Shahid

Not so long ago I bought a Flitecraft Bonanza. My first scale and low winger. Apparantly they didn't make em anymore, and the company had shut down some time ago,so it seemed pretty good. I got it real cheap with servos and a receiever. I bought and engine and a battery pack and got flying. I had only passed my A test and had begun to get to grips with having no instructor around. I took off and another member with the club was with me as whe wanted to see how the plane flew. At the time I was flying there 5 other people in the air but I was at the back then suddenly and for no reason my aircraft went into a spin. I stood there like a muppet and didnt do the correct recovery procedure (opposite rudder and down elevator) but at the time I didn't know the recovery procedure. So it crashed, pretty gutted I walked over (a damn long way) picked up what was left (suprisingly damage wasnt as bad as I had thought it from 100 feet) and got back to do a post mortem. After discussing with the test pilot of the plane he concluded that it could not have stalled because he test stalled it and it did not enter a spin. Little did I know that the score was Receiver-1 Me-0.

Soon I obtained a plane for free (!) from a friend who handed it over becuase it was lying around his apartment and taking up space. I had no name except for some stickers saying Panther. It did not seem like an ARTF or anything. No one knew what it was.Some one mentioned that it could have been a homebuilt or heavily repaired and modifyed plane. A description would be a pattern model with the most amazing blue covering that I had never seen before. Ok so at the field and whoever built it, built it crap cause at full up elevator at full speed she wouldn't take off! Careful adjustment gave me enough up elevator to get off the ground,then BOOF I lost control and it went down. I laughed. Thinking of it now, it was me who crashed it but the reciever survived! So it is still Reciever-1 Me-0

Ok now to a crash which happened yesterday. I had got a Blackhorse Travel Air and was having it test flown and the second flight I took off and was flying happily aorund when suddenly the plane decided to have a mind of ts own and went haywire at full throttle! Quickly losing sight of it I forgot to cut the throttle. Squinting I saw it diving into some trees managing to fly half way through and then it hit a branch. Walking over I expected to see a wreck but no! Only the tailplane had been damaged! Smiling when I got home I cut out the old tailplane made a template and made a new one. So tailplane replaced, and back flying. On the 3 rd flight after the 1st crash I was flying down the back end of the patch when SPIN! This time I had no time to react (I knew the procedure by then) and she went down. I walked over. Looks like a bin job I said to myself. This crash happened yesterday so Receiver-2 Me-0

Back home and my suspicion about the small Hitec receiver which I obtained in the Bonanza was very high. It must be the receiver I thought....and got a hammer and smashed it. Now the reason why I was suspicous was because there had always been little problems with it but on the day checks were made and it was fine. Looking at the circuitboard nothing seemed wrong then flipping it over. Oh LOOK! What a nice piece of rust where receiver arial is soldered to the circuit! Therefore it WAS the receiver, and the solder joint must have been a dry joint. Vibrtaion probably shook that joint up or something. Jolly good fun....

Strykaas

[X(]


Why not solder back the aerial ???

Shahid

yeah well.......the whole thing was buggered and ok ok so solder back yes just use some steel wool but, I'd rather not take the risk sides you can get a good reciever for £20. AH! BUGGER EVERYTHING!

Skeletor

I have 2 aircraft radios and 2 car radios, I have never had a problem with any of them, they are all Futaba. Come to think of it, all my radio gear is Futaba except for a small Hitec servo I used for steering the tail wheel on a 1/4 scale Mustang.

Unstable

i have 4 hitec 555 and a hitec supreme. no problems at all.. only RX that I had trouble with was a futaba 148 .. it shorted out and melted the battery leads in my spitfire during engine break in..

so far I have had only one radio related crash. lost signal with my cub and put it in totalling it. but the RX checked out and has been in several planes since without a glitch.

sound like he previous owner got some moisture in there and didnt realize it or "forgot" to mention it.

Luke 3D returns

I have had a futaba reciever crash 2 of my planes.

electricfan

My Feedback: (1)

i dont think its the manufacturer, just a regular receiver defect. or who knows. i use both hitec and futaba and ive had no problems except for a hitec feather receiver (single conversion-wow i wish i knew what that meant before i bought it)- it would just glitch randomly. i was approaching the field with my first low wing electric plane. i was so happy that i didnt crash, but my friend on a different channel turned on his radio and my plane flipped over, went to full throttle, and dove into the ground. i now use a futaba computer radio and hitec receivers, with an assortment of servos from jr, futaba, and hitec. btw, jr servos seem very nice, and many pros use jr equipment. maybe when i get enough money ill get a nice 8 channel jr computer radio. someday.

benfisher

I have four cheep four channel and two computer Hitec radios. Two Fatauba and a JR. I like the Hitec radios best and have had the best customer service you could ask for. In fact, they just amazed me on repair time and cost. When my JR radio went stupid it cost me an arm and a leg to get it fixed. Wouldn't buy another one. The futaba radios work well but I'm not crazy about them. I lost a hitec receiver in flight but the crash wasn't bad and saved the plane. I think the receiver was just old and never did find out what was wrong with it. As I think about the problems I've had my next radio will be another computer hitec. Oh ya I got a hobbyco too(or something like that) I don't have a clue how it works yet because I just got it used so haven't tried it yet? Its going in my lerjet so I sure hope it works ok. The plane is all one color and its a pain to fly. I like using the rudder and it works weird. lol Something I need to get used to. Most of my crashes have been radio problems so I guess I can be pretty sure what ones work well and what ones need to be tossed. lol

Shahid

The reciever I had was a Hitec 4 channel HS148. Yes when someone turned on the frequency next to mine (I was 68 he was on 67) I did experience very minor glitching but it disappeared. The moisture could have been there before or after the Bonanaza crash let me explain.

When the Bonanaza crashed it survived very well. It had a hollow plastic structure and thus the radio gear was fine When I did get to the plane, the rear receiver casing had popped off. Now it was hot summers day and had it had been hot for quite a while. I checked out everything at home and replaced the casing (I had replaced it at the field before but had inspected at home). Now I very breifly looked at it so the rust could has been missed. So I cant be 100 percent sure about wether it was damaged before or after. I had new crystals after the Bonanza crash. Although if the receiver was damaged before it would ecplain the Bonanza crash. Both Travel Air and Bonanza went into left had spirals by the way. I know somebody who uses Webra recievers and has no probs.

Shahid

Hello

I have finally nailed it.

In a ditch which runs nearby our field there is a large electrical line. There is also a mobile phone mast down the road. On top of that there are some electricity pylons which you can just see in the distance.

I have purchased a Futaba dual conversion reciever and have changed channels completely. It seems that the channels on the 60 range had the most problems...

Alls well now!