Today's radio equipment is both capable and reliable.
Failures are uncommon. As such we could easily start to take their
reliability for granted, but we should not.

We all know we should range check our systems before we fly each day.
Have you ever put your plane up without checking? If you did, you
probably had no problems and so never thought about it. But things can
happen. Let me share two recent experiences that really drive home the
value of range checks.

Shooting yourself down [X(]

I had just finished the October club sailplane contest. My plane flew
well and I did pretty well, for me. In any case, the lift was scarce
and the wind was strong so I decided to go slope soaring. I packed up
and went to the slope. At the slope I pulled out my slope plane and
radio which I had used the day before. Everything had worked fine
yesterday so it should work fine today, right?

However I did my usual range check only to find that my plane started to
glitch at less than 30 feet. Impossible, but true! After checking the
plane and the radio several times, I decided that there really was a
problem. I tuned off the radio and pulled out my other radio, the one I
had used for the sailplane contest. When I pulled it out, it was on!
Both radios are on the same channel. Apparently as I had slipped the
radio into the case I brushed the switch and turned it on.

If I had tossed my plane off the cliff into the slope lift, I would have
had a disaster. You see, my slope sites all fly over salt water. And at
30 degrees warm and 20 mph winds, a wade or swim of shame is probability
not going to be fun and could be out of the question. I would have lost
the plane. I would have shot myself down. Funny to think of that now,
but it reinforced the value of range checking before the first flight!

It worked, and then it didn't

I was competing in a two day Eastern Soaring League sailplane contest.
Top name competitors on the field and excellent frequency control
insured that there would be no channel conflicts and very competent
pilots.

I did my usual morning routine of assembling my 3M sailplane, checking
the receiver battery, checking the radio and performing a radio check.
All was well and I was ready for the competition. No chance of winning,
but a great chance to fly with the best of the best! I was excited!

On my third flight, it seemed my control was sloppy. I was not flying
smoothly. I was getting coaching from a top grade pilot but just did
not seem to be able to handle the plane the way he was suggesting.
Something was wrong with my flying. On the 4th flight, as my sailplane
came off the winch line at about 500 feet in altitude, I lost control
for a moment, then I had it back. ????? As I turned to run to lift,
again I lost control for a moment then got it back. I landed
immediately. Thank goodness I got down safely.

I checked everything, EVERYTHING. No problems. A quick range check
revealed no problems, or did it. Had I really done the range check
properly? In fact I had not. The radio maker's procedure said 100', but
in fact I had only quickly dashed off to about 60 feet. At 60 it
checked fine. But when I paced out to about 75 feet I started to have
trouble and at 80 feet, I lost contact with the plane.

My morning range check may have been hasty, or perhaps the malfunction
had developed during the day. I don't know, but it was the second range
check that helped me find the problem. Had I failed to do it properly,
I might have launched again and lost control of the plane. At a minimum
I probably would have destroyed my 3M sailplane. At worst I could have
injured someone or damaged someone's property.

The point?

Never put your plane in the air without a full range check. And if you
see or feel something odd in the way your plane is handling, range check
it again!

I know it has always passed and you have never had a problem, but you
could. And, it could cost you a plane, or worse. You are the pilot!
You are responsible to see that your equipment is working properly.
Never fail to do so and you will enjoy your planes and the people around
you will enjoy watching you fly them.

Clear Skies and Safe Flying!

Very, very good article.

As the villian in the movie Under siege II put it - Assumption is the mother of all f****kups.

Assume = ass - u - me

aeajr,
all I can say is amen. I've been flying for about 8 years now and I learned the hard way about the importance of range checking. Let me share my story in hopes that others might learn from it too. I was running a bit late getting out to the flying field on a saturday morning so when I got to the flying field I was a in a hurry to get in the air. Heck, I had just flown yesterday with no problems so I figured that I didn't need to waste time with a range check. I was flying a fairly new (about 10 flights) Dave Patrick Ultimate with a Saito 180 on it. I fueled up, fired up, and taxied out. Took off and on my second pass over the field she rolled over and did a full throttle death spiral into the ground, the whole time I was bending the sticks on my transmitter trying to save her. My dear plane was a three bagger, no repair possible. The area of the fuselage that the receiver was in wasn't damaged so the receiver was still in the same condition as when it was flying. Since I didn't know what caused it, I sent the radio in for a check. Came back that the receiver was bad, and a proper range check more than likely would have caught it.

