Originally Posted by
David Gladwin
Now that speaks volumes.
If he had bothered to take a look at the downlinked data after the first flight (which is what I always do, it seems the obvious thing to do with a new installation or model ) then he would have seen the problem and been able to correct it before further flight ! If it was indeed a radio problem it would all be logged on the SD card and revealed by GigaControl. Its one of the great strengths of this system in that even if you DO have a crash, the data, logged in the Tx will show the performance of the entire radio system in great detail. As Mike said, he could even have his copilot monitor all the data in real time on a laptop as I did with Lance Campbell's big SR71 at Dayton. It soon became apparent that aerial location was not good, we changed them, things improved considerably, the new patch antennae are now giving excellent results. I remember one pilot crashing at the JWM in Meiringen, (the Finnish Hawk) the cause of which he will never know, and another (Morne's F104) whose model went free flight on two occasions, still unexplained. A Weatronic system would have revealed any radio problem and perhaps even prevented the problems if the alarms (Rf strength and battery performance) had been set up correctly which is very easy to do on the software.
Its an entirely crash-proof "black box".
I also run the data through GiGa after every flying session, just to see that all is well. (it always is, so far !) It is very reassuring to see the radio performance in numerical values.
One other super function Mike did not mention is the automatic battery check on switch-on (larger receivers), and the warning if battery switchover occurred in flight, pure gold.
That said, I would love to come go to a jet meeting in Norway and show it working ! Let me know the dates and I may be able to incorporate it into a planned driving holiday up the Fjords of your beautiful country. I could also bring my new big Paritech sailplane with a Wren 44 booster fitted with a Wea receiver, variometer (which works brilliantly and has greatly extended my flight durations, and GPS.
David.
PS I think the biggest ASK 21 I have ever seen was the one I was flying in, superb machine, great for aerobatics !
In this spesific case the pilot could`t notice anything wrong on the two previous flights, and on the third it entered a deathspiral reaching a incredible speed as it was started about 400 meters height.
The datas showed there was analysed here in Norway and concluded among people who knows the Giga-control, BUT after sending it in to Weatronic the answer was "probably an pilot error"!.....
Now this is very interesting as the pilot is one of the best model sailplane pilots in the world.. I guess Weatronic didn`t know that.
A problem could easily be showed via a telemetry showing RSSSI, and it was a fully normal installation whith plenty of space in the cockpit.
Any other radio, and my friend would be a happy one today.
I know several cases Weatronic have grounded the model permanently, but this spesific case is unusual because of the statement from Weatronic.
There was several jetpilots using the system some years ago, but they went away from it.
Welcome to Jetpower in Fyresdal in early June next year! It`s a big international event with celebritys included.
And a trip further north to vistit the fjords is a must if you first have taken the trip over here.
Accomodation could be offered you if you would be interested.