downwind

My Feedback: (8)

I had a plane crash today. I was flying along then I had nothing like the battery was turned off. After going thru the radio gear later, it turns out that the RX crystal is dead. I originaly thought that the switch went bad but it seems to work fine.

My question is: Is having the crystal go bad during flight a normal thing to happen??

. Ive heard of crystal going bad due to a crash but this is the first time Ive ever seen or heard of a crystal just going bad.

thanks for your replies.

Mighty Mik

I don't know about in flight, but i have a zagi that's been sitting unfinished...got back to work on it only to find a bad crystal from just sitting. I can see it happening if you fly glow.

Crash_N_Burn

downwind, how did you determine that the crystal "went bad"?

Did you substitute another and it worked?

Crystals usually fracture and die. Rarely do the contact leads break and become intermittent.

Tell us more, please.

downwind

My Feedback: (8)

While flying the plane the radio went dead. No twitching or uncontrolled servo movements. The plane was flying just fine then it acted like the radio was turned off. It stayed in its last radio signal until impact.

I got the radio gear out of the crashed plane. Hooked it all up except for the switch harness. Nothing worked. So I tried a different RX but I had to use the same crystal because I didnt have another one. Still nothing worked. Then I dug out a crystal from another plane of mine and used it in the Crashed RX. everthing worked. Then I installed the switch harness and it worked too.
the crystal could have died in the crash but everything seems to work.
so it must have been the RX crystal

Steve Lewin

The crystal sounds like a good bet and, though it's quite rare, I have seen 2 cases of crystals dying in mid-air. One was a couple of flights after a crash but the other had not crashed or been dropped (the owner said) it simply stopped working.

There's not much you can do when that happens .

Steve

fryfly

My Feedback: (8)

yes crystals will go bad in flight, especially if one changes recievers and crystals often.