She couldn't take any more...

[onetmat]

Flying over Thanksgiving and ran into a new problem. There was a pretty good wind that day but she was handling it really well. Was coming back into the wind after already going thru two batteries and it started to act crazy and fell out of the sky. Walked up to it like usual and saw smoke coming out of the battery box. My first thought was the battery was going up and thought the whole thing was gone. I quickly turned it over and opened the box and the battery fell right out. Wires were all melted but all servos and motor wires are fine.

I've got an Orange Rx and new ESC coming and she will be right back to normal again. Burn marks inside and will need new wing struts but nothing structural. She took the whole situation very well. These are very sturdy planes and take alot of abuse.
Learn a lesson about not pushing too hard.

[mebillica]

wow!

[flydiver]

ESC....again.....sigh.
I spend a lot of time ranting about that chunk of junk.

I've said it before....it's NOT designed for constant high output of 3S even with the stock prop.
It isn't at all suitable for the old 10x8 (float) prop except for short bursts.

I strongly recommend you send those pictures and an accompanying email to Horizon and follow up with a phone call. You'll likely get a new ESC that someone else can use even if you don't.

Maybe, just maybe, if they are harassed enough they'll upgrade it. They certainly will not unless the clamor is pretty loud.

After thought - any possibility the battery wires shorted out due to pinching/crowding in the battery box? Wouldn't be the first time. That's ANOTHER unnecessary shortcoming in my opinion.