now THAT'S a Receiver ! ! !

[KrisW]

Had a very interesting "event" while flying today.

Was gonna go out and do some 3D flipping around with my 40% Ultra-lightweight CA-330 Extra. At 29 lbs the wing loading is silly, and the G-forces the plane can throw at things is pretty high.

Got the plane together, did a full control check, and range check at 300 feet with antenna down on my 10X. Everything checked good so off she went into the misty blue yonder. Did the usual "vertical in 5 feet rollout" takeoff and went to about 500 feet, then started playing around. .

Hmmm. . . whats this dropping the wing thingie on hard pulls? strange. . . . . . . Hmm. . why is it not rolling lke it usually does .. seems to have okay rudder and elevators, and ailerons work fine. . weird . .

Keep flying, do a couple of hard blenders, harrier rolls, all sorts of fun . .then suddenly the plane does not want to go wings level unless I make it do it. . Rut Roh .. time to land and see what I broke.

During turn to final the ailerons were extremely sluggish, then seemed to catch up and work fine. . I'm thinking one of the Battery packs was going off line, since rudder and elevator are good. Had to make two passes on the field to get the beast down, then did a full control check .. Everything is FINE. . no problems, no binding .. no glitches. . hmmmmm . .Did another 300' range check . .everything is working as advertised. . Now THIS is gettng bizarre.

Finally pulled the canopy off and started playing with wiring to see if I could get a glitch to happen. No joy. . everything is tight. .. .

Then I look closely at the receivers. . and it's there . . the Antenna for the right receiver was BROKEN clean off. . right at the stress relief!! I pulled it out of the antenna tube that runs down to the belly of the plane, and had 39" of wire in my hands, and zero on the receiver ! !

I've been using the JR 649S receivers since I've been back into the hobby about 7 years now. they have always proven to be very dependable and reliable. . NOW they have proven that they work damned well. .with NO antenna ! !

Just amazing the things you see sometimes, and how well this equipment actually works under the most marginal situations. I'll solder a new antenna into that receiver tonight . . .I have some 3D to work on tomorrow. .

[crazyextra]

wow, glad to hear you got it back on the ground safely

[JoeAirPort]

DAM !!!! Glad you saved it. I would bever have guessed that an rx could function even so so with no antenna. Think it was going in and out of lock out?

[SleepyC]

KRIS - where the hell you been?!?!

Good to see ya back !

[Colonel Klank]

Kris: I want to hear more about the 29 pounds. I am getting my CA 330S ready and want to know what to expect. Send Pics of the guts?

Glad your plane made it home!!

[GremlinX]

How is a plane like this setup? Which Rx's controll what? Glad its ok, how did you get it that light?

[flyin woodbutcher]

that much plastic got to weigh more than 29#

[KrisW]

	Quote: Originally Posted by Pale_Rider_Va
	Kris: I want to hear more about the 29 pounds. I am getting my CA 330S ready and want to know what to expect. Send Pics of the guts? Glad your plane made it home!!

Actually. . its a very special Layup done for me by Composite-Arf almost 4 years ago now, PaleRider. There is NO reinforcement in it. .no CF strips, lots of resin left out, and the bare airframe is 4.5-5 lbs less than a standard 3.0m Extra . .coming in at about 15.5-16 lbs Bare.

I don't think Andreas is very savvy on ever doing another one like this. . he told me he never expected it to last more than 2-3 months. I use the BME-110 and canisters for power, and minimal servo count. . 2/wing, one/stab, 2 on rudder,and throttle. right now I'm using 2 servos/stab to get some weight in the tail for better 3D antics, but I had to add 3 ounces of lead back there as well to get enough tail-heaviness to do things properly.

This is the "Tree plane" from the Joe Nall 2 years ago, that got hauled out of the big Oak tree at the end of the runway with a Crane. . I'm sure you have all seen pics of it being pulled out by Biff.

As for setup. . one receiver per side, each controlling one aileron, one elevator and splitting the rudder, witht he left receiver also doing throttle. Each uses a 4800ma Fromeco setup for power, with no expanders. a 4-cell 2700 ma NiMH pack, uregulated, is used for the ignition.

Engine is the BME110 with PEFA "LL" canisters and shortyheaders, swingign a 28-10 Mejzlik prop and 5" Pete's Models CF spinner. And lastly, the thin-wall CF wing tube from Desert Aircraft/PBG products shaved 12 ounces off the weight of the Aluminum tube usually used.

AUW is 29-29.5 lbs. .it was actually 28.25 before the Tree incident, but hte wings were so badly damaged I had to replace them with "standard" layup wings because Andreas would not agree to build me another set of the lightweight ones.

Using 2 receivers is really what saved the plane. . with one receiver I doubt I would have ever got it back on the ground. I'm still AMAZED that the receiver was functioning at all. I have my Failsafe set to go to Idle for throttle, and center control surface movement for the controls, so in case of lockout of one receiver I still have control of the plane.

Sleepy and Gremlin have both seen the plane in action.

[KrisW]

	Quote: Originally Posted by SleepyC
	KRIS - where the hell you been?!?! Good to see ya back !

I got REALLY tired of getting my butt reamed for standing my ground and not putting up with all the fracking personal attacks Sleepy. . .so I've been doing other things. THAT'S where I've been. As I told someone else. . don't expect me to be around much. I see no humor in the BS. . I won't be here to get hit by it.

[OnTheEdge]

	Quote: Originally Posted by KrisW
	. and it's there . . the Antenna for the right receiver was BROKEN clean off. . right at the stress relief!!

Hmmmm....sounds like another real life example of how using dual receivers saved another plane.

Glad you were able to get the plane down safely and in one piece Kris. Nice flying.

Get ready however for the onslaught from the "You only need one receiver" folks blaming this failure on your set up. Been doing this RC thing for quite a few years and have NEVER heard of the antenna breaking off. Definately nothing you did wrong.....just one of those things. Another reason I'm glad I have redundant receivers.

Again, congrats on a safe landing.

...........Mark

[KrisW]

	Quote: Originally Posted by OnTheEdge
	Hmmmm....sounds like another real life example of how using dual receivers saved another plane. Glad you were able to get the plane down safely and in one piece Kris. Nice flying. Get ready however for the onslaught from the "You only need one receiver" folks blaming this failure on your set up. Been doing this RC thing for quite a few years and have NEVER heard of the antenna breaking off. Definately nothing you did wrong.....just one of those things. Another reason I'm glad I have redundant receivers. Again, congrats on a safe landing. ...........Mark

Thanks Mark.

In defense of the JR receiver. . I had replaced the "OEM" antenna wire with a heavier gauge piece of the proper length a while back (like 4 YEARS ago. . ).. and the antenna tube was very close to where the wire went into the receiver, leading to a stress/vibration concentration spot right at that point. . which is probably what caused the failure. The wire was not the 28-30 gauge wire usually used for Antenna's, but heavier 24 gauge, which is less flexible. . Okay.. I pulled a dumbdumb move by substituting the heavier gauge wire, but you would never guess that it would fail in such a way in the first place.

Kind of makes you wonder how much stress your wires for your servos are enduring at the points right next to the connectors. . .

The receivers have NEVER been out of the plane since they were installed. . kind of says something for the longevity of the "setup". .

[Boulder]

Glad to see your plane made it back Kris, gotta' love it!!!