Fly it like a rental

[holler1]

After months of waiting for the snow to melt and the field to dry, I was finally able to put the first flight onto a brand new EF Yak-54 with a Brillelli 60, 5595's all around, and a DX7 radio system. It took quite a bit of trim to get it flying straight, but then it was working great. Before I tried any 3d with it, I thought it would be a good idea to land a check everything out. On final approach, I lost control and the plane slowly rolled to an inverted nose dive. I gave throttle and down elevator to try and save it but nothing happened. About 2 inches off the ground I regained radio controll and the engine spead up just enough to make the plane hit the ground faster. The airframe is completely destroyed, but the engine and radio gear is fine. The only thing we have determined as the cause is that the antenna was pointed directly at the plane and the engine blocked the signal to the reciever momentarily and it lost its bind. When the plane go t very close to the ground the antenna was no longer pointing at it and signal was regained. Any other thoughts? The funny part is, the only part of the plane which was not damaged were the plug-in horizontal stabalizers which said "FLY IT LIKE A RENTAL" on them. Another EF Yak is on the way!

[Neogenesis]

Sorry to hear that................only one flight....that's the worst.


Neo

[mflander]

I have an x9303 w/ an ar9100, and have done range checks at 3 times the required range with no issues. Through brick walls, antenna pointing at or away or anything in between and have yet to have more then 1 or 2 frame losses.

Is this a newer version with the quick connect feature? if it is, you must have had an extended failure to keep the plane locked out for that amount of time. Did you do a proper range check before taking off?

[holler1]

The receiver is not one of the new Quick Connect Recievers. I did perform a proper range check, everything was perfect. The receiver was wrecked in the crash so there is no way to tell if it was still working at the time of the crash except that the engine throttled up and the plane appeared to be pulling out because of the down elevator I put in. That suggests that control was regained just before the ground had a chance to act on the plane (I have not lost my sense of humor yet)! The time between losing control and the crash was within 3-5 seconds, which is about how long it takes the older AR 7000 to rebind when connection is lost. I'll try to get a picture of the carnage for your viewing entertainment!

[buttface]

yea!

[robertp17]

Are you using any satelite recievers as well? I am using a 921 jr in my aeroworks and It does not have the quick connect so like you said, it is a good 5 seconds or so before you get it back. I have two satelites in mine as well. one in the tail and one up in front of the main reciever. Have not had any problems yet Sorry to hear about your loss. Good luck with the new one.

[holler1]

Yes, the plane did have one satelite reciever on the included six inch extension. My 18 year old twin brother and I got another EF Yak last thursday. We had it ready to go on saturday night, except this time we put a 24 inch extension to the satelite reciever. We used the same horizontal stabilizers that were on the first Yak. They still said "Fly it Like a Rental on them." On Sunday, we went to fly it. This time my brother flew it first, all went well so then I flew it. That ment that this new Yak had twice as many flights as the old one! However, on the third flight (my brother was flying) he did a gental wall at idle and the left wing panel broke off. He was able to fly it knife edge for along time. There was a twenty mph cross wind, but he was able to get the plane to the ground gently in long grass where it roll onto its top. The landing gear is wrecked, the left wing is destoyed, the left stab counter balance is broke off, the cnaopy is no more, and the fusalage has so many little breaks and twist that we probably wont be able to fix correctly.

If I've done my math correctly, that makes four flights on two planes that are no longer flyable. Other members of our club donated money after the first yak crashed (great guys), not thinking another crash would happen so soon. My brother an I are getting very fast at assembling the EF 88 inch Yak, but at the rate we're going at, we can't afford to get another one with college coming up. It appears that the wing tube just snapped. We have watched countless videos where people are much more violent things to that plane than we did. We are talking to Chris at EF to find out what went wrong.

What ever happens, I thought it would be good to share another example about the awsome people in this hobby.

[appydriver]

THAT SUCKS! Better luck with the next one.

[jhawk]

My understanding was if the RX locks out, the servos supposed the go to the failsafe positions set in the binding??? This should not cause a roll??

I've got about 3 flights on my EF 88 with a 9303 spektum and no problems yet, it may be at the end of its life expectancy.

Jim H

[mflander]

Not always true. They have a smartsafe deal that will go to center at start-up and hold last knowns at lockout except for throttle. This may have been the case here.

[holler1]

We think the radio system did go into fail safe mode, but the plane required quite a bit of triming to fly straight. So when the fail safe kicked in, it put the surfaces back to perfect center where they were bound. After thinking back to the trim inputs and what the plane did when control was lost, they show that the fail safe probably did work. Now we bind our planes again after they are trimed. If the fail safe would have kept the surfaces where they were trimed to, it probably would have landed itself.

Chris had us send pictures of the second Yak. He thinks he will be able to help us get a new one affordably!

[holler1]

Great news! Chris is going to get us a brand new Yak at no cost to us. He said his manufacturer was not going to help him, so this is coming out of his pocket. He have been asured that what happened with the wing was a fluke. This shows what a great guy Chris is. He trusted our word and photos and helped us at his expense. We will now be long time customers of Extreme Flight. Thanks Chris!