Lost my plane!
 

Bad day at the field.
Well, it started off well enough. I just finished putting together my brand new avistar with its brand new OS .46 ax engine and decided to maiden it today.
It flew great, much better than the flat bottomed trainer I am used to. In no time at all I was putting her through the basic moves, rolling, looping and then practicing touch and goes. It was a fantastic aircraft.
Then, all of a sudden, during level flight, she pointed her nose straight down, lost all radio control and disappeared into an area of woods. 3 hours of searching until the sun went down and no luck. It is raining and my plane is gone.
This has happened to me before, causing the destruction of my previous aircraft, and I thought it was because I had neglected to fully charge the receiver battery. This time I took no chances and charged the battery for 16 hours.
Other pilots were at the field and none of them noted any interference and none of them were close to my frequency. I can only conclude that my battery pack is faulty, losing its charge and causing servo lock.
This hurts. A lot.
It's not only the financial loss but going from the elation of flying something very well to utter despair.
Well, time to regroup and start again.

Ray

RE: Lost my plane!
 

Very sorry to hear that. What kind of battery was it? Was it the standard Futaba flight pack? It's hard to believe it would go that bad that quickly, but I am no expert.

RE: Lost my plane!
 

Really sorry to hear that...

It's one thing to have a plane crash beyond repair, at least you can salvage pieces.

It's totally another to have the plane... disappear.

Look again, remember to keep looking up, and always remember, a plane almost ALWAYS is further away than you think it is...

Hopefully you'll find it, and hopefully it won't be a total loss... If nothing else.. It'd be nice to have the outside chance of finding the cause of the problem...

RE: Lost my plane!
 

Do you have the capability to test your battery under a current load? Also I have seen where a loose connection in the on/off switch can have the same result. It will be acting just fine and from the vibration of operation the connection is lost and the plane stops responding. Other possibilities include problems inside your receiver or transmitter. My point is once a problem is identified check everything that you are qualified to check thouroughly and have a qualified person check everything else.

RE: Lost my plane!
 

Also check the switch and ALL connectors.

Sorry for the loss. When looking, look for flashes of color or pieces of wood. You will probably not see the whole plane until you're right on it. Keep looking up, too. It might not have come all the way down.

Dr.1

RE: Lost my plane!
 

How long were you flying?

RE: Lost my plane!
 

Don't give up on finding it. I lost one in a deep, heavly overgrown creek bed and gave up after a couple weeks looking. There is a power line running parallel to the creek and I saw the power company out looking at lines. I went down and ask them to take a look for me, which they did. No luck so at that point, I gave up all hope. Some three months later, an Ex member of the club was at the field and the subject of my plane came up. He boldly said "I'll find it". and damn if he didn't the next day. The wing and landing gear were lost, but I got the engine batteries, receiver ane three of the five servos digital servos. I pulled the engine apart and cleaned it and it ran just fine. I charged the battery and it was fine. The receiver was sent in to Futaba for a check out and they replaced a second party crystal that I hand in it. The servos were fine. It laid out there through the rainy season, but the fuselage was like a tent over the stuff and everything that was found was OK.

Go back to the field and replay where it went down. Guessing the distance is a problem, but you may have a line to search, or at least a fan. Don't forget to look up also. Mine made it to the ground, but shead the wings, landing gear, and tail fins on the way through the canopy of the trees. Good luck.

Don

RE: Lost my plane!
 

Stand exactly where you were when the crash happened. Sight the spot you last saw it. Use a compass to follow the straight line and you're bound to find it.

Dr.1

RE: Lost my plane!
 

I almost one of my plane. I charche the battery for the night, and the next day iwent to flight.
I dint check the battery before flyinf. I took the plane in the air. the first turn the plane turn and then when up at the same time. I tought that my finger that make up. Second turn and the same thing happend, i landded .

check the receiver batteries and the voltage show 4.3v. i check the plane on ground and the plane responded errectic. So i quit flying and bought a new batteri pack.

RE: Lost my plane!
 

Voltwatch, only $10.99, much cheaper than a plane, all my glow planes have one and always will.

RE: Lost my plane!
 

I have a voltwatch in all of my planes, but i also check with a volmeter every couple flights, all i really have the voltwatch for is to make sure i didn't leave the battery on. But as of determining that last flight i use the esv.

Austin

RE: Lost my plane!
 

What radio were you using, we have had a couple guys that lost planes using the 6ex. Futaba finally sent replacements for the tx"s. There was some type of glitch in them. I heard they stopped prod. on that model.

RE: Lost my plane!
 

