I notice that you were using a non-standard 5dBi antenna on your transmitter. This achieves 3dB more gain normal to the antenna axis by reducing the gain at higher elevation angles (relative to a standard 2dBi monopole). Also the quickest way of blowing up the rf amp is if the antenna becomes disconnected or the antenna wire breaks or if it shorts out. The impedance mismatch because of the broken wire (or short) causes the transmitter power to be reflected back into the amp causing large rf voltages to be developed in the amp (SWR) and it goes POP!!! It probably wasn't this, but it's something to consider when changing the standard antenna.
You're sooo bang on .. the handset had a swr meter in it and while working was actually great. It was my mod of the new rf wire had let go and cooked the amp.
I'm not trying to put you down, but you said you've been working on this plane for months. I slowed the video down and saw a rats nest of wires inside the canopy that's a No No in my past experience, and second at the 1:37 mark you put some Ca inside the cockpit on 2 spots for some reason, what's that about? I didn't see you range check and then you flew a lot farther away from yourself than I would have on a maiden to check things out first. I've made my share of mistake's in this hobby and I've learn from them and other people's mistake's. As they say in RC flying Shit Happens. Better Luck next time.
Being 2 years ago i cant 100% remember what the ca was for but im pretty sure it was a loose piece of velcro on the side that held the vario sensor in place .. as for the rats nest atleast i took the rats out prior .. range wise ive had this remote out wayy past 2kilometers .. the failure was unfortunate the handsets rf amp , unfortunately i lost a 2nd (smaller ) aircraft to this same fault the week after that i had flown hundreds of times
geez man, I'm so sorry to see that! I know the feeling, it's absolutely gutting.. I've lost an expensive balsa aerobat on maiden once in a lockout too.. My heart goes out to you bro
Ouch - feel sorry for your loss. What a beautiful glider and what an amazing flying site. It Happens to all of us eventually - i've lost some helis. I do have some gliders (Epsilon XL3 4 meter, Mantis 2 2,9 meter and a Robbe Mistral 2 meter). They only have 2 flight each because they are quite new. And the Mistral has not flown yet - waiting for a good day to testflight. They all have a variometer onboard.
As a seasoned Free Flight competitor I got REALLY REALLY good at repairing model aircraft. My "best effort" was smashing a Free Flight power duration model every fortnight for six months before I eventually got the model trimmed. Mainly due to the fact I was flying it with an engine I had modified giving some 0.57 bhp when the model was designed for an engine of about 0.22 bhp. Even when trimmed it wouldn't hold trim in the Australian sun so I remade wings and tailplane to geodetic rib construction and THEN it became consistent. So collect all the bits and carefully and methodically put it all back together. Use cyano, epoxy, carbon fibre sheet, rods and cloth. Go over the electrical connections very carefully - with an eyeglass. Flex the wings, tail and fin etc. whilst having someone cycle the controls to see it you can replicate the fault. Flying off a slope you may well have just encountered a spiralling turbulence. Less likely to occurr flying off flat terrain. A Psychologist once told me I was stubborn. I told her I thought it was an asset. NEVER. EVER, give up.
A lot goes through your mind when this happens, is it really not responding, sure I checked everything, did I check everything, is it going to disappear into the distance never to be seen again or will it kamikaze into the sea or the cliff out of reach, oh god it’s coming back! I’m not controlling it, it’s going to hit someone or someone’s car. Amazing how quickly everything and more is processed in those vital seconds. The positives are it did come back, it didn’t cause anyone else loss or injury and you didn’t have to scale a cliff or go for a swim. You also get to check and analyse, as you did. The only advise I can give anyone in a situation like this is keep flying it, even if you believe it’s already lost, there’s always the chance you will regain that link and save it. I’ve seen people shout brown out and give up only to find on recovery of what’s left that everything is working again. Sometimes, no matter how many checks, how carefully you prep, fingers crossed as well, **it still happens. Don’t lose confidence and don’t be too hard on yourself. Out of interest what receiver(s) were you using? I run Hitec so a vested interest. Had a DG1000 go in and totally blame myself but never really got to the bottom of it. The DG1000 was in poor shape after with stress cracks throughout the fuse, stabiliser pretty much detached, wing joiner two inches forward from where it started etc. All now fixed and Kevlar & carbon reinforced so better shape now than before. Took about a year but no rush and didnt think it was possible. On closer inspection it still shows it’s war wounds but in flight no one would know. Still a work in progress. Some plastic surgery and hopefully war wounds will be less visible. So don’t lose hope. Sure you can rebuild. With time and carbon everything is possible. Just believe it and it’ll happen. Got to say, when you did your fly pass it looked so cool. Best of luck and hope in time you get your ASW going again.
