Predator 500 Problems
I need help wiht this one. I've had two flights wiht the ARF version of this plane. The last one ended with a fair amount of damage.
On the first flight I had VERY slow aileron response at first. I was flying fairly slow at first. But at slow speed I nearly lost sight of the plane as it circled past the pits. The plane would also ballon up on a dive. So I thougth it may be a bit nose heavy.
Then the throttle servo failed. Man, that was hairy a first. But I seemed to have control of the plane at high speed. As the servo got worse I ended up at full throttle so I had to run the tank out. The landing was OK. I had a fair amount of control with the ailerons even at the lower speed.
OK... flight two. I'd increased the aileron throws and moved the CG back. This flight was nearly a disaster. It just about looped all on it own. And the aileron control was almost non-existent. The elevator response seemed way too much. The plane pretty much circled back to the strip on its own, I cut the throttle and it floated, and I mean floated, down to the runway. It's last act was to hit a fence. The damge is not too bad. But it's enough too make me think that taking another chance wiht this plane is possibly a bad idea.
I'm going to check the throws again. And measure the CG. I don't know how to check incedence with a v-tail.
One thing I did see that may be the cause. The servo tray is not no longer connected to the fuse. I could have happened in the crash. But I'm wondering if the tray was loose all along. I see almost no glue on it. This could have caused some problems. But it would not explain the aileron response. Or would it.
Any ideas guys? If I can't find a reasonable answer, then the plane cheap enough that I may not risk losing it, or worse, hurting someone, with it.
And this was the only flight ready plane... sigh