luckyflyer

I think we all know what's really going on here. ...............N*S*A

mattnew

My Feedback: (2)

Lets see... Its April...

For many/most of us March/April is likely the beginning of the flying season...

People pull their planes out of the basement... garages... Arizona is drier than where I fly, but one thing I have to pay attention to is corrosion that may have occurred over the months where my planes may have had to be stored in less than ideal conditions.

My thought is in the north-east its not necessarily uncommon for a perfectly fine setup that was put away in november to need some new switches, or a new battery or wires in march when its pulled out to fly it again... so we tend to automatically check that sort of thing.... I'm wondering if in Arizona that is less common due to the different climate... but you may still run into those issues, although less frequently....to the point where it doesn't get checked regularly.


just a thought...

dbsonic

My Feedback: (3)

So, how many have had the rare occasion of "RC-off" read on the ECU after a flameout(and you did not command shutdown) on an otherwise very reliable aircraft and engine? Let's define rare in this case to be about 1 in 100 flights.

Presumably you've done the proper rx antenna install. Could this be due to tx orientation goof up or something else?

DISCUS54

My Feedback: (211)

Andy, you should know by now that without supported facts your going to get beat up....heck, with supported facts the sheeple will continue to beat on you, and the world is lousy with them. I can see where some of these lockouts might have been sponsored pilots but not all, right? It would be beneficial to hear what "exactly" happened there.

AndyAndrews

I've asked the moderators to delete this entire thread. I was wrong to post it like I did. There are just too many variations that could cause these things it is shouldn't have been my place to assume or even call out others. I apologize to the ones I named. I shouldn't have put them in this situation and I feel bad about it. For those who said from the beginning that this thread would serve no good, I agree with you. It hasn't.

Regards,
Andy

stevekott

If it reads RC-Off your Fail safe is NOT set up properly. It should read "Failsafe". The Rx needs to send a Failsafe command to the ECU that is below that of "Throttle Down, Trim Down". If regular RC Off is say -100 Failsafe needs to be -110. Something below normal range.

The Problem: If you get a quick failsafe glitch set up to failsafe at -100 that the turbine will shut down instantly. What it's designed to do is shutdown after 2 seconds of Failsafe (below -100). A quick glitch would hardly be noticed but a turbine out trying to glide back to the runway causes a whole new set of problems.

speedracerntrixie

My Feedback: (29)

Andy, I think there is some good info here in general. So far I think things have been pretty quiet considering.

dbsonic

My Feedback: (3)

So Steve, if I read you correctly, by using the radio systems failsafe to command a shutdown, it is much more harsh than using the ECU based failsafe which allows for a bit of margin in terms of time. Point well taken. I've tested it and the shutdown is immediate in my case.

But, unfortunately it still means the rf link was compromised in my case unless something else can create an "Rc-off" condition( assuming I didn't accidentally with my hand, and I verified the trim in this case to still be full up)

RCKen

My Feedback: (9)

Andy (and others),
Unfortunately we are in a bit of a sticky situation here where we can't simply delete a thread because it didn't go the direction it was intended. Believe me I understand and feel your pain here, but myself and my moderators have to moderate RCU by our Community Rule and we can't take actions unless there is a rule being broken here. If there some rule being broken that I've missed please point it out to me. But even if there is a broken rule it's unlikely that we would delete the thread, but rather we would simply lock the thread and let is slide down the forum listing, unless once again there is something here that I am missing.

Ken

ToxicSludge

I gather that all these 'glitches' happened in southern AZ.You have Fort Huacuca that,the last that I knew,does a lot of radio work and various testing of new commo systems etc.They don't have to cause interference directly on the 2.4 ghz band,but it could be caused by harmonics off of another band in use.Also maybe some ducting was happening to,that may have been the cause of this.As far as antenna orientation goes,keep it as vertical as possible,at all times.The circuitry inside the radio is designed for a vertical antenna.The more 'off vertical' the antenna is,the transmitter might be folding back the power output due to a much higher swr.This protects the power amp in the transmitter,or should.To really get an idea of this,you would need a field strength meter that is capable of going up to 2.4 ghz.band.That will show you any lobes and give you a better understanding of how an antenna works for our rc stuff.

stevekott

Exactly Right !

I'm keen to this as a few months ago I was spotting for a good friend with a beautiful F-4 twin. He got pretty far out Tx antenna was horizontal had a split second glitch, barely noticeable except ... both turbines shut down. Our field is on a hilltop, not very forgiving and he sadly lost the whole thing as he couldn't make the runway with no power. Had he had that two seconds of wait time prior to shutdown he would have continued the flight without incident. ECU's recorded "RC-Off". Also his Rx antennas were low in the air frame just in front of the turbine, batteries and ball of wires. Plane flying away to the left, antenna pointed to the right (bottom of antenna pointed at plane) Perfect storm of bad orientation.

