SB13 Motor Mount Failure (2016-05-27)

Recently, Freefly has investigated 2 in field failures of Alta 8 motor mounts and determined that there may have been a batch of motor mounts which were outside of design specification.

These motor mounts are believed to be susceptible to material fatigue due to incorrect machined geometry, which ultimately led to calamitous failure of the motor mounts during operation.

There have been no Alta 6 infield failures related this issue, though it is possible that Alta 6 machines shipped after 18-March-2016 were built with motor mounts that are outside of spec.

Freefly is working with our machined parts supplier to attempt to narrow the timeline and better define the units that may have been built with these motor mounts.

At this point we believe this issue may necessitate all Alta 8 user to return their unit to Freefly for inspection, repair, and / or replacement of parts in question.

RECOMMENDATIONS

Freefly recommends all Alta operators who purchased their Alta after 18-March-2016 to immediately discontinue flight operations until a modification that resolves the issue is implemented. We will continue to investigate the issue over the weekend and provide an update on Tuesday (May 31st, PST) prior to close of business.

• There have been two updates to this bulletin, on 2016-05-31, and 2016-06-10