Toronto Electric Model Aviation Club Forum

Toronto Electric Model Aviation Club (TEMAC) => General Discussion => Topic started by: bfeist on July 22, 2012, 09:36:29 PM

Title: Enigma F5B Maintenance
Post by: bfeist on July 22, 2012, 09:36:29 PM
I got that sick flash of adrenaline in the pit of my stomach when my Enigma was diving from altitude for a high-speed pass when the plane suddenly gave neutral elevator for a split second then resume my control input for a slight climb. Neutral is my fail-safe setting. Luckily the glitch didn't happen when closer to the ground. I recovered before the pass and then came around for a "that's enough of that" landing.

Upon inspection, one of the two antennas in my FrSky RX had been severed from too much rough handling when removing the power pack over time. I was flying on only one side of the diversity receiver and the carbon and kevlar was blocking the signal at certain attitudes. Luckily I was able to repair the RX with a spare receiver antenna I have on hand.

Just a cautionary tale to remind everyone to investigate unusual behaviour when it happens, even if you're not sure whether the cause was you dumb-thumbing something or an actual problem with your plane.
Title: Re: Enigma F5B Maintenance
Post by: Ededge2002 on July 23, 2012, 02:51:04 PM
Wow. Thank goodness it recovered quickly. 1second at 100mph can be a long way!  Hope your butt muscles have recovered from that clench!
Title: Re: Enigma F5B Maintenance
Post by: sihinch on July 23, 2012, 08:10:22 PM
Along similar lines, I've just looked to figure out what went wrong with my F 22. I've confirmed what I suspected, it wasn't my error this time!

My servo wire looks to have got caught in the fan somehow. Anyway, it's fixable.