garrett_mcdonal

That's about the best I can describe the sound of one of my df F-86's hitting the deck this afternoon.

Flat out and mid-way through a turn the radio went into fail-safe (I had the throttle set to come to idle) and started side-slipping. Radio came back briefly and then went again.

Wreckage was spread over about a 120 foot diameter area. I carted what was left of my plane back to the pits and plugged the battery and one servo into the Rx and everything seemed okay. We called someone with a scanner and he came down to the field. There was substantial interference all across the 36 meg range we use here in Australia.

I lost a 140 sized pattern model at the field about 6 weeks ago on an identical line after about 3 years of hassle-free flying. I had to pick that one up with a dust-buster as well. Two weeks after that I was getting nasty hits while flying a pylon racer but managed to get it down in one piece.

I think I am going to change clubs. 3 different models of mine have taken hits in about 6 weeks, 2 have gone in and been total write-offs. I have a JR PCM 10X radio, use whip aerials, top of the line JR switches and heavy-duty cables and take care of my bettery packs and my Sabre had a dual-conversion Rx. What more can you do?

I'll drop my Tx in first thing Monday morning to have the power output checked, but I suspect it will come back fine. I am supposed to travel away next weekend to have my turbine flight check and, right now, I'm not feeling quite as keen as I was this morning. I had someone test-fly it for me a fortnight ago up in Sydney and didn't have any problems, but it would hurt to lose yet another model so soon.

All models have a finite life-span, but this is a very, very average way to demonstrate the point.

Garrett

SDCrashmaster

Sorry to here about your unfortunate and frustrating circumstances. Trust me when I say, I feel your pain. Hang in there.

Chrism-RCU

Hi Garret,
Sorry to hear about hte mishap, any new mobile phone towers in the area, we have had some trouble in the west with this especialy at Whiteman park site, once again sorry, it hurts to loose a bird in this way.

BRG,
Chris.

garrett_mcdonal

Hi Chris,

Yep. Black Mountain Tower is in direct line of sight and maybe 8-10 km away. Not sure if you have ever been to Canberra, but it's a very tall needle tower like most countries seem to have and is the primary transmitter for telephone and tv services in Canberra. You are actually struggling to find somewhere where it isn't in direct line of sight.

The stations here are rolling out digital tv services and when we tuned the scanner to 36mhz, we were picking up the audio signal for SBS as clear as the light of day.

It was on a very narrow, directional beam from the pits to the Tower and was directly on the line where I lost both my pattern model and my Sabre. It would seem several others have lost model in the last couple of weeks in very similar circumstances.

I'll make a report to the club and request that they get the club specialist in and monitor what's going on for a couple hours.

In the short term, I'm not going to fly there. I'll take out associate membership at one of the other fields.

Garrett

Chrism-RCU

Hi Mate,
Much the same as we had here, yes I know the tower, My wife comes from there, our problem was a phone tower that I believe had just been erected or re aligned, totaly took out the whole mid and top end of the 36 band for a day,

BRG,
chris

Chrism-RCU

Hi Garret,
Let the frequency sub comittee know and also let MAAA know as there is a mechanism in place to deal with problems like this at national level.

BRG,
Chris

Silver182

My Feedback: (2)

I hope you never but never assume just because it's a "New 10X or new anything else that you have a good RF link. I have tested enough radios to know for sure you can't assume anything!
It is a must to do the "Real Range check" at least once with each new high dollar aircraft. On board interference and or bad tuning and alignment will take you out of the air quickly, and both can be detected and fixed before flying. If you know for sure you have the strongest RF link possible then all of the other Outside interference problems will be reduced or eliminated.
Good Luck
Lee --------

cairoman

Hi Garrett,

Sorry to hear about the crash. Rejoice though, you have the Reaper to play with.

I sympathise.......

Chris

garrett_mcdonal

Hi Lee,

I have been flying the 10X for about 2 years now and it is only in the last 6 weeks I have lost any model to what I would consider radio link failure. The R1000 rx had been thoroughly tested in the pattern model.

The pattern modell had been flown solidly for 3, close to 4, years without any problems in the past. It was when I swapped the R1000 out into another model that I dropped another proven rx back into it. Half a dozen flights later, it went in after flipping on its back and going vertical (straight down, that is).

It would seem I am not the only person to have lost models recently in a fairly specific area over the field. I did some checking around and several others have started having problems in the last 6-8 weeks as well.

I'll most definitely be dropping my Tx in first thing tomorrow to have it checked out before I fly again for peace of mind just in case there is something wrong with my tx.

Garrett