slider_buck

well i have had a nitro airstrike now for about 4 years and never have flown it. i finally got the FMS simulator and felt pretty confident on flying it. i took it out first thing this morning and had 5 excellent flights. i came home and decided to go back out to the same spot about 5 hours later. well this time it wasnt so pretty. i made a few passes perfectly and decided to bring it in to fuel it back up. after i fueled it up i took off across the field and took to the air again. about the time that it got 60 feet off the ground it all of a sudden did a complete 360 all on its own and the engine died. luckily i was able to land it ok. well i checked everything out and put it back in the air. the same exact thing happened again. i called it quits after that. hopefully it was just interference from something causing the 360 loop but what would cause the engine to die?

Live Wire

What radio do you have, sounds like failsafe kicked in.

slider_buck

airtronics vg400

jester_s1

When you say a 360, do you mean it did a roll on its own? What you are describing sounds like a radio problem. It could be that whatever caused the glitch in your aileron servo also caused your throttle servo to go all the way closed too. For future reference, when something doesn't look 100% right on your plane, don't fly it. When you have a problem and manage to save it, don't fly it again until you figure it out.

You say the plane is 4 years old. Are the batteries that old too? If so, they could be bad. NiCd's can last a long time if they are cycled properly and stored without temperature extremes, but just sitting there discharged will kill them pretty soon. So the batteries and switch would be the first place I would look. How old is your radio? If you bought it used 4 years ago, it may have some corrosion and be at the end of its service life.

slider_buck

yeah it did the 360 all on its own. everything is 4 years old. i completely charged the batteries and let it set in the house usihng the controls for about an hour just to see if they would still hold a charge. everything still worked fine after an hour. when it did this i checked everything out and everything worked ok.

JohnBuckner

My Feedback: (1)

Did you take the rubber band off the wrapped antenna and extend it full length letting it trail outside/inside the fuselage to its full length?

John

jester_s1

Wiggling the sticks will tell you if your batteries work at all, but it won't tell you if they are in optimal condition for flying. That's still the first thing I'm going to suspect is wrong with your plane, either the batteries or your receiver switch.

fliers1

2 things. After you worked the sticks for an hour, did you recharge the batteries before you flew?
You said full charge. How long did you intitially charge your batteries?

fliers1

Live Wire

My God people at least read the thread before before you posts[:@]
Larry K

slider_buck

yes the antenna is run the whole length of the plane and extended out. i had already flown it several times before this even happened. when i flew it before this happened i had the plane alot further away.

slider_buck

yes after i worked the sticks for an hour it got charged for about 6-8 hours id say. i know the transmitter showed full charge but not sure on the receiver.

fliers1

Sounds like weak batteries. The initial charge should be at least 15 hours, if not more. The tx on for an hour would take a lot out of batteries.

Fliers1

slider_buck

on an airtronics charger will the lights go out on the charger when it is fully charged?

slider_buck

would this battery be ok to use with the airtronics?


http://www3.towerhobbies.com/cgi-bin...&I=LXNHS4&P=ML

JohnBuckner

My Feedback: (1)

If the charger you are talking about is the Wall type then no the lights will not go out when charged, They only indicate the charger is connected.

The 2000 mah battery you linked the answer has to be Yes and No. First yes you can use the higher capacity pack and that will provide longer flying time at the field if and this is a big if; if you get it fully charged. You can use your wall charger which is intended for batteries of around 700mah to use as an overnight charger. Now if you use that little wall 'wort' it will take three time as long (days) and you eventurally find yourself not getting the battery fully charged and not actually getting the full 2000mah capacity.

So although you can use your wall charger its no you will not eventually get the benefit of the higher capacity unless you purchase a more capable charger intended for such batteries.

Check the label on your wall charger and read the charge output and if its 70mah or less then that is the situation. There are some higher output wall chargers but I do not believe that's what you have, check.

John

on_your_six

My Feedback: (11)

Check the clunk fuel tubing, it could be so old that it is not picking up fuel inverted.

slider_buck

what would you guys recommend for using the factory charger? im looking on tower hobbies but not having much luck finding anything.

slider_buck

what about this one off of ebay?

http://www.ebay.com/itm/SANYO-KR1700...item4cf8e1f85c

slider_buck

just realized it was 4.8v and ordered the one below. also ordered the low battery indicator. thanks for all the help guys. much appreciated

http://www.ebay.com/itm/390396037645...84.m1439.l2649

http://www.ebay.com/itm/390254726740...84.m1439.l2649

Live Wire

OK now check your off, on switch Sitting that long with out being used the switch can loose contact and be intermittent when engine is running.

slider_buck

just took the fuel tank out of it and the tube inside of the tank is as good as new

[email protected]

My Feedback: (1)

if it set 4 yrs put in new fuel line just dont look at it also new transmitter battery and receiver batterys and new switch un less your plane is not worth the money un plug all your servo wires and repuug them ck your aileron servos 4 yrs is a long time to set and not use

rcjetflyer0718-RCU

My Feedback: (1)

If you were using the stock receiver pack you ran the battery down with 6 flights (5 in the morning 1 in the afternoon). You were lucky to recover the plane, because the VG400 doesn't have failsafe. It is ok to run 5 cell battery pack.

OliverJacob

My Feedback: (12)

Your engine died after you lost control, so likely you have a radio problem. If it's not the batteries, do a range check. You tx or rx antenna might be broken, if it fails, try the same with a different rx, so you know where the problem lies.

Also check your servos. I once had a short in a servo, worked fine most of the time, Just sometimes it 'cut out' and I eventually stopped working. I saw the rx didn't bind anymore, so I replaced it. Shortly after that the new rx died again. One servo had a little whole burned through the case. Lesson learned

jester_s1

I know you probably don't want to spend any more money, but a computerized charger will let you know for sure if your batteries are good. I see them frequently used on here for $30-$40, so it's not a huge investment. The ability to peak charge and do cycle testing tells you conclusively how good your batteries are instead of just guessing and hoping. There are considerably fewer unexplained losses of control talked about on the forums now than there were 8-10 years ago. Many would say that 2.4ghz radios are to thank for that, and I'm sure they are a factor. But about the same time those gained popularity, computerized chargers became a lot more commonplace. I actually think that has been a bigger factor, and RC pilots are finally making sure that their batteries are both charged fully and performing up to standard before taking off. Along with that, a $5 harbor Freight electrical multimeter will let you check voltages at your receiver and find problems before they cost you a plane.