I believe the term is called a 'brown out'. Has happened to me. Never found out why but I took two 'unproven' preventative measures. Running on 2.4G, I now use a 5 cell AA pack for the receiver (not a 4 cell) and I make sure the receiver is not near any carbon fibre in the plane, which it was on the day of my accident.
Hey Ben, did you ever determine what happened? Beautiful plane. Is it possible you switched the transmitter off by accident somehow? I know it is probably not likely, but I think I have done this in my sordid past aircraft flying attempts! I hope you built an even better version!
I lost a motor glider (not nearly as impressive as yours) due to a battery connector (on an extension harness) failing as it was loose. Took me a while to find out. It was devastating, although I am sure your disappointment is justifiably deeper. Beautiful sailplane. I feel your pain.
A range test is important but is incidental to positioning the receiver/s antenna correctly. Most people in the hobby don't understand that the RF signal attenuates from the sides of the antenna on the transmitter and likewise is seen or received by the sides of the receiver antenna not the ends. In very basic terms and without considering other effects to do with reflecting and absorbtion of the transmitter signal, the signal "seen" by the receiver is a decaying logarithmic function of distance the source of transmitted signal is from the receiver. In other words receiver antenna placement is critical otherwise things like this will happen. It's simply a matter of being informed of the science of how your equipment works and nothing to do with the Boogey Man or "It wasn't meant to be". It was an expensive lesson to learn.
A maiden flight on what sounds like a windy day with no mention of a range check on a complicated electrical system is ringing alarm bells with me. Those gaps in the ailerons also looked a bit big, but that doesn’t seem to have been a factor in this case. I’d also be interested to know what brand of radio and type of receiver etc. was in use as I recently saw binding issues with 2 new Spektrum radios that the owners could not resolve, although I admit there could be many other reasons for their issue.
I wish I had been with you on your first fly it would not have been there it would be in a field on a calm day with a light breeze in my face I would have checked the radio range I would have checked the CG I would have done a hand launch into the wind and watched a gentle glide, your maiden fly should not be on a hillside that comes later after you have done many small hand flights to make sure it all works ok I had my ASW for five years it was a lovely flyer on the hillside
Sad 😔 indeed to lose a beautiful scale glider in such a way. Have you figured out what was wrong with your LiPo’s? I lost 1/4 ASW 26 in similar situation and since then I use Simprop Controler & Dual - twin Rx packs.
Very very sad to watch... But don't get discouraged, the hobby sometimes makes you work hard for no apparent reason. But remember, if you're not crashing, you are either, not flying or not trying hard. Kudos for such great sailplane.
I had a similar experience on my very first RC glider flight though mine was more to do with inexperience. I spent months building a fully balsa-ribbed 2m glider and tried to launch it with a tow-line in the local park. I lost control and it went in while still under full line tension and snapped the fuselage in half so it only flew for perhaps 5 seconds. The wings actually survived as the nose took the full force and the wings separated from the fuselage on impact but I was so disheartened that I never tried to rebuild it or build another again.
Doesn't look so bad! At least it's not a pile of shredded fiberglass. I would check both the RX's and transmitter for range and then fly them in a foamie and really range check them. Also I would check for other 2.4ghz signals in the area.
This recently happened to me with a brand new Volantex Phoenix, only I never did find my glider. It started off fine until I powered out of a tight spot. The only thing I could think of was that the receiver got fried when I applied full throttle as the receiver was rated for 6V and the battery was 9 or 11.
On all of my models I run two 5 cell battery packs with separate switches and charge jacks, before every flight I check the charge under load of each battery using a test meter with a built in load. I check the voltage on battery A then battery B. Next I turn on the switch for battery A and check the controls while on battery A only. Then I turn on the switch for battery B and turn off the switch for battery A and check the controls while on battery B only then I turn Battery A back on and check the controls while on both batteries A and B.
Very unlikely . That is the beauty of spread spectrum. Unless it is one h*ll of a source putting out huge wide and RF . The radio would gave bounced away from it in seconds.
I feel for ya man. I had a plane flying beautifully for weeks then one time I lost communication with it and down it came. At least mine was repairable. Sorry bout the bad luck man.
Oh Man! That sucks!! I would love to say I feel your pain and express my condolences for your loss, but I have not stopped LMAO. Been there as well- it is just part of what we do!
Feel for you friend, I built and tested a Top Flite Corsair after testing it for like 3 weeks and waiting for weather took off did one circle around the field and lost all electronics.. Hope you can rebuild her...
