Trips67

My Feedback: (1)

I just wanted to see if anyone has any ideas as to this one. I bought an JR 8103 probably around 3 months ago. I love it, but here comes the delema. I have now had two incidents with two different planes. A couple months ago I lost an Ultra Stick. I had several flights on it, and then on its last I was taking off, just fine, started to bank away from the pits and I lost everything. I fought it all of the way, but had no control input what so ever and it just dove in. I didn't turn the radio off and walked out to the plane. when I got there all the servos were responing to input(hadn't touched the plane at this point). Battery was good before and after the crash and everything was still plugged in. I wrote it off as an unknown, possibly the switch. Haven't used any of that radio gear again except the transmitter.

Today i lost my Pizazz. I wasn't flying at the time, but rather one of the best pilots in our club. I had flown it, and then gave it to him to have some fun. Everything seemed just fine, until I heard him say uh oh. He had no control input and it rolled into the ground. When we got the the plane. all of the servos worked again.

It wasn't like a radio hit, I never flew through, but rather lost all control. Both of these were at different fields, different radio gear. At both fields we checked my freq with a handheld scanner, and picked up nothing. I had been flying at both fields for a year prior to getting an 8103 with a JR 631 on the same freq without incident. So I am starting to lean toward having the radio checked out.

Sorry for being so long winded, but I am a little frustrated and trying to sort these issues out. I am going to call Horizon in the morning. Do any of you have any ideas or similar situations and found out that it was a transmitter problem? Thanks in advance?

Lee Belew

My Feedback: (2)

When mine did what yours is doing the fuse holder was bent and barely touching the fuse. Bang on the transmitter with your hand with the TX turned and see if it works Intermetting.
Why not tell the rest of us what city & state you are from?
Lee

LSP972

My Feedback: (13)

Another possibility is that there is some oxidation, etc., on the pins that protrude from the box and go into the module, or the slots in the module. I dunno about the 8103, but those pins on my 10SX II were NOT gold plated, and needed to be cleaned occasionally.

Steve

Trips67

My Feedback: (1)

Well, I called Horizon this morning and they would like me to send the radio in. Something seemed fishy with the transmitter to them also. I will check the things you guys mentioned above tonight, but will probably send in the radio tomorrow. It is just frustrating to lose planes due to radio problems, and disapointing to have to send my radio in during the flying season. I'll keep you posted as to my findings. Thanks for the responses.

Ryan

Jim_McIntyre

Curious.
Are you using pcm receivers?

The reason I ask is, if you were flying non-pcm, I would expect some erratic flight movement if the Tx were to fail. What you describe sounds like a pcm Rx that's gone into hold (no fail-safe program)....

Trips67

My Feedback: (1)

Neither receiver was PCM. The Ultrasticks receiver was a Hitec supreme shift selectable FM. The Pizazz went in with a JR R-700 FM. I am not sure what is going on, but it freaks me out to fly any of my more expensive planes until I get this sorted out. Thanks for all of the responses.

hilleyja

My Feedback: (3)

I've had the same experience at least 3 times, two of them were with 120 Ultra Sticks. One was with a Hitec Eclipse 7, two were with a Futaba 8AU. One was at a field in Florida and 2 were at a local field. The 2 Ultra Sticks were complete totals. The 3rd was a Butterfly that landed almost a mile away with only a broken stab and engine mount.

I'm going with the assumption that 2 of these were caused by switch failures, the other by not following a battery back-up system instruction to the letter and have stopped acquiring 3rd party switches and will never use a battery backup system. The best, IMHO, way to backup a battery is to install another battery on a separate switch, connected to a spare RX channel.

Joe Trinkley

I think you should sell me that 8103 for basically nothing, I'm willing to take the chance.

CAPtain232

My Feedback: (40)

Hey Trips67,

My inlaws live up there in Rockton. I come up and fly from time to time. Got my father inlaw a trainer and now he's flyin up there too. Where do you fly at?

Jeff [email protected]

Trips67

My Feedback: (1)

Keiselburg Forest preserve most of the time. Check your e-mail.

Thanks.

Trips67

My Feedback: (1)

Well, I got my radio back from Horizon. They did't bother to call me or anything. Just sent it with a slip of paper saying that they couldn't find anything wrong. They also erased all of my programming. Ugh. I was hoping they would find something, now I am a little worried to fly with my radio. I checked everything and couldn't find anything wrong with either planes radio equipment.

While my radio was with Horizon, a fellow club member gave me one of his 8103's to use until I got mine back. It was also on channel 58. I flew all weekend without any problems. I am confused. Any thoughts?

Thanks,
Ryan

Lee Belew

My Feedback: (2)

Don't you just love dealing with Reliable and Informative service people.
Lee

hilleyja

My Feedback: (3)

It might be a little early to be judgemental against Horizon's service. Check out the radio first. The fact that they found nothing wrong with the TX might be a hint for you that your problem is with your flight pack(s). You say you used another members TX while yours was being check out and had no problems. Did you have problems with those airplanes with your TX -- your post doesn't alude to problems with other than the Ultra Stick and the Pizazz.

BTW, you stated you haven't used the radio gear from the Ultra Stick since the crash. Is that 100% true, even the switch assembly?

I know your frustration because I have lost a total of 2 120 Ultra Sticks and almost a Butterfly to suspected radio problems. I've also had other incidents that were not as fatal that I attribute to radio problems. Once I even sent in my Hitec Prism and the entire flight pack after I crashed an airplane on the 1st flight of the radio use. Hitec also said they could find no problems.

To this day I still cannot figure out what has happened. The most logical assumption has to be the switch and because of that I have become ultra sensitive to switch quality and will not use other-than premium brand switches. No more Hobbico switches for me. I use either the Radio brand switch (Futaba, JR, Hitec) or dual-pole MPI switches. Even then I will gradually switch to 100% dual-pole switches -- they are expensive, but much cheaper than $300/$400 airplanes.

Trips67

My Feedback: (1)

I have not had any radio problems other than the two times it was a total loss of control resulting in crashes. I have never even had an fly through glitches with the radio or my old radio on the same channel. I had probably over 100 flights on the ultrastick without issue and probably 50ish on the pizazz without incident when the sudden loss of control happened. I don't know it to be a radio problem, but it is suspect in my mind since I didn't have any issues with the planes before I got my 8103. I have not had any issues with any of my other planes.

No reuse of radio equipment is 100% true. The switch in the ultrastick was a JR that came with the radio, and the switch in the pizazz was a mpi dual-pole.

I am not sure it was a radio problem, frankly I have no idea right now. I can't find anything. I guess right now it will stand at 2 in the I have no idea column and the on-board equipment will not be reused.

I am not faulting Horizons service, they looked at my radio and got it back to me quick, before I was expecting it. I would have appreciated a call to tell me what was done, and them to have saved my programming. I now have about 10 models to reprogram.

Thanks for all of the comments/thoughts. I really love this site and all of the feedback.

Ryan