Well I have owned this puppy for about 2 weeks and got her dialed in.

Perfect hovering, good balance and all is well.

So last night I wanted to practice hovering in my apartment/warehouse and plugged her in and all was perfect.

About 5 minutes of hovering at about eye level (even got her so smooth that I could go hands free for a second or two)

Well I was about done for practice and was going to bring in in for a landing. All of a sudden the heli went "verrump" and took off at full speed into my desk/computer and ended up on the floor flopping like a shot rabbit, smoke and flames happened.

Turned off the transmitter and ran over and unplugged the pack and chucked it outside to assure me that the LiPo was not going to go "boom" and after about 5 more minutes I retreived it and went to inspect.

All the wires coming into the 4n1 were "bare" and weilded into the 4n1...

What do you experts out there think happened here? I am glad that it went forward instead of aft or I would be in the hospital, or outside where it could have gone out of control and hurt someone or a vehicle.

Scary stuff last night for sure.

What battery ? Were you in Idleup ?
I run the Honeybee esky 4-1 in mine over the the eflite 4-1 (for all I know they may be the same)

Intense!

No idle up, just running it at about 50% throttle.

Running a LiPo that I bought for the Heli from Heli-Hobby for longer run times.

I have flown it about 12-13 time on that pack without problems. It actually flew like a dream after all my tweaking on the 4n1 and trims and blade balance. Got it dialed in.

Worst part is that I can't get a new 4n1 until after the holiday now. So my flight time this weekend is out.. that is a bummer .

Based on your comment about the wiring, sounds like something shorted out, either inside the 4 in 1 or going to the 4 in 1. That is unless your comment indicates the insulation was burned off the wires. From the welded comment, it sounds likes a short outside of the 4 in 1 that was on the power wires that then shorted out the battery causing the smoke, etc.

On my FP HB2, I noticed the connector to the main motor had melted the plastic where it connects to the 4 in 1. There is a lot of current and heat gets generated when things aren't connected as well as they should be.

From the battery side, assume that you had a cell short out internally. That would drop the voltage, possibly below the receivers tolerance resulting in out of control. The internally shorted cell would have the ability to generate the smoke and heat within the battery. With voltage going down, current would increase to the ESC's in the controller, possibly exceeding the capacity of the wires, resulting in the overheating and shorting them together once the insulation melted.

Hard to say what may have happened first. I'm curious, with all this heat and fire, how were you able to get the battery unplugged?

Yep and the battery is fine.

Tested it on the Triton and appears fine.

I was having some "glitching" from day one maybe the 4n1 was troublesome to begin with?

If I had another I would test it out. Won't know the outcome until I get another one next week.

To me it sounds like it started with rf interference, overriding the Tx. In some indoor areas there can be a 'black hole' spot caused by all sorts rf transmission mixing. I have a particular spot in my lounge area. It's there even when I have switched off all rf stuff in the house. After that, well, stalled or highly loaded motors will soon take the mosfets over 200C and pop them out. Then, if solder melt shorts occurs, the battery gets shorted, and supplies enough current to melt all in its path and create yet more shorts.
You did well to get that battery out without burning yourself. Might be an idea to fuse the main motor if you are going to hover about in the same area.

heli hobby, says it all right there..... booo hissss

Wow, well may as well pack it up...REpair charges on that are what it cost for a new heli

Well the status is this.

4n1 is acting funky. Main motor wires are "fried" and the tail motor is still together.

I plugged in the tail to the 4n1 and then plugged in the pack and it just "starts" the motor and then shuts off and blinks and sets. Then the tx runs it fine. But while plugged in it smells hot.

I am guessing right now that the 4n1 is bad.

Not sure what direction to go on this one. Maybe just buy another heli??? And use this one for parts?

Yea,,,,,RUNRYDER, they have a ready to run blade cp with basic upgrades, bell hiller, alum swash for 135 shipped.

If it "took off at full speed" then the FET controlling the motor likely burned out.
Often when FETs do this they end up as a dead short, so the motor goes to full.
Pat MacKenzie