Cyclic Hardover

My Feedback: (3)

Heres a couple scenarios. 1. All my planes are on Ch 58 however my Shoestring is in its own litle world. It flys around just fine but there is an area to the north that has a fence line bordering the property. When I fly over this fence, I get what would appear to be a classic radio hit with a serious twitch of the ailerons for a brief second and its gone. None of my other planes react this way over that fence line on this same frequency.

I was also told and shown what happens to a signal when you run your antenna straight out the back with no right angle and it the plane were to the north and all was in a straight line problems can possibly occur-but again. not on any of my other planes with near identical routing scenarios.

I have seen countless other pilots have identical situations but in other areas of the field and every time they fly through it, they get a twitch and cry interference and radio hit.

So with this, I am curious if outside RF interference is really the cause of most crashes or a bad radio set up. I tend to lean towards a setup.

FLYBOY

My Feedback: (11)

I wouldn't discount the fence. Is it chain link? I have seen them cause problems like this. Could be some other phenomenon going on too. Ceck your Rx, your crystal, and make sure your switch is good. I would think if it were radio, it would happen all over though, not just one place.

Chris Moon

My Feedback: (8)

I would swap receivers with a different plane and try again. I have been running my antennas inside the fuse and straight out the back (if too long) for 20+ yrs and never had an issue. The only odd glitch that I have seen was with an old PCM 512 Futaba 8 channel with JR aileron servos. If you got in a certain angle from the tx antenna to the plane, the plane would lock momentarily. I added noise chokes to the aileron extensions, and never happened again.

Ed

Hey Mikey, as you know, I am familiar with your northern fence, but never had a glitch off of it. Try switching out your Xmitter with a known good one, since you have others on 58. I had a glitch problem recently, and cured it by switching Xmitter's. Further tests on my bench with a field strength meter, showed the problem radio putting out 1/2 the RF that the good one showed. I now use that radio for spare parts.

Also, putting a 90* bend in the Rx antenna dosn't hurt either. Run it out to the Stab tip.

And yes, I did rebuild my Chipmunk. > Jim

Cyclic Hardover

My Feedback: (3)

You rebuilt that? Looks good as to the last time I saw it. We had 18 total loss's on labor day to include a 33% extra. Mostly from just stupid flying.

Deadeye

I think certain channels cause certain problems in certain areas. Case in point, nearly every one of my dozen planes will experience a slight throttle surge when coming in from the East to land. Barely enough to notice, but they almost always do it. Coming in form the west, no problem. All planes are on channel 14, with two TX's used. My CAP-21, last Thursday; I was coming in to land from the East, and instead of a throttle surge, my ailerons go nuts. Almost lost it, but throttled up and flew around. Came in the same place, same thing happened. Flew through it, killed engine and landed with just slight damage to my undershorts.

After the flight, I propped up my TX, and walked the plane to the problem area. It was defintly glitching, but only the tail feathers showed anything. Ailerons were fine, but my engine wasn't running either. It only showed this in an area about 50 feet X 75 feet. Far to the south we have a cell phone/microwave tower that shoots to the Sweet Grass hills far to the north. The east end of the field happens to be right in line. I am the only one this happens to. I've thought about getting one of those frequency scanners, but haven't yet. RX will be swapped out of the CAP to see if it happens again.

GrnBrt

My Feedback: (5)

It can be just about anything. A field I use to fly at had an elevated railroad track about 50 yards behind the flight line. I was on 41 and kept getting a glitch but it would happen any place over the field and that drove me crazy! Well one day I had the plane running on the table when a train came by and the it went from idle to full bore for a few seconds then back to idea, thank God it was teethered. Come to find out from a railroad guy the train was the culprit as the frequency to set off the crossonig guards a few miles down the track was very close to #41 and the signal went down the track. when I was flying from that day on and heard a train coming I would grab for altitude and just ride it out, to strange.[&:]

Ed

Sounds like your field is out of control ?

Hey Art, I like your new avatar photo, a very fine resemblance. No radio's won this year ole Bud, but I did steal a very nice Tiger Moth ARF from my friends in Albuquerque.
Thanks Mike.

> Jim

JPMacG

My Feedback: (2)

Putting in a 90 degree bend should just shift the antenna pattern null to another position. I don't think there is any way to eliminate the null altogether, aside from using two antennas with a diversity circuit in the Rx.

jettstarblue

90 degree antenna what?!? You guys are way to technical for me...never done anything but run the antenna out the back, side or whereever.....never paid any real attention to how it was run, just made sure it was not wrapped around the Rx or near anything metal....

Rarely had a problem except for the infamous Hitec glitch when I was using an E-Flite mixer and it REALLY caused a "glitch". Hitec and most folks at the Universe thought I was crazy....but it never happened again when I quit using the mixer. Still use the radio.