Blackbird-RCU

I was flying my sig seniorita this evening. I was coming in for a landing and was about 2 to 3 feet above the runway. I cut the throttle all the way down to idle like I've done a 100 times before and began to gently flair for the landing. Nothing was out of the ordinary, it was going to be a good landing. The plane then developed a mind of it's own! Full up, full throttle, and hard left the seniorita went! The plane climbed to about 12 to 15 feet as it banked hard left. The plane straightened out, but was still full throttle and full up elevator. The plane put itself into a loop and at roughly 65% of completing the loop it surrendered control back to me. Luckily I had been pulling up on the stick at the time and I was able to save the plane from crashing. Just so you know, while this was happening I tried several inputs on the right stick; up, down, left and right. It would not respond, it happened so quick that I didn't try throttling up or down on the left stick. When I landed the plane I did a range check and checked everything outside and inside the plane everything was strong, tight, and right.

I took her up again just to see if I could figure anything out and the flight was uneventful.

I'm not going to mention what brand or model of radio I use, because I don't want this thread to get into a flaming match over radios. I will say the radio, reciever and battery are less than a year old, fully charged the night before.

I'm sorry if this is long winded. What are your thoughts on this? Was it interference or not?

greenboot

My Feedback: (1)

I'm always interested in accounts of radio problems and I believe many of them are actually pilot error. From your description, I would say yours actually was inteference. The sudden pitch could have been caused by wind, but not the throttle change. The fact that you got control back and recovered tells me you are a pretty good pilot and didn't cause this.

You may never have this problem again, but who knows! And tell me, just how big was that Seniorita loop?

Tom

RC_Eflyer-RCU

someone could have been scrambling a CB radio. We get hits like that occasionally at one of the fields I fly at.

--Paul

Cactus.

My Feedback: (1)

have you tried shaking your transmitter a bit? it might have just turned off and the RX did what it always does when you turn the tranny off first, servos go to max travel one way and stay there.
what ever it was didnt take control, it stoped you controling it.
just a thought.

Your not the type of pilot that flys his plane using the aerial are you? to land you point the tranny down ect. we got one of those in our club, funny to watch.. but can cause radio trouble.

BingoFlyer

Blackbird, I would say you got hit with interference! Any modern radio I have seen no longer causes servos to go to full deflection without a signal from the transmitter, this was the case with earlier proportional equipment but I haven't seen it in a long time. You can tell the oldtimers though, we still turn the transmitter on first and the receiver off first. Just years of habit though.

Cactus.

My Feedback: (1)

Went out this afternoon, came back after the flight, turned the tranny off and every surface move to about 40-50% throw, not close to the old days of gear stripping.
Thats with a new FF6 tranny, 6 channel Futaba RX and 3003 servos.
Happens with every plane i have, the servos just move as the tranny gives out a last dying signal. some planes more than others but this has ALOT of throw.

I also dont go with the routine of which i turn on first, not because i dont care about the servos stripping ( which the dont anymore anyway ) but if i turn my plane on first, and the servos move as if it was flying, then i just saved shooting someone down, if the silly git didnt get the peg.

DF_Flyer

Blackbird - I agree that it does sound like you got hit. Did you try turning your transmitter off and waiting to see if the other signal came back while you were on the ground?

bpannier

Check the pits and parking lot and see who turned on while you were landing.( see who is on the same frequency )

BingoFlyer

phillybaby

Apparently the RF spectrum is more user friendly, to the R/C community, here in the US than in the UK.

Last night I installed and set up a radio system in a new plane, while doing so I turned on three other radio systems in existing planes. None of these systems showed any tendency to move from the center position while doing so. The receivers were Futaba FP-R127DFs (2, FM) and a JR-NER-627X. (PCM) and the servos Futaba and JR.

The frequencies were 72.430 Mhz (the PCM), 72.510 and 72.750 the radio I was installing was at 72.750 (FM) and the transmitter was turned on/off several times during the installation to conserve batt.

None of these receivers moved their servos when turning them on or when turning the transmitter on or off. the plane on 72.750 obviously did follow the input of the transmitter I was using for set up.

It is obvious to me that Blackbird was hit by interference and his club needs to do more in the line of frequency control.

Ronaldcorb

One other thing to consider, as this was what looks like a one time thing. Where I fly is next to a local stadium and any time they are setting up for a live TV broadcast we experience a larger number of "hits". It could have been that a local news crew was doing a "live" remote near the field. this would account for the interference only showing up at one time.

The stations will transmit at other than broadcast times so don't think that just because it was not time for the news that this could not have been the problem.

Just something else to consider.

Ron Corbin

wood

My Feedback: (2)

I too fly at the same field and know it usually is not very busy. Were you flying alone that night? I don't think we have much of a frequency problem, yet......

WOOD

Blackbird-RCU

Hey everybody thanks for your thoughts. I should have mentioned that I was the only person flying at the field when this happened, also I'm the only person at my field on freq# 51 . I have been out flying several times since then and nothing odd has happened. It must have been a one time thing, at least I hope so. Anyway thanks for your input.

Blackie

Depending on what really happened, sometimes just by repositioning your body and antenna can also aid in getting plane to respond.


Randy

Joss Stick

My Feedback: (1)

A friend of mine had a similar problem that didn't have a happy ending. He was flying his Raptor about 5 feet off the ground. Suddenly, from a hover it turned nose down and went full throttle into the ground. After some inspection he found that there was a very small BB of solder that was lose in the RX. It rolled around at the wrong time and crashed his heli. It was just luck that it went down and not at him. You might check to see if there is anything lose in the TX and RX.