking.

Glad I fixed it, but at the time I had no idea how to get the bent shaft off a perfectly good motor, to say nothing of how I was going to find a replacement.

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