Hondo76251
Legendary member
Finally got the video of my last Lithium Ion battery testing/crashing put together...
What did you crash today
- Thread starter Damig
- Start date
L Edge
Master member
You got it. Try doing a large loop with a 30 or 45 degree cross wind so that it is in the same plane. Sketch that one out to show what happens in each quadrant to the rudder and throttle.
Marty72
Elite member
Crashed the Sportster this morning. Absolutely no wind, so I put it up at Sunrise in the fog. Lost orientation, death spiral, augered into the ground. I had brought the P 40 out today to maiden but was waiting for the fog to clear. The big yellow bird is pretty easy to see in all conditions, that's why I put it up. I still can't figure out why I couldn't pull it out, I was pretty high. I never even chopped the throttle, I was fighting until the last moment. I heard a horrible thud across the field and street after it slammed straight into the ground. I hopped into the truck and drove over to get it, expecting it to be totaled, it wasn't. But it did dent the battery and motor is either damaged or jammed full of sand.
Question: The C Pack motor, if you remove the small Allen screw, will it pull apart allowing me to serve the bearings? I do not have an allen key that small. I did all I could to clear it out, but it's still very rough.
More pictures will be on my Sportster thread https://forum.flitetest.com/index.p...re-and-maiden-thread.61353/page-4#post-535195
Question: The C Pack motor, if you remove the small Allen screw, will it pull apart allowing me to serve the bearings? I do not have an allen key that small. I did all I could to clear it out, but it's still very rough.
More pictures will be on my Sportster thread https://forum.flitetest.com/index.p...re-and-maiden-thread.61353/page-4#post-535195
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Wildthing
Legendary member
If you can't get it apart run it under water and spin it at the same time and then if you have a compressor blow it out really good. If it is still rough you will need to get it apart, you may have damaged the bearings . Bearings are cheap, any motor I take apart I will order a package of 10 through Aliexpress, Bangood or even Amazon that way I can service the motor properly. . You should get yourself a small metric allen wrench set, 99.9% of these motors are all the same size.
BATTLEAXE
Legendary member
Oh you didn't chop the throttle, I bet it was a left hand spiral too. If the motor was running it probably wasn't loss of signal then. You got hit by the fixed wing gremlin buddy.
Are you still gonna maiden the P-40?
Marty72
Elite member
Yeah, I've done that and more. Solvent and compressed air, it needs to come apart. Thanks. Just need an allen key. I'm not going to go hog wild, it's only a $30 motor.
Marty72
Elite member
Nope, not a loss of signal, a loss being able to correct the situation exacerbated by poor visibility and stupidity.
yeah, I plan on still trying to maiden the p 40 this week but only if conditions are good. I seem to be having a lot of trouble flying this week, not sure what is going on. Yesterday was horrible, some of the worst flying I've done in months. Today wasn't any better.
I'm going to try and put both the Sportster and Scout up tomorrow and see if I can settle down and fly right before I go and damage another plane.
BATTLEAXE
Legendary member
I am starting to build up the plane collection now. I have 5 that are flyable, one is being built as we speak and there are plans for another coming up after this one. Thinking either the Mustang or the Racer, haven't decided yet, leaning more towards the Racer though. I have done that in a day where I crash the first plane I take out, quickly head in and change out the motor and set up another plane and 20 minutes later take up the new one. I have crashed two in a day then even take up a third. Makes for a lot of fixing for the next day though 
BATTLEAXE
Legendary member
Usually to be safe they aren't good to depend on anymore. You could charge it and do a run up test to check voltages but chances are is it's done. It may run but then the danger of it catching fire not only in the plane but at home on the charger would be taking chances. What can happen is that even if it doesn't look to bad as it sits it could be punctured on the inside where you can't see it. I would just dispose of it
Marty72
Elite member
I am starting to build up the plane collection now. I have 5 that are flyable, one is being built as we speak and there are plans for another coming up after this one. Thinking either the Mustang or the Racer, haven't decided yet, leaning more towards the Racer though. I have done that in a day where I crash the first plane I take out, quickly head in and change out the motor and set up another plane and 20 minutes later take up the new one. I have crashed two in a day then even take up a third. Makes for a lot of fixing for the next day though
Yeah, I can imagine.
I'm trying to contain myself until I sell the Florida house and end up in NC . I don't want to have a bunch of planes I have to transport to NC because planes take up a lot of space and I've already got a house full I stuff I need to move. I can see myself with a lot of planes.
I like having more than one plane for just the reasons discussed. I'll land one hard, screw up the power pod (or something) but I'm not ready to go home. So I grab plane and fly on.
Marty72
Elite member
Thanks for the confirmation. I'll discharge and discard.
Bricks
Master member
Me personally would use it take a little extra care at first I probably have at least 3 batteries that are worse then that and going strong after a year. If it was punctured it would be puffy and even those work just not as strong. But that is me.
I have NEVER had a battery catch fire in the air or on the charger and I charge as many as 12 batteries at a time. But as I said that is me.
BATTLEAXE
Legendary member
Same, I have one that is puffy and one that has taken some damage from a nose in but not as bad as what @Marty72 has. I have used one that took the in-runner shaft into the middle cell and I used that for a little while until I did a voltage test with it under load and noticed the voltage drop on that cell significantly compared to the other two. It wasn't performing so I scrapped that one
Wildthing
Legendary member
I would use it also, I have quite a few dented batteries especially with combat wars. I di take care and dented ones are put into the fireproof bag even for transport home, then I charge them slowly to see if they take it and if that goes well I throw it into a plane and let's see what the flight times are like. If they are similar to the other batteries I treat them like anyone else.
I have batteries that look that bad and are totally fine. The important part is to check the voltage of each individual cell. If they are all the same, charge it and then check the voltage and if everything matches the battery is 100% ok. I smashed my brand new 4s on it's first flight and was worried it was shot, but upon checking the voltage it's pretty good. I still keep an eye on it and check the voltage of each cell everytime I use it, but I do that for all my batteries. It's been doing great!
Yup, sounds about like me too.
I'd discharge and dispose. Last battery I had with a significant dent I figured "what the heck - let's charge it up". It seemed to be taking a charge just fine for about a half hour, and I didn't think anything weird was going on so I stepped out of my shop for a minute. Came back and it had blown up like a balloon and was super hot to the touch and making a "squeeeeeee" noise!
Scared the crap out of me - it was a 4s4000mah so plenty of stored energy for a fire. I hauled it outside and threw it in a clay pot and covered it with wet sand quickly. About 30 minutes later it shrunk back down to normal size again. So it got the discharge and dispose treatment - but never came back in the workshop.Similar threads
