Well I took the Duraplane out tonight. The threat of bad weather coming caused me to go in a little more wind than I like but I went.

It flew really nice for half a tank then all of a sudden it wouldn't respond to anything. No throttle, no rudder, no elevator, and finally NO ALTITUTE!!!!!

Well I tested voltage before I left the house and the reciever was at 5.21 volts, after it read 4.62 volts and the TX was at 80%. (Never goes to more than 85%)

Does anyone think this could have been battery related? I have crashed this plane a few times already and I may have lost another connection?

Well, now I will have to wait till I get another flight on the buddy box (with my 60 size trainer) and hopefully I can then solo. My instructor said that I could now but I want one more landing first.

The duraplane was my plane for when I am alone. I have my scratch built waiting for that motor to be put back on so I may have to do just that.

Hope you are all having a good weekend. Mine is sure to get better!

Del

delbert,

Sorry to see that happen. If you head down to Lowe's or HD you should be able to get a chunk of gutter pipe for a new fuselage and be flying in no time.

Hogflyer

"Does anyone think this could have been battery related? I have crashed this plane a few times already and I may have lost another connection?"

It probably wasn't the battery itself but could easily have been a loss of power to the RX. It MAY be that your switch is bad/intermittant or just exhibiting high resistance. These factory switches are a cheap design and most are subject to damage during a crash.

Due to prior crashes it could also be something in the RX that is intermittant or the crystal. A thorough investigation is in order if you don't want to risk another plane. I'd suggest sending in the radio for testing along with the servos. Send in or replace the switch, they're cheap as I said before.

Tessting the battery through the charging connector doesn't tell you what is getting to the RX. You need to test at the RX with an ESV or voltwatch.

I wasn't going to go spend time with it till tomorrow, but I went down and turned everything on and it seemed to work fine on the bench.

Yeh bruce it will be tough to trust it without a thorough test.

Sorry to hear about the crash. I crashed mine last weekend but got the new ARF today and she's ready to go again. Hope the rest of your weekend goes well.

Delbert,

Please don't take this as criticism...BUT!!

You have a heavy plane, for it's size. You have admitted inexperience. You have shown that it works on the ground ...after the crash......



My guess is that you MAY have over-controlled a stalled or nearly-stalled airplane to death. It happens to all of us. My opinion is just that, so believe what you will.

I have some advice too. (WORTH EVERY PENNY I CHARGE): Don't buy OR fly airplanes that are designed to take a crash...they FLY like dog doo and have arguably similar aerodynamic characteristics. Buy and fly models that are designed to actually fly. Do you drive a TANK to work? (Please do not answer this question if you are currently active military and actually DO drive a TANK to work...that would ruin my analog).


Learn to fly, spend HUNDREDS OF HOURS continuing to learn, buy the best airplanes you can afford and never allow anyone to dictate your style....ever.


Good luck!!







OH YEAH and..... GO PACKERS!! (I need a reliable and affordable source for Green and Gold paper bags with eye-holes and a big yellow 'G').

Age,

No critisism taken.

I did not buy this plane. It was given to me by my Stepfather, (I believe to spark my interest) and boy did it work. That is why I fly this when I can't get a trainer to the field.

Excuse my inexperience but what exactly do you mean by "MAY have over-controlled a stalled or nearly-stalled airplane to death"?

I had a very smooth flight going right up till I lost control. I couldn't even control throttle.

Del

......well,

It's pretty simple really. I offered my opinion based on what you claimed.

Its obviously not a battery issue. IMHO it's OBVIOUSLY not a RX issue. You thumbed it in, you asked a vague question here to see if there were some comiserants. There weren't and now you are defensive.

Happens all the time.


Listen to the people who irritate you the most. They are generally right.


Good luck!! This is the best hobby God invented. (Sorry to bother you).

mmmm, a battery that was charged to 5.2volts, half a flight and it is 4.6volts. I take it those readings were without load? Seems to me to be a battery related fault, that left you without power to the receiver during flight. Send in all radio components in for a check up before attempting another flight with that system.

Battery connection to the receiver? When you got it back to the pits or home, did you reseat the connections before you tried it? How far out was it when it was 'unresponsive'?

It could've would've should've if you weren't reading battery volts with a meter that puts a load on the battery. then it could've been the battery....I've seen brand new spectrum switches bad from the box. perhaps if the connections were looked at, or a range check had of been done after your crashes, this last crash would've not happened. I am surprised that you hesitate to solo with your instructor but you fly alone away from your field with ease..perhaps you should've spent more time with your instructor.
good luck with your fixin, have fun.

