Eflite timber issue

[rifleman_btx]

Anyone have this happen with your bird? (This happened to a buddy of mine), first time I'm disappointed with eflite. Actually a second time. The first was in his T28 when he had the battery lead pull apart (the pin pulled out of the plastic ec3 connector) crashing the plane. Eflite.... Quality control? Where is it?

[putput]

I have not had it happen yet, but have heard of some failures apparently due to vibration from bad balance on prop? So far mine seems pretty good.

[rifleman_btx]

Prop was balanced, when it was in the air there was very little noise from the prop, all you could hear was the motor whine. Just before it let go there was a noticeable difference in the sound then about 2 seconds later the nose of the plane just ripped out. Very strange

[CZ Flyer]

Happened to me 2 (maybe 3 times).. 1st was in my dad's Carbon Z cub that I gave him. We were flying last summer & he lost power & signal, fortunately he was flying straight & level at the time. The plane glided off to the east into some thick woods. Took 6 days to find it, inspection revealed a battery lead pulled out of the ec3 connector. Then a few moths ago I was working on the nose gear of my Carbon Z T28 & noticed a wire had completely pulled out of the ec5 connector! Fortunately it was on the ground at the time. If that had happened while airborne that huge plane could've caused major destruction. The 3rd possible occurrence was with my dad's Eflite Radian. He took it up to altitude & leveled off, once he cut throttle the plane never responded again. It glided away to the southwest out of sight & was never found. I'd bet the same thing happend there too. (I may have misread the post.. I thought the Timber lost power and a crash caused the nose break, but i guess the nose just ripped loose?)

[rifleman_btx]

Yeah the timber was the nose ripping out, the T28 was the ec3 connector failing. So you got the jist of what I was trying to talk about

[farmflyer]

Sounds like you might be pulling the wires out of those connectors. During use one tends to pull on the wire a little to much. Luckily I have caught it before they come out of the connector far enough to loose contact.

[farmflyer]

I am looking but I've heard of another instance of the front pulling out on the Timber. I kinda think they talked about the foam being really thin behind the motor mount. Or the motor board pulled off of the foam can't remember for sure.

[rifleman_btx]

Yeah they use a small set of modified pliers and place them between the two ec3 connectors so not to pull on the wires. I thought it was a very clever device for disconnecting batteries. So wire pull didn't cause the plug failure

[rifleman_btx]

I use xt60 and hxt connectors.

[chopper]

Yes, after about a dozen easy flights with no crashes or hard landings. Luckily It got very loud just before it let go, so I was able to land in one piece. I fixed it with epoxy and reinforced the entire cowl area with gorilla glue and paper towels. I posted on the Horizon site during the summer, but people thought I was crazy and/or crashed a lot.

[rifleman_btx]

That's how this one was. Exactly how you describe.

[PappaBear]

I have an E-Flite Timber and I have never had a problem with mine. However looking at the picture of the model with the motor and mount broken away. It may be an idea to contact Horizon Hobby as they are the main agents for E-Flite models. The propeller should be checked for balance. An out of balance prop will create this situation. The easiest way to balance a prop is to add paint to the light blade, if you can't achieve balance using paint on the light blade you have a faulty prop and it will require replacing.

Martin.

[rifleman_btx]

Indeed, yeah it was balanced. And I think he did contact horizon. Almost the only time I get to talk to him is at the field. But I know he had mentioned contacting them. I wouldn't think this to be a mass issue, just seemed like they were alittle light on the foam in that location.

[rifleman_btx]

Here's some closer looks at the damage

[chopper]

Yep, that's where mine came apart. The crack started at the bottom and was working its way up both sides. I used a ton of glue on it and tried to stiffen up the top and sides of the fuselage behind the mount. Reinforcing the entire top (the part painted black) from the inside made a ton of difference. I've had dozens of flights since then and it's still holding strong.

[rifleman_btx]

I don't understand why they didn't glue the back of the firewall to the thicker area of foam in the first place. Seems it would have helped tremendously with strength when so much is being pulled on the thinnest point of the entire fuse the way it's glued at the factory

[wpmay]

Here's some closer looks at the damage

A member of our club had the exact same thing happen this past weekend. This sounds like a trend starting. :(

Bill

[chopper]

Do a search on youtube, there are lots of examples of the same thing happening out there.....

[rifleman_btx]

Copy that, will do

[Aggelos]

This is a known issue and happens regardless of the skill of the pilot. One hard landing and bingo...the nose is gone. If you take a look at the stock nose you will see that below the firewall, in fact, all around the firewall the foam is thin. Quite simply, the nose is not beefy enough and if there are QC issues from the factory and then a bad landing, nose over or what ever and the motor / nose will depart the fuselage.

Best to add some CF tube or bamboo or similar thru the nose and into the fuselage. Use Gorilla glue or CA to fix it in. Below nose in the are in front of the battery hatch you will see the nose area is thin. There is a point that one can add in a foam block, dowel, etc. and glue to beef it up.

Some have the problem and some don't but eventually .... this motor assembly will likely fall off.