Michael_Flight

My Feedback: (1)

I wanted to see if anyone has run across this. This recently started happening. My stock Blade CP will be in a hover and twice during a 3 minute session it dropped, straight down, several inches very abruptly. The tail remained in place. I thought at first that it might be glitching, but I did't hear any of the servos either time and I can always hear them over the motors. I landed it and brought it up again for a short period and it did not repeat.

I always charge the battery on a quality Maha charger. Only once with the included charger and I took it off after it started getting warm (about 2 hours).

I called Horizon, but they didn't have any ideas. I have, but am not using, an aerobatic kit and a lipo battery. Tracking is excellent and the heli hovers with almost no vibration.

Anyone seen this or have any ideas on what to try?

Many thanks for your input.

-Michael

btoby

dont point your antenna at your blade,or it will happen again!

smallplanes

My Feedback: (3)

Mine does the same thing when i stand close to it but when i go in forward flite it does great. I think it is some kind of glitch but not sure. I don't think you have to worry about it i think it will be ok.



Thanks
smallplanes

fire@forthall

Yep mine will do it as well if my antenna is pointed at the heli!!

Vendetta

Hmm, I've had that issue and didn't know about pointing the antenna at it. Thinking back I was pointing at it when it happened !

PaveLow58

In some cases:

The hottest spot from your transmitter is any 45 deg. angle from the antenna toward your airplane's receiving antenna. The stock antenna likely radiates a pattern that looks like a set of lungs. Thus, when pointing the antenna towards the plane you will fall into the crevis between, where you will have the least amount of gain.

If anyone has more detail or a graphic of the antenna pattern, the info will be appreciated.

maxim_jd

Also - have a look at the mechanics. I had this problem kick in on me and noticed that the retainer that holds the main shaft in place (right below the swashplate) had moved up my main shaft about 3mm. This allowed for more play in the head and thus the "dropping" in flight. Moving the collar back down to eliminate the up-down play in the shaft helped me out.

Just my .02.

J

duaneh1

Its almost surely a glitch, same thing happens to me, only when I'm in nose-in hover and flying in my living room.

Michael_Flight

My Feedback: (1)

I thought that the antenna might be the issue, but wanted to get other opinions without influencing them with mine. I've attached a picture I made of the radiation pattern of a mono-pole antenna. Signal strength is strongest perpendicular to the antenna and tapers off as the angle to the heli approaches parallel with the antenna.

After the first flight mentioned previously I made a point of not pointing the antenna at the heli and the problem did not re-occur.

On a related note, I changed the way my Blade antenna was mounted using an antenna tube.

Many thanks for all the input.

-Michael