RE: Quick Connect "Feature"
My guess is that it didn't go through the water, but was able to recieve a bounced signal since you are doing the test in doors.
I would love to see a picture of the RX install, it might help debug the problem. I regularly fly much further than what you are reporting with no problems. A guy at my local field a couple of weeks ago was having problems similar to yours. When i looked inside the plane, his wires were a rats nest, and his RX and antennas were touching the servo wires. I cleaned up the install and the problems went away.