Was doing brilliantly, managed to move the tail away from me

Managed a couple of piro’s (slight bounce/overshoot/wag – so need to reduce the tail gain slightly further) but it was remarkably stable in hover – there wasn’t much wind today on the field – and it flies hand off for AGES – VERY stable indeed

Feeling VERY happy and confident with this heli now, and now get why they are worth the bench time

Did a couple of batteries in just getting a feel and decided I was ready for a nice fast swooping circuit /figure 8 for the 3rd cell…only 3/4 of the way through the loop it all went horribly wrong…I watched as the heli went in quite hard and exploded on impact and no longer responded on elevator to my control 🙁

I am pretty sure it was a servo failure as a cause

Feathering shaft broke, throwing the props a fair distance away (blades look fine..grass stained but no damage as far as I could see)

Elevator servo stripped its gears good and proper and I no longer trust the others (all same make/model and age!)

Carbon tail boom split where it goes into the body, it seemed to go in mainly nose and left hand side, so tail rotor looks fine

Beyond that I think I got very lucky..

New cyclic servos (digital METAL GEARED ones this time) and a new complete flybarless head ordered from eHirobo (I already have Align feathering shafts as spares)

Align mainshaft survived and is still straight as a die, main gear and tailgear still have all their teeth, belt has a slightly bald patch, no sheared screws found on inspection – managed to loose a wee shim from the heavy duty feathering shaft dampers on one side, but both dampers are still in the head despite the blade holders and blades and feathering shaft being ejected! (good job the pack came with more than I needed!)

It WILL fly again