Thanks for the replies and the advice.
I am going back to the field this morning to try to find it again, I really don't want to lose that engine.
The radio is a 6 channel JR and the receiver and battery are standard JR equipment.
I was flew about 4 10 minute flights before she went down.
I guess I have just learned the hard way that a volt meter is not an optional extra on the runway.

RE: Lost my plane!
 

May I emphasize that you get volt meter capable of testing the battery under a load. Many batteries will show full voltage when not being drawn upon but when they are drawn on they will drop significantly if the pack is weak. The draw is to show you your operational voltage while the pack is in use.

RE: Lost my plane!
 

I hope you find your plane. Cant imagine what it would feel liek to crash something of that level.

RE: Lost my plane!
 

That is excelent advise. As an old free-flighter I have spent many hours looking for models. With RC it is not as common, but still happens. If you can get a military type lensatic compass it will work great but any style will do.

jess

RE: Lost my plane!
 

get a compass for sure! does our post time go off of the op's time zone? it is already 11/29 for TZflyer huh? thats cool, he is going to look for his plane and i just put my plane up for the evening a few hours ago!!

RE: Lost my plane!
 

This is about the best method to find a lost plane its what I did when I crashed my Mustang, well I didn't have a compass with me. The day I crashed my Mustang I walked out about half way from the point I was and where the main road west of our field is and couldn't find my plane so I started a zig zag pattern back to where I was standing. Still no luck so I went back put my radio down and took a good look at where I saw it hit and started straight for that spot and when I got to my turn around point the last time, I could tell it was the same place because I noticed that an animal had been bedding down there probably a deer. Well this time I walked about another 10 yards at most and there was my plane.

Oh by the way make sure you check ARTF or RTF planes when you get them. When I got that Mustang the reciever switch was left on from factory and the battery was bad, that isn't what caused this crash, oops over aggresive flying and two stalls caused that one. I had to learn the hard way about that battery, I put that in my Nexstar and it was fine for about 5 mins or so the I lost elevator Aileron and throttle were ok for about another min but I wasn't set up for my landing yet I was close but not close enough. Well that time I got it on the ground with a broken prop and a bent front landing gear. So yes a good battery checker is a must, I said I had to learn the hard way but I'm not stupid.

Here is a good battery checker that will check under load and discharge batterys.

http://www3.towerhobbies.com/cgi-bin...&I=LXEYM6&P=ML

RE: Lost my plane!
 

I think I paid less than $20 for the Hobico ESV I bought a week or two ago at my LHS. Fortunately I had my old batteries tested before catastrophe by my instructor, but his catching what my $300+ Digital multimeter didn't have convinced me to buy the thing, (Actually the model multi meter I have was far more expensive new, but its about 15 years old so is prolly more like $100 or less now.[&:].) Course the test leads were another $10, but so what $25 or so for piece of mind and knowing that if you use the tools you have you are far less likely to lose a bird over batteries.

RE: Lost my plane!
 

Found my plane this morning!
An hours searching yielded results, found her hanging in a tree.
I took your advice and followed a straight line from where I was standing and the crash site was just quite a bit further away than I initially thought.
The damage isn't too severe, wing is dented and my tail came off but should be fixed and up in the air again next week.
Engine and radio gear is completely undamaged.
The servos were still moving this morning, so much much for my dead battery theory. I must be picking up some kind of interference.
This has caused two major crashes for me and I wont allow for a third, I am looking to buy a 2.4 ghz system. Have any of you had experience with this type of radio (its a spektrum)? Is it worth changing from my "conventional" radio?
Thanks for the help.

Ray

RE: Lost my plane!
 

AWESOME!


....and dont fly it 40 minutes again without charging it! [8D]

RE: Lost my plane!
 

Thanks Jester,
I will definitely give it a full charge before getting up again.
I plugged all my servos in, and the battery still turns them in spite of being on all night. Guess it isn't the battery after all.
I spoke to someone who repairs JR radios and he thinks I may have damaged a filter in the rx in a previous crash and this might be causing the intermittent failures. I am going to buy a new rx today and see if that fixes my problem.

RE: Lost my plane!
 

I would'nt fly anything else..................I've had Spectrum for 8months now with no problems,glad you found your plane.

RE: Lost my plane!
 

Ray, you have my best wishes with you, what a great story of loss and triumph. I think 2.4ghz is a great recommendation ... the cost is minimal compared to your heartache and potential financial losses.

- K

RE: Lost my plane!
 

I suggest repairing the plane to where you can run the engine. The get a helper to do an extended range test, with the engine running for several minutes. While the problem might be fixed by installing a new receiver, it might not. Only by reproducing the failure and then determining the actual failing component will you be sure that you're not going to have yet another crash.