My poor polecat....and its heart transplant

Tachelo

Junior Member
Hi guys,

I am new to the forum and this is my first post so I thought I would share a little story from this past weekend of flying. 'Tis a story of a crash and a transplant.

First thing is first....i love my little PK Polecat. My other, bigger planes are all dear to me but there is just something about my polecat which i cannot explain; if I crashed it tomorrow and turned it into a cloud of foam, I would stop by the LHS to pick up a new one on the way home.

So, you can imagine my chagrin when, this weekend, something went terribly wrong. To begin with, it was hot outside. Really hot. I flew more extra 300 for a batt. and then decided to let the engine compartment cool down before going back up. Out comes the polecat for its first flight of the day.
I checked the surfaces...everything was fine.
Spun up the motor...no problems.
Airspace was clear and there was zero wind. Perfect....
I increased throttle, pulled back a little on the stick and the little 'cat leaped into the air!
At which point, the ar6400 failed....well, technically, the elev. servo on the ar6400 failed. And it failed big time...it reset itself in full downward deflection. So, the 'cat nosed into the ground at WOT from about 8 feet off the deck. OUCH! I had enough time to say "Oh shh...." and then BOOOOM!!!! Thankful, the damage was contained to a broken spinner. Oh, and the toasted ar6400.

Back home, I realised that I had a spare ar6400 from a UM Corsair that was on its last legs. Thus...the needs of the many outweighed the needs of the few. I cut open both a/c and swapped the two ar6400s. Now my polecat is back up and running while I may just mount my Corsair as a trophy.

All that to say....should anyone else need to do the transplant, BE VERY CAREFUL OF THE STARBOARD SERVO WIRE!!!! It sits very close to the side of the fuse and, in my case, was actually covered in silicon which needed to be removed. When using your trusty number 11 Xacto blade, make very small cuts and check in between each but in order to ensure that you have "eyes on" that servo wire. Beyond that, the swap is a breeze.

Oh, and the ends of the push rods are pretty sharp and can become stuck into one's finger quite easily. :p
 

colorex

Rotor Riot!
Mentor
I had to change a servo wire after it broke in a crash. That was on my tricopter.

Welcome, thanks for sharing your story!
 

UndCon

UndCon
I think my servo extensions to the tail (rudder/elevator) are broken as the signals are very jittery at the moment.
Several electronic failures have occurred lately.

The box with broken servos is full :D