What was sad is that I was in such a hurry that I didn't want to take the few minutes it would have taken to range check. Needless to say I never go up with starting the day with range check.

For me I think range checks are not necessary, actually nothing is really necessary till it BUGGERS up! Hehehe ... good habits are there for a reason. No point questioning it, just do it and things will be much safer.

There is a guy in my area who has recently lost two larger scale planes. After the second one he was cursing his radio and laying the blame on it. Sure enough after sending away the Rx for testing it came back as bad.
Now there are quite a few of us in the area that dont believe the radio was the culprit, sure it tested bad, AFTER two crashes in large models. You only have to watch this guy flying to make the assumption that it wasnt the radio's fault, he seems to barely have control of a small fun fly at times.
Im not saying 100% it was pilot error, but . . . . . Im sure if we were able to have a black box type thingy, like airliners do, the statistics would come up about the same for model crashes. IE: most can be put down to being human error as the cause, either CFIT (controlled flight into terrain), error in maintenance procedures or some other factor that was preventable. Pure radio failure (not being dead battery or loose connection) would account for very few crashes.

However that doesnt mean we get complacent about our radios as others have said, do the range check, it will show up the loose connection or dead battery etc as well as complete failure.

Thanks to everyone for sharing their stories.

This is why full scale planes have check lists. If they foget to range check, they die and take other people with them.

We lose is our model, our dignity and hopefully nothing else.

Actually, back in my AM days, I always did a range check, as did everyone else around me.

But now, I only do range checks on new planes or planes that have not been flown for some time.

I suppose it is a good idea. I don't know why I stopped doing them everyday.

I was checking out a newbies plane for its maiden flight. It looked ok on the outside and he had the wing on all ready. I started a range check and the ailerons would start to flutter at only 10 feet away from the plane. I told the new guy that this was bad and to shut down the radio and take the wing off because it wasn't safe to attempt a flight. I stood by just to see how the inside of the plane looked and when he lifted the wing the aileron connection to the receiver came apart!! I told him that the loose connection might be the problem. He put it back together and I checked it myself. Re-did the range check and no more jitters! Ran the engine up, adjusted it and did the took off. Now the plane climbs to about 30' and the engine suddenly dies! Managed to turn back and land safely even though it was very windy. The problem was the muffler bolts fell out!! At least the controls worked well and the range check helped make sure of that! The new guy was very happy that that I didn't break his new plane on the first flight! Me too!

Very good info here. I hope everyone reads and heeds.

Just to add my own two cents... Always perform range checks with the engine running. Almost every glitch I've had with my plane was due to vibration. Most of the glitches wouldn't have shown up with the engine off. Normally it's a new plane and it's something contacting the antenna or just too close. Relocating the antenna has usually solved the problem.

As Fastsky mentioned, sometimes it's just something that's loose causing metal-to-metal contact.

What always bugs me is when a guy at the field has a problem, can't locate it, the problem seems to "go away" and then he flies. Obviously, it could be something as simple as interference that really is gone. But just as obviously it could be something intermittent in the airframe. It's worth taking the time to go over every possibility and rule out anything and everything just for safety and peace of mind.

The only time I do a range check is test flying a new model. There is NO ONE at my club or any club I have been to that range checks every day let alone every flight. Probably is a good idea to do in every now and then but I think doing it all the time is not required.

I range check the first flight of the day for every plane I fly that day. This is general practice at our club.

In addition to picking up problems in the radio system, it has picked up the fact that I am on the wrong model profile in my computer radio.

I can safely say that securing your rx in foam rubber is a good idea. In my electric planes, the rx is attached just via velcro.
I was doing that in my glow planes, just putting some velcro in the fuse and sticking on the rx. I had a Cessna Skylane w/.46 engine.
Plane looked really good in the air. However on its 4th flight, about 6 minutes into it, I was doing a slow left hand turn when the plane wouldn't respond to anything. It spiraled in from 150 feet. Upon checking, I found the crystal was fractured. I was using a Hitec 6 channel rx. I surmise that this may have been due to vibration and I had the Electron rx just velcro'd to the side of the fuse.

Dave...

Yes, glow planes produce a lot of vibration that electrics and sailplanes don't have to contend with. having said that, I normally pad my receivers in my glow and electric planes.