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I'm NEVER going to THAT FIELD again!

Hi;

I thought I found a great new place to toss around a parkflyer last weekend - the park was a little crowded (for my flying ability, anyway), so I happened upon this soccer field next to an elementary school. It was deserted and, I thought, perfect.

So I get the plane up in the air, going in widening circles. When the plane's path crosses about the middle of the field it suddenly takes a full-throttle power dive into the earth, almost as if I had purposely driven it in!

I went and picked up the pieces - there was pretty much damage up front to the nose area, but still repairable. Like an idiot, I thought to myself "bad battery connections."

I made my repairs, came back another day, and with nice, tight battery connections this time, I launched again, and again, discovered it had nothing to do with batteries - another full-throttle dive into the earth, hard enough this time to knock the motor free of the plane (still repairable, though. Man, I love foam!)

As I'm walking to the plane this time, I'm looking around and (I had missed this before) there seems to be some sort of electrical box, just over a rise, out of sight from where I launch. I can only imagine it is some sort of transformer, powering the lights around the small sports track next to the soccer field, and the cause of my glitches. Seems odd, though, almost as if it is designed to send out a "full down elevator and full throttle" signal. It is remarkable how straight (and how fast) the plane plunged right into the earth.

The receiver, if you're interested, was a Hitec 555 Dual Conversion (which survived both of these crashes, plus a few others to boot), although I don't blame the receiver at all. I think I sent it into a bad, bad environment. Also, at this time, I have to re-think my strategy of keeping the antenna wire bundled around the inside of the plane, although, I suppose if a bad signal is going to interfere with a good signal, they both have equal access to the antenna, wherever it is...

Dan.

Reply to
BykrDan
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Try doing a range check. Leave your transmitter on where you normally stand and walk the plane out to the field and see if the control surfaces go wacky when you get far enough out. It still may be your receiver, you mentioned that it had been in a few crashes. I had a problem with what I thought was the speed control cutting out on me, when it fact it was the receiver losing signal. Wrapping the antenna around a popsicle stick doesn't seem to cause me any problems, but we don't have much interferance at our field. Try extending the cable as much as you can and see if it helps.

Reply to
Normen Strobel

For some reason, this is typical interference behavior. My local park has three such areas, all of which I've learned to avoid when flying single-conversion receivers.

This is probably the true source of your troubles. Yes, you can wrap the antenna around some non-conductive material (like a popsicle stick), but doing so shortens the reception range. Thus, the receiver is more likely to be overwhelmed by noise.

Let it all hang out, so to speak.

Moe

Reply to
Moe Blues

I'd almost guarantee that bundling up your RX antennae was the cause of your crashes. You probably wouldn't even THINK of flying your plane with the antennae all the way down on your Transmitter.. so why in the world are you doing the equivilant with your Receiver antennae?

MJC

Reply to
MJC

Odd. Usually the ESC's give up and the plane loses power and twitches under interference..

Reply to
The Natural Philosopher

I do it all the time. Mostly, it works.

Well enough for 500 meters or so.

The man has a point tho. If teh aerial is cr@p its also cr@p at picking up interference.

Mu setups have RANGE allright, but suffer from INTERFERENCE. I can happily fly up to 500 meters plus, but cominh in over THAT bit of field...and yes, its a twitch. Its only 20-50meters away from me.

The bigger stuff with longer aerial runs behaves just the same.

One day I'll get to the bottom of it.

Reply to
The Natural Philosopher

The "you shoudda asked permission to fly there" gremlin got you !

Reply to
lithops

Thanks for all the tips - before I really do give up the field totally, I'll do the walkaround with the plane in hand, an the TX sitting on the car, but I'm pretty sure I'm going to find a line where the motor kicks on and the elevator jams full down. It may just be a place to avoid (or fly a different channel).

Reply to
BykrDan

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