I'm very sorry. I recall years ago when I tried to teach myself how to fly RC...with windrifter and then powerpod on 100" wingspan glider,..my aircraft would sometimes come back in a 5-gallon bucket.
I noticed this too and also wondered if it was enough to shake something loose. I’ve had similar issues where everything is new. Stress tested all the new cables and plugs successfully. Everything works absolutely fine on the ground. Launch, only to find it's not doing exactly as it should. Land. Check and all is fine again. Eventually find a faulty servo connection that always fixed itself from the slight bump on landing. Very difficult to track down. Contrary to what you’d expect, cable plug had to be pushed home to action the issue. Never made sense. Changed the cable and issue solved. It doesn’t have to be much to action what appears to be loss of signal and frighten the cra*p out of you. Best advice is to keep flying it as if there is nothing wrong. Even when everything appears to be futile, keep flying it. Brownouts, interference, system issues can all rectify themselves in flight enough to give a pilot a chance. Many people panic too soon. Through their transmitters in the air shouting brownout. It can be that action in itself that causes fatal conclusion, where in some cases, if the pilot had continued to fly the glider they may have saved it, or at least mitigated the damage. Never give up. Keep flying.
A bit of glue and good as new. I have wrecked quite a few models. All models meet their maker in the end unless not flown. I hate smashing a model on its maiden after hours of balsa bashing. 😢
oh dear, what a tragedy. my sympathies. one question: what did you do with ZapAGap at minute 1:38? or did I see something wrong there? From my own experience, I have already wrecked a model aircraft because of the use of ZapAGap near electronic components that were damaged because of the fumes. Just curious... greetings from Switzerland
That is no fun. Especially the hours put into a nice build. That looks potentially repairable, hope it ultimately ended well. It sounds possible the Rx pack disconnected... you likely do this, but if not... _ALWAYS_ tape all connections. If anything can go wrong it will, so always lower the odds of failure.
Not knowing what gear he was using it is hard to judge. Personnaly I would not use regulators , I would have just used the LiFe straight. One less thing to go wrong. Also if it was Spectrum gear he might have had a brown out but I thought they had that one cured. The antenna would be my bet given the composite nature of the model. It was one advantage of pre spread spectrum days. The antenna routing was just about idiot proof. The modern spread spectrum gear requires a lot more thought. Either way. I am gutted to see such a beautiful model go in. Hard to. Judge but it looked like she could be repaired.
Ohhhh, that was hard to watch. Been seeing the build evolve over the months on FB, so sad to see all that hard work go down. You thought about Crossfire? I'ts quite a solid & reliable link & worth the extra $ for the piece of mind.
Bugger me, That's the most manic video that I have ever seen ! - My brain hurts (like my eyes), I need some Paracetamol, Brandy, and a lie down... However, I'm so sorry about the damage pal, just focus on getting it rebuilt ! There will always be another day. Mike
@Fred Smith absolutely i did ,Edwin is a bitch to get gear into fuz and I must have damaged antenna when putting reciever in. Didn't show on radio check pre flight .grrrr
Aww, poo. 😞For anybody who's not read the excellent Comment made by @richardo212 yet (maybe it needs to be Pinned?) it seems that the problem was caused by the use of a non-standard transmitter aerial. A fault in the new wiring meant that the RF-output module amplifier doobrie thingy [stop me if I'm getting too technical] got fried, turning the Tx into a digital paperweight. Verily, hindsight is a harsh mistress. Sometimes it's best to go with what the manufacturers supply. I'm far too dim and scared to mess with anything more complicated than dunking choccy Hobnobs in my tea, but even I test new RC gear in an expendable 'mule-plane' in case gravity strikes unexpectedly. Sadly, that old adage, "If it ain't broke, don't fix it" comes to mind. On the positive side, it was brave of you to upload this video; I'm sure it'll help someone else avoid a similar problem in future, so thank you.🙂
Unfortunately this is part of the hobby, Ive lost a fair few models over the 4 decades i have been flying, Some were dumb thumbs when learning but most were radio faiture ( im talking 35mhz inold days and later on spektrum here lol ) I changed to frsky a few years ago and never lost signals again. I see this was due to some mod you.did to the antenna though so at least you know what the problem was, nothing worse than having intermittent loss of control that can come once in maybe every 2 months and last berween 5 and 20 seconds as soektrum did ..
Na it was definitely 5m .. i still have the wreckage to measure if u dont believe send me ur email and ill reply with a photo that shows its true size .. lol
