Originally Posted by
mitchilito
Hello world!!
It took three months for something worth mentioning to happen with regard to my wonderful Rascal/Gemini. The norm is I go out, gas her up and fly fly fly. But yesterday after starting her up I noticed an aileron twitching badly on taxi out. It seemed worse at different (lower) throttle settings. Then I noticed that ALL the controls were twitching. Badly. What the heck?? I taxied in and shut her down.
I come from the days of 72mhz radios where this kind of behavior was an every day occurrence but I've NEVER experienced this with 2.4ghz. The communication link is just too good. Or so I thought.
I could only think of one thing that could possibly cause this: an ignition leak. So I wiggled the spark plug caps and reseated them firmly. They did seem a little loose - one in particular reseated inward about a millimeter or two - not much really. But that did it: no more twitching.
Like I said, I've never had an interference problem of any kind with modern radios - but it can happen. So be sure to check your plug caps from time to time. . . .
Hope you all have the best of the holiday season! Till next time. . . . . .
If you still have the same ignition you had in the beginning of this thread, if you ONLY pushed the plugcaps down, that issue will re-occur, and sooner or later cost you that pretty Rascal... And that is preventable...
You have the twistlock plugcaps, they should lock 100% by pushing down hard on them, then twisting them about 30 degrees (half of a hex) clockwise, and releasing them should be "pushing down hard, twist 30 degrees counterclockwise and release"
Also, this specific type of plugcaps should come with contactsprings that go into the cap to ensure a good electrical connection between plugbase and cap-shell. They are thin gauge conical springs and go in with the small end facing the engine.