Jim,
I hope you and you family are well.
I had a failsafe event today with an airplane equipped with an RFU and an X10+ V2.
I was flying through a stall turn about 200 feet away. The airplane yawed to the left over the top and was flying downward with the top of the airplane facing me. The throttle was as a low-to-medium setting at the time. I started to pull out when the plane pitched up and continued until it was facing nose high, like it was trying to fly a loop. I did not command that additional up elevator, I was just going to level out. I recovered airspeed and continued flying it. It was only a momentary event, lasting a second or two. I felt that something went wrong so I immediately landed safely.
With the airplane safely on the ground I remembered that my failsafe commands are:
THROTTLE OFF and
ELEVATOR UP
Since the throttle was relatively low during the maneuver I did not notice that the throttle may have gone all the way off, but I did experience the up elevator.
I reckon that it was not a power problem because the up elevator went into effect.
My theory was that the RFU antennas were blocked by the airplane's battery and wiring at the "perfect" angle. I verified it by taping the "range test" button down and walking far enough away to cause a failsafe. Than I moved in a few steps to where the controls were solid. Then I oriented the airplane around to various orientations relative to the transmitter (which was sitting still on a chair) and found an angle that caused the system to go into failsafe. The angle was similar the orientation at the time of the stall turn maneuver.
Only thing - now this gets eve weirder: My failsafe was set up to put the elevator DOWN, not UP! I must have not set the failsafe again after putting the X10 into the new plane. But I felt an uncommanded UP elevator control. I have no good explanation. Maybe power? Maybe the flight battery shifted aft while the plane was going up into the stall turn?
I do not like my current RFU antenna installation because while both antenna elements are oriented 90 degrees to each other, they are both situated horizontally (picture attached). I reckon with both horizontal, they both could be blocked in the same geometric plane.
I will relocate the RFU and its antenna elements so that one element faces downward and the other faces in a horizontal direction.
Do you agree that this was not a power problem because the servo moved the the failsafe position? (I'm not ruling it out.) The airplane uses a Castle BEC regulator set to 5.2 volts. How about the horizontal and vertical antenna orientation?
Thank you,
Paul
I hope you and you family are well.
I had a failsafe event today with an airplane equipped with an RFU and an X10+ V2.
I was flying through a stall turn about 200 feet away. The airplane yawed to the left over the top and was flying downward with the top of the airplane facing me. The throttle was as a low-to-medium setting at the time. I started to pull out when the plane pitched up and continued until it was facing nose high, like it was trying to fly a loop. I did not command that additional up elevator, I was just going to level out. I recovered airspeed and continued flying it. It was only a momentary event, lasting a second or two. I felt that something went wrong so I immediately landed safely.
With the airplane safely on the ground I remembered that my failsafe commands are:
THROTTLE OFF and
ELEVATOR UP
Since the throttle was relatively low during the maneuver I did not notice that the throttle may have gone all the way off, but I did experience the up elevator.
I reckon that it was not a power problem because the up elevator went into effect.
My theory was that the RFU antennas were blocked by the airplane's battery and wiring at the "perfect" angle. I verified it by taping the "range test" button down and walking far enough away to cause a failsafe. Than I moved in a few steps to where the controls were solid. Then I oriented the airplane around to various orientations relative to the transmitter (which was sitting still on a chair) and found an angle that caused the system to go into failsafe. The angle was similar the orientation at the time of the stall turn maneuver.
Only thing - now this gets eve weirder: My failsafe was set up to put the elevator DOWN, not UP! I must have not set the failsafe again after putting the X10 into the new plane. But I felt an uncommanded UP elevator control. I have no good explanation. Maybe power? Maybe the flight battery shifted aft while the plane was going up into the stall turn?
I do not like my current RFU antenna installation because while both antenna elements are oriented 90 degrees to each other, they are both situated horizontally (picture attached). I reckon with both horizontal, they both could be blocked in the same geometric plane.
I will relocate the RFU and its antenna elements so that one element faces downward and the other faces in a horizontal direction.
Do you agree that this was not a power problem because the servo moved the the failsafe position? (I'm not ruling it out.) The airplane uses a Castle BEC regulator set to 5.2 volts. How about the horizontal and vertical antenna orientation?
Thank you,
Paul