Not sure what you mean about your Tx battery never goes past 85%??..if it was only at 80% than its discharged %20? that would put my tx down to 8.9 volts and it would fail at 8.5 volts....course it could have been a 3 second glitch that you couldnt recover from no matter what...had that happen, check to see the xtal is in snug too.....Rog

Well if your using the same reciever after 3 crashes and have not sent it back to be check, expect a few more crashes until you do. Also if I understand this right, you flew and crashed this plane several times and you have yet to solo a trainer? So much for the system.

If all of the flight controls stopped moving and the throttle servo would not move then you certainly did not stall the aircraft....well, it may have stalled after that happened. I would not suspect the servos because it's not likely that all of them failed at once. Really it has to be the switch, the battery or the receiver. Try moving your controls on the bench while you wiggle the switch around...you may find an intermittent problem while you are wiggling it. If switches get a bit dirty they will get intermittent. It could be the TX but I really doubt that too. You could also move the controls around while you bend and wiggle the wiring around from the switch and the battery or try lightly tapping on the RX. A lot of times this will show an intermittent open. Intermittent electronic problem can be very hard to find and will drive you bananas. Good luck finding the problem and keep us posted.

Delbert, another thought....I don't know how far the a/c was, but is it possible that the a/c got out of the transmitters range?

send the entire radio system in for a checkup before you fly again.todays radios are designed to operate even if one cell in the rx pack goes bad.you may find that the tx battery could be the problem.I have sent systems in that were working fine for a checkup[preventive maintenance] only to get a system back that is back to factory specs and a bag of small replaced parts that were found to be bad some from the rx,some from the tx.

Send it in to where/who?

If the manufacturer still services them usually current models and those 5 years old or less send it in to them.for older equipment send to radio south.,they repair almost anything.I have 30+ year old kraft units they keep in top condition as well as jr century equipment or futaba gold systems.what brand radio are you flying?JR,Futaba,Airtonics,HITECH AND HOW OLD IS IT?

Aerowoof:

Interesting statement, you wouldn't happen to have a reference for that believe would you?

go back to 1972 when the three wire servos were introduced.before thjat servos had 4 wires and if a cell in the rx pack went bad you had it.

What brand of radio is it?? That will determine where you send it.

But that advice is spot on correct. If a plane has been involved in a crash you should consider all of the onboard components suspect (yes, even the servos) and should be checked before reuse. Unless you know for a fact what caused the crash (like dumb thumbs), and it wasn't the switch, then you should throw away the switch. In your case where you lost complete radio functions the switch is certainly suspect and should be replaced. Trust me, it's cheap insurance. Receivers should never be used after a crash until they have been check by a service center. Make sure that you tell them it was involved in a crash so they know to inspect the circuit board. Putting a receiver back in a plane after a crash is just begging to lose another plane. I've seen this happen too many times with other pilots, and all I can do is shake my head and wonder why they are being so dumb. Servos usually don't need to be sent in for service, but do need to be inspected before reuse. Crashes can damage gear trains which can result in lose of function when put back in use. Most brands of servos make gear replacements for their servos, so you can rebuild/repair them yourself.

Thoughts listed above about flying out of range are more than likely not likely. They rule of thumb for our radios is that you can control them farther away than you can see. These radios have a range of about a mile to a mile and a half. Trust me, at a mile away you wouldn't be able to see the plane any longer. So I wouldn't worry about that.

Hope this helps

Ken

How much does it cost to get an everything checked (including servos, radio, reciever, swtiches, etc.)? Or does it vary too much?

varies place to place some charge by the hour in 1/4 hour blocks others offer a deal on system checks.
http://www.radiosouthrc.com/radio_repair.htm

Thanks for all the input.

Agexpert, I wasn't irritated by anyones opinion. ("comiserants")? I had to look it up in the dictionary! I think you meant commiserate. And I wasn't looking for pity. I fully expected to hear critisisms. The reason I don't believe I flew it to the ground is as I said before, I couldn't get it to respond to any of the 3 channels. I watched it sail for about 150' at about a 20 degree angle without a change in orientation. I made a mistake (apparently). But I believe it was a mechanical mistake? And I wanted to share for the benefit of others. Also for my own benefit.

I don't have a load checker so I checked voltage with a digital voltmeter. This may be my problem but from what I am hearing it may likely have been the switch. I will check it and let all know what I find.

Thanks again,

Del

Aerowoof

I'm sorry to ask so many questions, but I'm really new at this. Are you telling me that my receiver will work at 3.6 volts?