I do not know if there is a GOOD way to lose a bird but man that is a TOUGH way to lose one!   

Forgive the dumb question/comment, and this is probably the LAST thing you want to be talking about:  I can see the motor and battery sustaining impact damage, but am a little surprised at the ESC shorting out - unless it also sustained impact damage?

William,

Sorry to hear about the bumm. From what you described happening to the ESC and battery it raises the question of how do we protect these items? Should we be installing fuse links? Or is there a setting in the ESC that we need to set up different from the factor default settting?

Best,                 Dennis T

Really sorry to hear about this.  We used to use in-line fuses when I raced model cars some years ago but in practice they proved useless. The problem seemed to be that they take so long to react that the damage was already done.

Not that it's much consolation I would hope crash damage had something to do with the melt down of the controller. I've planted my Flightstreak several times stopping the motor dead and the over current protection has always kicked in and saved the controller. (CC PH45)

TTFN
John.
 

William, no offense but for those that fly these ARF's to continue to go with the controls provided just amazes me. Sorry you lost your plane.

I have had a few bad crashes and have been lucky myself so far.  I had a motor mount break and had wires ripped out of an esc but thats it for me.  I only have 1/2A sized planes.  Sorry to hear about your lost plane. 

I've always been a bit confused here. Couldn't  either a fuse that had an amperage close to the max used or maybe a small piece of stiff metal barely held in a mount that would pop out breaking the circut save a lot of expensive battery, and controllers.

I haven't had any crash and burns (yet!), but have had 3 or 4 "issues"---all related to takeoffs on my Nobler. If you have followed my trials and tribulations there, you will know that I am using a 12 " prop (APC thin electric), and clearance is always an issue on grass. I have replaced my gear with taller ones and also used larger wheels, but still occasionally get stubbed by thick grass and the plane noses over. Usual result is that the motor mount simply twists off. That darn prop is a lot tougher than it looks (never have lost the prop).

Anyway when that happens the amps really jump up. Up to now the process has stopped when the motor pulls a connector loose. I have been running my Castle Creation ESC in an "insensitive" overcurrent mode, and also letting the ESC lower current to keep the voltage just above the low voltage cutoff. My theory was a low power was preferable to a complete cutoff if I happened to be in a maneuver with a weak battery.

Now I think otherwise--the damage the nose of the plane and wiring, while not substantial, is still big enough to be downright irritating! . Now I have put the overcurrent cutoff to "Normal" and allow a hard cuttoff of power. Whether this will cutoff power in case of a takeoff stub I am not sure--the manual is rather vague about that point.

If I was to do things over again with the Nobler, I might cut the prop tips down a bit. The problem with the "Stork" landing gear is that it makes it easy for the plane to tip over if the wheels get bogged down in the grass. In my case I probably made it worse because I was using wire gear, which as it gets longer, it flexes more. Maybe should have made up a set of aluminum gear like the Vector has. I may still do it, but plan right now to concentrate getting the Vector going.