Alioth's Journal: Where is the worst place for an electric RC heli to end up?

Well, aside from crashing into a fire, crashing into a pond and sinking.

That's exactly what happened to my HDX-300 just now. It suffered a power glitch, and lost altitude, then the power suddenly came back on and the heli started going rather quickly where I didn't want it. Unfortunately, the power came back just before it landed, and it scooted off and hit the rocks at the edge of the pond before I can do anything about it.

Fortunately, this caused the battery to get ejected (and it remained lying on a rock) so it was unpowered, but the heli continued and went straight in the pond and sank. Some water lillies are the only thing that stopped it going all the way to the bottom, but it was still totally submerged.

Damage: both main rotor blades wrecked from hitting the rocks at the side of the pond, possible servo wrecked, broken main frame (but possibly repairable). Hopefully it'll still work when it dries out.

On the bright side...

[Cyberdyne]

Several seconds' stick time on a sub? Good luck with the repairs, anyway: I hope it isn't too bad.

I thought....

[TinaMarie]

...you were going to say you really did crash it into a fire. Spinny, flaming, heli parts could cause a lot of random destruction. If you ever do, there should be video. :)