FIRE! Demon Reborn after in flight fire

[firemanbill]

Oh the times you wish you had a video camera going. Back a few months ago I had an on board fire on my Ritewing Demon. I making about a 135 mph pass when it started trailing white smoke and then the motor quit. Before I could get her around and on the ground the smoke turned black. Yep she was on fire for real.

The Castle ICE controller burned up. Here is lesson 1. Don't try and pull 100 amps through a 75 amp controller... yeah yeah I know. I bought the plane with it in it and had been flying it for a while on old batteries and never even thought to check it. I was told it was setup by CK himself and it was good to go. That was lesson 2, never take anything for granted. I put new higher c rated batteries in it and it was really moving out, for about 3 flights before the controller gave it up. Not bad really that it lasted that long in a closed case like it is.

Anyway I got her on the ground before I lost all control. Lesson 3, an external BEC saved the day as the controller was toast as soon as it started smoking. I was able to continue to fly until those wires burned through also. Kept it from going down in the woods and potentially causing a forest fire.

So, new Ice 100 installed, servo leads rewired as the right one burned through also. New EPP filled into the burned out areas with some filler on top to smooth it all out. A little light sanding and she'll be ready to re-cover and get back in the air.

She will have a new color scheme now also which will make it go much faster I am sure.

[kyleservicetech]

Originally Posted by firemanbill

Oh the times you wish you had a video camera going. Back a few months ago I had an on board fire on my Ritewing Demon. I making about a 135 mph pass when it started trailing white smoke and then the motor quit. Before I could get her around and on the ground the smoke turned black. Yep she was on fire for real.

The Castle ICE controller burned up. Here is lesson 1. Don't try and pull 100 amps through a 75 amp controller... yeah yeah I know. I bought the plane with it in it and had been flying it for a while on old batteries and never even thought to check it. I was told it was setup by CK himself and it was good to go. That was lesson 2, never take anything for granted. I put new higher c rated batteries in it and it was really moving out, for about 3 flights before the controller gave it up. Not bad really that it lasted that long in a closed case like it is.

Anyway I got her on the ground before I lost all control. Lesson 3, an external BEC saved the day as the controller was toast as soon as it started smoking. I was able to continue to fly until those wires burned through also. Kept it from going down in the woods and potentially causing a forest fire.

So, new Ice 100 installed, servo leads rewired as the right one burned through also. New EPP filled into the burned out areas with some filler on top to smooth it all out. A little light sanding and she'll be ready to re-cover and get back in the air.

She will have a new color scheme now also which will make it go much faster I am sure.

The little model airplane gods were watching over your model on this one!

On my 1KW and larger models, I've gone to dual battery supplies. In the case of the Castle Creations ICE ESC series, that's the ICE ESC plus the Castle Creations 10 Amp uBEC. Not to hard to set up, take a look at the attached drawing. PLEASE NOTE THAT THE "WHITE CROSS OVER JUMPER WIRE" SHOWN IN THE PHOTO WOULD NOT BE USED.

The photos show how those 10 Amp Shottky diodes were installed. Then the soldered wires were covered with shrink tubing, then the whole thing was covered by a second layer of shrink tubing.

[firemanbill]

I was running the Castle BEC and it did save the day for sure. I like the idea you have of using both. I like redundancy.

[kyleservicetech]

Originally Posted by firemanbill

I was running the Castle BEC and it did save the day for sure. I like the idea you have of using both. I like redundancy.

Agreed, and the added weight is only an ounce or so. Plus there is no airborne receiver battery to keep tract of.