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Sky Fly Owners, AEAJR Needs Your Help.

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Sky Fly Owners, AEAJR Needs Your Help.

Old 05-01-2006, 08:03 AM
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aeajr
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Default Sky Fly Owners, AEAJR Needs Your Help.

Sky Fly owners, we need your help!

I happen to think the Sky Fly is a pretty nice plane for beginners and have
endorsed it. However Hobbico does not publish a rated range for the radio
system. That concerns me as your great new plane could quickly become a
"fly away" because you got outside the range.

I did write to Hobbico and received a response that said the range was 500
feet. I am not confident that this is correct with concerns that it might
be over stated. A range of 500 would be adequate for this plane but you can
still over fly it if you are not careful. I would much rather it have a
useful range of 1000 feet. Then I would be more confident that people would
be less likely to over fly it.

If you have a Sky Fly, and a large enough field, and a friend to help, I am
asking you to do this test and report back so your fellow Sky Fly owners can
fly in confidence. This is an example of the community helping itself.

When Spektrum released the DX6 radio without a rated range, the community
started testing its range and established a safe working range even though
the company did not provide one. I am asking your help to do the same for
the Sky Fly.


CHECKING FOR MAXIMUM GROUND RADIO RANGE

The procedure I am going to outline is a ground check. This is the range
the radio and receiver can reliably work while the plane is on or near the
ground. In general, you will get a little better range in the air, but
ground range is a good guide.

You will need help for this.

Have your friend put the plane on the ground with the SIDE of the plane facing
you. Sitting on a wood or plastic table would be even better as it gets it
off the ground a bit which provides better signal and reduces any ground
blanking effect. FM is a line of sight system which means if something
comes between the radio and the receiver it can potentially block the signal.

Any kind of metal table could affect the signal giving you either a false
long or short range reading. Your friend can hold it but this will effect
the signal somewhat. Just don't touch the antenna. In fact, if you don't
have something to sit it on, ask your friend to try to hold it by the nose
area and away from his/her body. Secure the plane so it can't move.

First, perform a range check according to the guidelines in the manual.
This will confirm that the radio and receiver are working properly.

Now, with the radio antenna up and the radio and plane powered up, walk away
and count your paces. For an adult, 20 steps should be between 40 and 60
feet. Taller people will be closer to 60 feet, shorter closer to 40. You judge, or pull
out a tape measure and pace off 50 feet and see how many steps it took.

So, if 20 steps = 50 feet, 200 steps should be about 500 feet. Plus or
minus 10% here is not going to be important if we get a lot of people doing
the test and reporting in.

Step off 100 feet and check control. Make sure the plane is held in place. Your
friend's job is to hold the plane, or to let you know if the test proves
successful. Agree on a test sequence ahead of time.

Rudder left, then right
Elevator up then down
Motor on 1/4
Rudder left and right
Elevator up and down
Motor to full 2 seconds, then off

Walk another 100 feet. Test again.

If shouting is not going to work, use cell phones to talk. If the plane
starts to act odd and uncontrolled, your friend should alert you. If you
have the radio behind your body as you walk, so the radio can not "see" the
plane, this can reduce the signal, so turn and face the plane to test.

The antenna should be straight up. Don't point the tip at the plane as this
is the worst possible signal position. Antenna up and you looking at the
SIDE of the plane gives you the best signal and that is what we want to
test.

See if you can get to 500 feet and still maintain control. Can you go
further? Try in 50 foot increments. Keep going till you lose control of the
plane or you run out of room.

If you get to the edge of your flying space, then you know you can fly
that space in confidence. If you can not get to the edge of your flying
space before losing control, then you know you have to be careful about
range.

Let us know how far you walked. If you got to a point where you
finally lost control, that is the end of your flying range.

I am assuming that you will have a little better range in the air than you will for this
test, but flying at the edge of your effective range can be risky. Try to
stay at less than 3/4 of your tested range to be confident.

My hope is that the ground check will come up closer to 1000 feet or more.
If we get 1000 feet, then I would say 700 feet is about your safe max range.
If we get 500 feet, then I would say about 350 feet is your safe maximum range.

Hopefully the 500 feet Hobbico sent me is a very very conservative number
and the actual radio range is better than that.


RANGE MARKINGS

How do you judge your range when you are flying. This test can
help with that also.

Take a sharpie with you, or some other dark permanent marker that has a
sharp edge.

Put a piece of light color making tape on the top of your radio so that one
edge of the tape is ligned up with the base of the antenna. At each 100 foot
stop point, after you test the range, have your friend hold
the plane so the top of the wing is facing you. Hold the radio out at arms
length. Line up the bottom of the antenna with one edge of the wing. Now mark
the tape where you see the the other edge of the wing. That is what you wing span
looks like at that distance.

I suggest you do this every 100 feet as 50 feet might be too small.

What you will end up with is a series of marks on top of the radio. When
the plane is in the air, just hold your radio up and see which mark
approximates your wing span as the plane is flying toward you or
away from you. This will give you a rough estimate, but close enough for your
purposes. Now you can more accurately estimate your distance to the plane.

This might also be helpful if you are about to crash at some distance. Do a quick
range check so you have a better idea of how far out the plane went down.


So, will you pitch in and help? I hope so!

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