JR rx, heard bad things
The receiver is a JR R226. Servos are FMA 3501 on ailerons and elevator, a 3501M on the rudder, and a Hitec 422 on throttle. 700 mAh rx pack. I also had a Gem 2000 battery monitor installed. There was a standard 9" long extension connecting the single aileron servo to the rx.
After recovering the wreckage I plugged th aileron servo directly into the rx aileron channel. No response. I then plugged it into the throttle channel - and it worked. It alo worked when plugged into the elevator channel.
You may be on to something there regarding a dying servo. I've had problems with the motor wires fatiguing and breaking loose from their solder joints - both the elevator and rudder servos previously failed in the same way. No damage to the plane in either case - I guess I was lucky.
(the elevator servo failure was particularly weird - the servo died at some point after I landed. I pulled full up elevator to drop the tail, then killed th engine and walked out to retrieve the plane. WHen I go to it I noticed that the elevator was still deflected up, and no-one was holding the radio... The servo was completely non-responsive. It wasn't 'locked' in place - it behaved as though there was no power to it.)
In both cases I removed the offending servo, resoldered the wires, and added a blob of electronic-safe RTV to keep the PCB and wires from jiggling about. I *think* I pulled the aileron servo and potted its wires at the same time that I repaired the elevator servo, but I'm not 100% sure.
I'm going to test the rest of the radio gear later tonight.