Cap X dies:

Sunday, my cap X locked up at about 75' up, did a few strange things and proceeded to mother earth, about 5-7 seconds of no control, nothing!!!. On the way down, a few elevator porporseing and bang. Post mortum shows all servos (8611's) operating ok, batteries (SR) ok, switch ok, everything ok except receiver (10X) which may have died in the crash, but no physical damage. All my controls to the gass engine were in ny-rod, no metal, everything at least 12" from the receiver.

Lately, I see servos a few inches from the engine for convenience and ease of setup, metal rods or cable to the motor, and a lot of related no-nos in getting close to the engines ignition system. I am from the age where we did not dare use metal to metal connections of any sort, or problems would follow. In todays world with a good radio system such as the JR 10X, what are reasonable guide lines with respect to radio/servo installations in gassers. Am building another X gasser, and don't want to see her go from anything but my dumb thumbs. That I can live with ok, especially with my thumbs. Would appreaciate any guidance from the guys in the know!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

rmenke,

I would be willing to bet that the root of your problem was a receiver failure not interferance. Assmuing you have an electronic ignition engine, most modern engines have little risk of interferance.

I have planes with hundreds of flights on them with the throttle and choke servos within 6 inches of the engine.

Have that RX checked.

Good Luck!

EDave:

Have you used metal push rods/cable in the throttle/choke installations also without problems? Receiver is on its way for repairs, not working after the crash. Thanks

rmenke,

For really short runs I use 4-40 nyrod and anything more than 4 or 5 inches or so I use 5/32 Carbon Fiber with Titanium ends. I have never had a problem with either setup. This is with ZDZ and DA engines, Futaba RX\TX and JR/Hitec servos.