Jim_Purcha

My Feedback: (8)

I had my swift flying for 10 flights at the local soccer field. Not too bad of a plane. Decided to move over to the regular rc field. Launched into the wind and made three circuits. On the final circuit I was flying from my left towards my right side. I turned my head to see the plane overhead, but did not initialy see it. It came straight down. One of the other club members said I came out of the turn level, then suddenly the plane went straight down.... full throttle. He figures it was radio interference.

I replaced the stab with one from the Freedom, purchased at the LHS. Reglued the right wing together (it had broke during the crash). I launched it a couple of nights ago on a calm evening. It started to gain altitude but verred to the right and nosed in. Additional damage to the plastic around the motor. I've sent for a replacement fuselage and the proper tail. To bad HZ didn't sell the fuselage as one item and the boom as another, it would have made shipping cheaper.

Witterings

Swift - YUK - My worst plane, eventually having totalled and rebuilt it several times moved onto something else and thank goodness.
Had a Super Cub before (fantastic learner) and then this thing that tip stalled horribly, try replacing all the electrics into a new fusalage and connecting the rear Servo easily, have never had anything so hard to work on. Did much the same as someone else movd both the ailerons up just to get it to head away from the ground on take off, have gotten warped wings as brand new replacements and how I managed to get it down on the ground without totalling it again to take the wings back to the LHS and get a refund I'll never know but luck not judgement. Then again nothing whatsoever you could see wrong with the plane (landed it checked everyting over and launched again) and just wouldn't fly true evetually causing it to spiral into the ground for the last time. It got so bad I thought it can't be me so I bought something else a Multiplex Minimag and gues what it wasn't me !!!!!
The aerobatics are terrible, try rolling it at less than 30,000 ft, there are much better built planes, take knocks better and will take you to a higher level / perform better, neater aerobatics !!!
To recap where I started worst plane I've had !!!!!!!!!!!

Fourtypluskid

I posted a message on the Official Swift forum but since this one is for problems I'll post my issue here as well. I got a Swift about two months ago and I had a busted the throttle knob off, I got it fixed by Horizon under warranty so I am set. My problem is with the battery engine cutoff function. If the battery is has cut off a couple times and then rearmed the motor starts up again but if the throttle is brought back up too high the motor comes on full (with whatever voltage is left) and there is no control of the motor or ailerons.

Here is what I had in the other forum thread:

Sorry to drop in to this thread, I'm a newbie. I've learned some good things about the Swift here so far, so I hope you can help me with some technical questions before I contact Horizon tech support. I've had a PZ J-3 for 3+ years and wanted to move to an aileron plane so I got an Aerobird Swift a couple months ago and flew it several times succesfully before busting the throttle knob off the transmitter 5 days after getting it. Thankfully Horizon quckly repaired/replaced it under warranty. The weather has not been good for flying since (winter has returned in WNY) so I havn't flown it yet. Here is what I am concerned about that seems odd with the plane: when the battery runs low and after the receiver software cuts off the motor, if I bring the throttle slider down to 0 and then back to full throttle the motor runs again however I have no control of the airelons or the motor anymore. I turn off the transmitter and the motor keeps running. Is my Swift 's receiver software defective or is this designed to discharge the battery completely? I am just worried about this happening during a long flight and then loosing control and crashing.

next post:
OK, so I'm fickle. I called Horizon tech support this morning anyway and explained what was going on and the tech said the plane should not behave that way (as DaxFX indicated with the the circular auto landing). The way The_Mongrel describes the motor cut-off is the way the J-3 works, the motor cuts off but there is still control of the plane so you can land it. What happens now is the motor comes back on and stays on even if you turn off the transmitter and stays on until you unplug the battery or it is dead. No aileron control or motor control. The tech wants me to send the whole thing back to Horizon to be replaced. It sounds like DaxFX is having the same thing happen to him, is his defective also?

next post:
OK, I've spent the last hour or more testing and measuring the voltage on the battery on the Swift running it full throttle until the motor stops and then reset it to zero and brought the slider up again to 50% throttle. Here are my observations: When the battery is nearly depleted and reaches about 6.0-5.5v the motor cuts out, and the motor can be repeatedly brought back if the voltage comes back up above 6.5-7.0v (comes back up with no motor load on it). If the motor is brought to full throttle or increased enough to cause the battery to drop to 4.5v all of a sudden the motor is running and there is no control. I think the low voltage causes the logic board to lock up and keep the FET controlling the motor energized and the voltage continues to drop. I think that this is happening to DaxFX's Aerobird as well. Is this by design? Not according to the Horizon tech. The question is if there are other Swift 's that do behave normally (don't lock-up at low battery). If this is just how the circuitry works then sending it back won't make a difference.

So is the motor coming on and no aileron control by design or is mine truly defective?

lawndart63

Didn't know there was another thread for the Swift so I'll put this down here also. When doing the initial check outs after assembly,
when running down the battery "Don't leave the room" observe the following: does the motor shut-off and are the flight controls still
operable? If the motor gets to a point and just continues to windmill with no power check the flight controls, do they operate?
Probably not. Contact HZ customer support they know of the problem and will work to get you a new plane.
"Don't attempt to fly it"