andy pattinson Posted November 8, 2018 Share Posted November 8, 2018 I purchased the model from my local retailer (Gliders), the model was superb from day one doing everything it was supposed to do, However, it developed a fault the last time I flew it where after it “hit the fence” it turned as per normal but, instead of waggling its wings to signal return of control it just carried on flying straight for 15 seconds or more and not responding to any input from transmitter, eventually as it almost cleared our flying field, it waggled its wings, and I brought it into land asap with no further problems. I checked all normal things , loose wires, battery levels on the plane and transmitter – changed them for both just to make sure everything was ok in that department, I decided to try it again and went through the normal start up routine and everything seemed to be ok, the aircraft took off as per normal and flew to the end of the field as per usual, “hit the fence”, turned and instead of flying straight on as before it turned sharply left and promptly disappeared over the trees and nearby church and was out of site within a few seconds, I closed the throttle and I tried the return to home (holding pattern) button, waited a few seconds , Nothing, I tried the auto land function, waited a few seconds and again – Nothing, by now the plane was well on its way and all we could do was look on in disbelief and horror. I left the Tx switched on in the hope it would enable the plane to obey the last command from it. It was obvious it wasn’t coming back so we decided to go and try and find it After a lengthy fruitless search by ourselves, it was found by the farmer whose field we use approximately ¾ of a mile from where we were, he had seen us flying earlier, he informed me that it had come done in a field just short of a main road, and that it was obviously damaged, by now it was quite dark so further inspection of the plane was carried out next day. On inspection it was found the nosecone had snapped off cleanly, the motor and propeller seemed intact, further inspection revealed the motor had totally burnt out, and damaged the mounting, wiring and also melted the plastic covering around the esc Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kim Taylor Posted November 8, 2018 Share Posted November 8, 2018 Looks like maybe the motor or esc burning out (probably impossible to tell which 'went' first) caused the voltage to the receiver / flight controller to drop and cause a brown out. I would GUESS that the motor - esc wiring was breaking down on the earlier flight but you got away with it that time. You live & learn!! Kim Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
paul devereux Posted November 8, 2018 Share Posted November 8, 2018 Just be grateful it didn't hit traffic and caused injury, obviously a radio problem. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
paul devereux Posted November 8, 2018 Share Posted November 8, 2018 Those of us who have been flying for some years have preferences for certain radio manufacturers, mine is Futaba, many prefer Spectrum, no one I know prefers the built-in radios. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dave Hess Posted November 9, 2018 Share Posted November 9, 2018 The ESC in my one went dodgy. It made the motor scream and lower power. I replaced it, and now everything is back to normal. Any fault in the ESC or motor connections can lead to all sorts of consequential damage. I agree with KT that whatever the original problem was, the consequence was that your ESC got damaged so that it couldn't provide the 5v for the receiver. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dave Hess Posted November 9, 2018 Share Posted November 9, 2018 Posted by paul devereux on 08/11/2018 23:50:01: Those of us who have been flying for some years have preferences for certain radio manufacturers, mine is Futaba, many prefer Spectrum, no one I know prefers the built-in radios. Hmmm! I must be an exception then. I don't have any allegiance to any brand. I have one of those Cubs with its Spektrum system and I love it The radio system in that Cub is absolutely brilliant, and I can't see how it could be improved. I also have a Taranis, but I do most of my flying with a Jumper T12. My next transmitter will most likely be a Flysky. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
andy pattinson Posted November 9, 2018 Author Share Posted November 9, 2018 Thanks for the replies Guys , very much appreciated, at the moment it is back with the suppliers who are testing it to see what the problem is / was, I would really like to know as my mate bought one after getting airborne for the 1st time after using mine, he has grounded his until further notice. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
andy pattinson Posted November 12, 2018 Author Share Posted November 12, 2018 Latest update, Just heard from the importers and they cant determine the exact cause of the problem but are putting down to esc / motor fault and are replacing the entire thing for me in the next 7---10 days. Happy days, cant wait to get it back and flying again, maybe with one or two suggested mods this time. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kim Taylor Posted November 12, 2018 Share Posted November 12, 2018 My suggestion to you, and I mean no slight or disrespect, is to learn to turn the plane before it hits the 'fence'. These geofencing systems do have their uses, for emergency type situations, but shouldn't be used as a primary means of control. Of course, I may have misinterpreted your earlier posts and if so, please ignore. Kim Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dave Hess Posted November 12, 2018 Share Posted November 12, 2018 Posted by andy pattinson on 12/11/2018 13:20:39: Latest update, Just heard from the importers and they cant determine the exact cause of the problem but are putting down to esc / motor fault and are replacing the entire thing for me in the next 7---10 days. Happy days, cant wait to get it back and flying again, maybe with one or two suggested mods this time. Great result. The only thing I'd advise is to listen to the motor before each take-off to see/hear that it's running like normal. If the noise changes enough to really notice or if it doesn't look like it's running right, probably time to get a new ESC and/or check motor connections. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andrew Booth Posted February 28, 2019 Share Posted February 28, 2019 Just seen this thread. Similar thing happened to me 2 days ago. Just finished a 4 minute flight and landed ok. Decided to taxi back to pits and sudenly went to full throttle on its own, took off climbed to 30m height turned left and headed of due east at about 60m height. Nothing i did altered the model it just flew straight and level untill it disappeared from sight. Two days of searching to no avail. Be warned, dont rely on fail safe bringing it back!!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Allan Bennett Posted March 9, 2019 Share Posted March 9, 2019 Just seen this thread too! My only observation is that the ESC/motor damage may well be a red herring; if failsafe wasn't set to stop the motor on loss of signal, or it was but it didn't work because it still had some kind of signal, or because of a fault in the electronics, then the motor being stalled by hitting the ground would result in fatal overheating in a very short time. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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