I went home, checked my planes and found two of them had the Tx Failsafe set up the same way.

I just had to temporarily change the servo endpoint from -100 to -120, reset the new Failsafe point on the TX and then set the servo endpoint back to -100.

You can test it using the HDU (engine off) and turn off the Tx. The HDU gets a little F/S on the screen once the Tx goes off and it goes away after the Tx is turned back on.

smaze17

My Feedback: (60)

Jeez - if someone posts a question about a radio manufacturer it's like some people think it's an attack on them. Then people try to make it out to be a Jr vs Futaba thread. IMO Andy is asking an honest question and for that he gets called a troll.

F-16 viperman

andy, don't regret your thread. if it makes just one person more vigilant, and check out somthing pre-flight that they normally would'nt have checked, and prevents somthing bad, its worth it. Thank You. as for antenna position people are talking about, I flew orbit, Proline, c&s F&M, Bonner, heathkit, Royal, Micro avionics, Controlaire, Kraft, Citizen-ship, Jr, Spektrum, Futaba, and probably some others i can't think of right now, and with all of them, You don;t point the antenna at the model. This happens to be easier with the new adjustable 2.4 antennas which I advise friends to always point at their head while flying. If They lose the signal then because of the antenna pointing straight at the aircraft, immediately put the TX on the ground and pull out the umbrella the way the coyote does just before the rock lands on Him. LOL

F-16 viperman

Seriously, The fact that andy's post will make more people mindful of Their antenna position makes this thread worth it!

Jim Branaum

My Feedback: (3)

Within some parameters, you are correct if our radios do not use the ground plane as others have suggested. I am not really sure that the transmitter can tell if it is vertical, horizontal, or whatever by the SWR nor am I sure the final stage amplifier is anything other than fixed (can't adjust power up or down). However, I don't know it all nor am I even sure I want to! .

However, the real 'trick' is to get the real power radiated to the area the aircraft is flying in and I don't think that is always true when your antenna is pointed at the ground but I am also not sure it is true if the antenna is pointed up at any angle other than 90 degrees.

Andy, regardless of the naysayers there are some things that folks should look at in their radio systems and IMNSHO this thread is bringing some of those to light.

YMMV

pflynn73

My Feedback: (20)

Some of you act like you sleep with your Futaba. Give me a break. This guy is trying to help us. Like I said before anybody who rips Andy is a true DB.

GrayUK

FASST since day 1.
Apart from the early G.U.ID issue..I have never had or seen a problem with it.
I would not fly anything else.

SushiHunter

I use a 18mz and there have only been one occasion that I've experienced this issue. I'm thinking it could have been rx related or factors outside of the system such as interference from something else or, related to the environment (terrain). The plane that I was flying at the time this happened, has the simple and basic 6 channel rx in it. All my other planes have the R7008SB rx and thus far have all been completely flawless. So the only difference in system between all the planes I've flown with my 18mz and the one that did have this issue but only once so far, is the rx and the environment. I was also somewhat near the Stanford "dish" when the issue occurred, so this is also why I think there is a possibility the issue was caused by interference outside of my rc system. It's only occurred once and I've been using my 18mz for a little over a year now, and the one time it did happen, only did so for just a few seconds, which didn't result in crash or loss of ac since I had plenty of alt at the time.

sirrom

My Feedback: (4)

I completely agree with you but don't start the thread with, "I heard of this, but can't tell you who told me....". Come in and state the facts, state what happened, to who it happened, the circumstances, the setup, etc. He took the wrong route to start a legitimate conversation about a possible problem.

Patrick

blhollo2

My Feedback: (278)

WAIT a minute....you DONT sleep with your futaba radio?!.... No one should rip Andy over this posting as it is a very useful info and pretty good topic,very informative.

Now... With that said..No, nothing is going on with futaba, keep calm and carry on.

raubold

My Feedback: (156)

i like this one, really do hehe

bjr_93tz

Someone might be coming here because this thread's on the most active list, and not because they fly jets (or IMAC planes)? I know I did, and I don't.

mongo

My Feedback: (15)

ken,
shouldn't this one actually be in the radio section, annyway?

ira d

Well said.

AndyAndrews

I agree.. but the cat is out of the bag and I can't put it back. Again, I apologize profusely for bringing this up the way I did. I tried to get Ken to nix the whole thing but he can't due to RCU rules etc.

Sorry guys.