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| ATTENTION ALL RAPTOR 60 OWNERS: My R60 experienced a main rotor head bolt (A.K.A. the 'Jesus' bolt) failure. The entire rotor head departed the machine after the bolt sheared and could have caused serious injury or damage to persons or property. The bolt as furnished by Thunder Tiger is a fully threaded bolt. It really should be a 'shouldered' bolt since this is a high stress area. Furtunately the heli was on the ground ready for take off and no one but myself was at the field flying. I shudder to think what might have happened if there were spectators or if the heli had been in the air when this happened. I suggest that you use a 4mm shouldered bolt. A main blade grip bolt from the Raptor 30 works very well. Don't let this happen to you. I reported the incident to Thunder Tiger but I have not had any replies from them.................. |
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| This is a photo of the failed bolt. You can see the faces of the shear area are dull and pourous in appearance. This is a clear indication of a fatigue fracture. This bolt was not over torqued either. The length of threads left on the head portion of the bolt is the same as the thickness of the plastic rotor hub. The shear happened at the interface between the main shaft and the rotor hub. |
| WARNING WARNING WARNING WARNING |
| This photo shows the two main parts of the rotor head the departed. The larger of the two with the main hub and one blade was thrown approximately 50 yards from where I was standing. The broken rotor blade went in the opposite direction for about 20 yards. |
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| This photo shows the main mast. You can see the scratch marks on the shaft from where the 'Jesus' bolt left them on its way out. When the head left it sounded just like a shotgun blast. The whole incident happened in less than 2 seconds. |
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