Hi, Question for you guru's of the r/c world......I just purchased my Alpha trainer and hope to take her out tomorrow. I noticed that when I power up the plane without the transmitter turned on, it makes no buzzing sound at all, however if I turn on the transmitter, I get a slight buzzing sound. (I'm assuming this buzzing is caused by the servos vibrating back and forth) Please let me know if this is a problem, or is just a minor glitch. The servos all seem to have no binding or rubbing, and seem to turn perfectly. By the way, The plane is equipped with JR 527 servos and a JR Quattro transmitter.....let me know if this is normal or I have a problem....Thanks

over charged batterys. Will go away after a couple of flights.

Are you working on your plane in the basement near neon lights by any chance Also you may be too near your plane with a collasped antenna I would advise you that while you at the field check your battery after each flight. A bad sevo can drain a battery very quickly.

With the transmitter turned off, and the receiver not picking up any signal to try to make the servos "work", the servos will get no commands from your receiver to do anything and will remain quiet.

When you turn on your transmitter and receiver the transmitter tells the receiver to tell the servos to move where the sticks are indicating... usually center on everything except throttle (since that stick stays where you put it). Any tension against the servos when they are commanded into a position will cause the slight buzzing you hear. It is normal and should be nothing to worry about.

Now, with that said, the ideal situation is to have nothing causing the servos to "work" when the controls are centered. Have an experienced buddy check out the control setup in the plane to make sure no surfaces are binding and that no linkage is binding and the linkage is properly adjusted. Servos draw current when they work and if you have one or more that are constantly fighting to remain in position they will drain your battery faster than servos without a load against them.

Please don't turn the reciever on without first turning the transmitter on. You've been lucky so far but with no transmitter on many receivers will pick up all sorts of garbage out of the air and drive the servos to extremes, sometimes damaging them etc. In electric planes the motor can start unexpectedly.

Always transmitter first, then plane ! When switching off it's the reverse. Plane off, then transmitter.

Steve

More than likely, this is nothing to worry about. Most radios do this. But just to be on the safe side, make sure that the control surfaces that the servos are attached to are not binding. If they are, the servos could be trying to return to neutral but are having a bit of a struggle because they have to push/pull too hard against the control surface. Disconnect each pushrod from the servo (Sometimes it's easier just to unscrew the servo arm) and move the control surface through it's full range to ensure there is no binding. A servo fighting against binding will draw more power and quickly flattening your battery pack resulting in a crash. If there is binding, find the cause and fix it. You will be thankful you did.

Thanks everyone for all your help. There doesn't seem to be any binding at all, and hopefully (weather permitting) my r/c friend from work will take her up today and give me my first lesson. I will remember to always turn the transmitter on first, and maybe after a little flying, the noise will go away. I'll have him check everything out.

You are doing the absolute smart thing by having your experienced friend check it out and take the first flight. But there is one thing you said in your post. I will fly it around and maybe
the noise will go away. Never ever take off with a small problem and hope that it fixes itself while in flight. Mostly small problems on the ground turn into big problems in the air. Good luck and pretty soon you will be the one giving a check ride to a newbie :idea:

Well my friend checked it out and didn't think it was a problem. I had a great day, my buddy flew the plane for a while, adjusted trim and she flew great. He handed it over to me and I did really well except one time I had to hand over the controls to him when I got disoriented. There were quite a few experienced older gentleman there who helped us out and flew the plane also, commenting what a very good trainer they thought it was. We were flying at an old abandoned airstrip in New Jersey. I'm so glad that everything went so well, and we didn't put a scratch on the plane......this is going to be an enjoyable hobby(obsession) for me. By the way I didn't attempt any landings, but maybe next time out.

Congratulations and welcome aboard!!!

Thanks Post hole....

Flinylock, when you're starting out, never "attempt" a landing. Fly a rectangular pattern around the field, with the closest leg right over the runway. Keep practicing this until your rectangle has 4 straight lines and 4 90* angles and the close leg is right over the runway.

THEN, start throttling back on the downwind leg (the leg opposite the close one), and practice getting low and keeping it over the runway, then power up and go around again. If you're not lined up right, don't do any wild "S" turns, just fly straight, and try for a better line-up next time.

Eventually, you alignment, speed, and altitude will all be correct and you just don't add throttle to go around. You will sort of "land by default" so to speak.

This approach eliminates the "ok, this time I'm gonna do it" jitters, because you never know when you're gonna do it, it just happens.