Hi,
As far as choke servos, I don't use them...never have, never will. There is no need for one. It is simply something that can cost you a round and has with others before. I'll be damned if I put something like that on my plane. There is absolutely no logic at all in that. With the season I'm having I'd look like a fool if something like that cost me a round at a meet. One bump of the choke switch and you are deadstick. A servo failure will also result in a deadstick. That's not even considering that there is another one of those plugs in the mix that cost me a round this past weekend. It's a simple task to reach under the cowl and pull down that choke rod, flip until it pops, and turn it off. I don't need a choke servo to do that for me. Once it's off in the detent it cannot close and cause a deadstick. Why on earth would I want to add the dead weight of a servo to my airplane when a piece of nyrod that weighs less than 2 grams works just fine? There is no need for a servo to actuate the choke. We can sit here all day going through 'what if' scenarios, but those have been well covered on my airplane while it was on the bench, and the ones that haven't I am perfectly aware of and am perfectly capable of handling by simply flying the airplane. Everything on that plane was well thought out *before* it was done. There was no afterthoughts added. In fact, 2 years was spent on a scale-aerobatics list learning these planes and HOW to do it right from people who had done it longer than me and through other successes and failures. Everything that was done, was done for a reason, and everything that was not done, was not for a reason. So if you call that narrow minded I would hate to see what you cognitive reasoning! LOL I just saw a post that stated there was 62 degrees of deflection on a control! I also read where it failed...gee, I wonder why? Give JR a call and ask them why they see hardovers...you will get two answers. 1. Overdriving the servos resulting in damage. and 2. Binding from improper setup (not matching the servos) which resulted in damage. Was that the servos fault? No. Do they eat a bunch of these failures anyway and fix the problem anyway be replacing servos FOC? Sure do. I also don't remember stating anywhere in my post that I was immune to failures because I use JR gear. In fact, I stated that I send my stuff in once a year to be tested regularly with equipment that I don't have so that doesn't happen. This stuff will go a year of flying and has done so 18 years running now. I think that record should speak for itself. That didn't happen by accident or by luck. Treated properly JR servos are the top of the line. I am also aware that there are people out there that would have trouble with an on/off switch if there was a way to make it fail, but I am not in that category....thank god! heh If you read and study up on this stuff and check it, it is reliable. It is cutting edge stuff though, and if it's not setup right it will fail. I read all the time about setting these planes up in hours and see the red flag already. It doesn't take hours to set these planes up right, it takes *days* and *weeks*. It can easily be tested for binding with an ammeter also. The use of a servo matching system such as the Smart-Fly equalizer or the JR matchbox is not an option, it's a requirement. A simple slow, and step test WILL show a bad servo on the ground. I'm well aware that everything has a failure rate, but when you travel around to meets, and you fly these things for years you realize that the failure rate of JR gear is very very low...darn near non-existent. That is why I use it, and is really the MAIN reason I use it. If there were anything any better out there that showed as much reliability and performance it would be in my airplane. So far I have not seen anything like that available. Money is no object on my planes, only reliability and performance. I don't care what this stuff cost, and I don't screw with junk. Most of the problems I have seen are caused by improper setup because the user is not even aware of what does cause problems. When the digitals first came out guys were cooking them left and right because they were binding, and it wasn't until later that it was realized that even 1 degree of binding can cause damage that will cause the servo to fail. There are people still to this day that swear that you cannot put 8411's ganged on a rudder without them oscillating, yet I've had this very setup on my plane for over a year and half now with not a hint of it. The cause? Again, lack of accurately matching the servos which causes accelerated wear and then 20 flights later the servo starts overshooting trying to find center which is actually what it's supposed to do. The user then blames the servo for wearing itself out even though there are countless others who have theirs setup right and do not have this problem at all. That last issue became so ingrained in people's minds online that JR had to detune the deadband of some peoples servos which is where part of the precision comes from. Mine are not detuned, don't have oscillation, and the original servos are still going strong after 100's upon 100's of flights. Is that an accident? I don't think so. Some of this stuff is needed for an added level of safety, but some of it is really unnecessary. Like was stated earlier this is getting wayyyy off topic, and I have much work to do. I will say no more on this issue, but will move onto to other topics here on RCU later. This has been good discussion as I believe it has cleared up a few myths.