All radios have problems. I cringe when I see people declare "get this brand and you're good to go." NO BRAND is bulletproof, especially in the 2.4 Ghz frequencies that, unlike 72 MHz , are not exclusive to radio control hobbyists.

We had a major problem at our field last year that affected only 1 brand, and only radios that were using a specific protocol from this brand. It affected only one specific area of our field. Nobody else was affected and no other area in our field had a problem. In the end it went away after 3 months. We never found out what caused it.

Pilots are still affected by it, although we know that there is no more interference since last September. This year some people started blaming their crashes on other brands too. In the end, they understood one thing: radio interference is extremely rear. Before we blame the radios we should concentrate first on finding out what went wrong with a specific crash. 99% of the time it is installation or setup error.

I agree with that,never hurts to set up your plane just like you did when using 72MHz,and I still do.

Originally Posted by dhal22

Futaba signals has failed before. Try not extending your 72mhza antennae.............


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I bet the Futaba signal did not fail, even with the transmitter antennae collapsed it was sending a signal. The operator failed,

the situation Lipilot keeps mentioning is a true outlier. I still do not know what to make of it. But as much as I like and trust Futaba, it is true that nothing is failure proof. Anything built or used by man has the ability to fail. However, failure rates differ and I have never had an issue with my chosen radio. Futaba has worked for me in giant scale planes, 50/70cc planes, F3A planes, sport planes, giant scale and thermal competition gliders flown to the limits of my eyesight, and helicopters, cars and RC boats (the 100 MPH kind).

Originally Posted by AHicks

Hitec Aurora since they were introduced here. Never a glitch that I know of - other than occasional nonsense caused by low batteries or similar that was easy to trace. If it's struggling, it'll start beeping a warning. At that point it's done it's job just fine as far as I'm concerned.

A number of planes have been lost flying Hitec as well at our field.

Anything is possible, but I bought one of my Hitec A9 transmitters from a gentleman I've been flying with for quite a while. He lost a couple of planes while flying with it and lost confidence in it. I was happy to get it from him (good price!), and I've been using it since. Same radio, a couple of his receivers, on the same field, with no further incidents. The only difference is our degree of confidence in the radio. His was gone, I refused to believe it was the fault of the transmitter. I believe I've proven there is/was nothing wrong with it as I've been flying it for a couple of seasons now. FWIW, -Al

Confidence in one's equipment is extremely important. I flew an A9 for a number of years and completely loved it. I never once had a problem flying the radio though it did fritz out one winter and required a new main board. (Channels would reverse themselves for no reason.) I flew it another season but by that time I had lost confidence in the radio even though I had zero issues with it in the air. Perhaps I just wanted a new radio but I switched brands and haven't looked back. It was a damn fine radio though. I have seen the same thing here with several Spek users when they have completely unexplained problems and perhaps a crash or two. My brand of choice these days is Futaba and have full confidence in my equipment. I'm sure there are a couple of other brands that could also fit my requirements ....... and a couple that I wouldn't own if they paid me.

As mentioned already, nothing is bullet proof, but I do believe some are more reliable then others. I'm surprised there's not any mention of telemetry, or any data that might have been available to give at least a warning of signal interference or failure. In this day and age, and flying planes that are well into 5 and 6 figure price range, that was the first thing I looked into when upgrading my system about 3yrs ago, and who offered the most features and information regarding telemetry.

I'm not saying telemetry would fix any interference issues, but it might give a warning of impending trouble. As well as give real time data on signal strength and performance.
If something's going to interfere though, telemetry might help and it might not depending on the source obviously...

...BUT... what telemetry does for me is give me real time data on how each of my receivers are doing their job... and I'm pretty assured they are doing the job just by the info I get from the system... Having the system operating at it's optimum potential is your best defense against any incoming garbage I think.

Part of getting the system up to full potential is knowing how each receiver is performing, and adjusting/positioning those within the plane to achieve that very goal. The data I get from my telemetry tells me exactly that. In doing a few math calculations, I/we can get very near to the actual percentage of signal loss for any given model. Of course that can't happen with every system on the market, nor does everyone have that knowledge, but it's there if anyone chooses to search it out.

I have to laugh at those that say Futaba is a "never worry again" system... haha... and then the radio in question that had the problem was actually a Futaba. There's proof right there that not one particular brand is an end all do all system. Anyone that believes that is only fooling themselves, and missing a whole bunch of things. I've used Futaba in the past, and it worked just fine, I've used others in the past that worked just fine. I'm sure many people have used the very system I'm using now and it's worked just fine, as well as given them problems... It can go every which way til Sunday. I've seen alot in over 40yrs of flying.

There's other obvious reasons of signal loss, like shadowing, where a component(s) is blocking a large part of the receiver/antenna, there's power issues that can come into play, there's issues of using components that aren't necessarily compatible...

We don't know the history of the model in question, but we do know there's a history of interference at this site... which the site is where I would probably start the investigation, and see what's around the area, what the radio/transmitting environment is, see if there's any cell towers in the area, or a powerful WiFi transmission coming from somewhere(yes WiFi transmits on 2.4ghz(look at your computer router))... and really dig around that area and see if/what anyone has done in recent days and weeks... basically since the signal issues reared their ugly heads. If nothing out of the ordinary has changed in recent months, then start looking at each plane/pilot that's had issues, and see if there's any common thread.. IE brand, transmitter, equipment, etc...

I'm sorry to hear someone lost such a nice plane. I do hope you find the culprit problem. Sorry so long here, just sharing some thoughts on the subject.

Originally Posted by Philkoury

I bet the Futaba signal did not fail, even with the transmitter antennae collapsed it was sending a signal. The operator failed,

You are correct. Was no fun watching a 50cc plane fly away wondering wth..... Then afterwards looking down and seeing the antennae down.....

We heard an impact a long ways away but never found the plane.

Like alot above have stated. 2.4 is not immune to interference. Any metal to metal will cause interference. An unshielded spark plug wire will cause interference.

Big on receiver telemetry here as well. The standard Hitec signal/flight pack voltage telemetry has saved my bacon a few times....

Originally Posted by AHicks

Anything is possible, but I bought one of my Hitec A9 transmitters from a gentleman I've been flying with for quite a while. He lost a couple of planes while flying with it and lost confidence in it. I was happy to get it from him (good price!), and I've been using it since. Same radio, a couple of his receivers, on the same field, with no further incidents. The only difference is our degree of confidence in the radio. His was gone, I refused to believe it was the fault of the transmitter. I believe I've proven there is/was nothing wrong with it as I've been flying it for a couple of seasons now. FWIW, -Al

Good post. I know of an instance of a Futaba guy who was having issues, lost confidence and sold the radio. I know the guy who got it from him. Kept flying it as he got it from the original owner and never had an issue with it.

I think some people have bad auras or magnetic fields that mess with their radios

Originally Posted by AHicks

Big on receiver telemetry here as well. The standard Hitec signal/flight pack voltage telemetry has saved my bacon a few times....

When I first got my Aurora, from telemetry I quickly learned how bad the switch and battery setup I was using at the time was. That was quite an eye opener and Nixx batteries went away quickly.

Telemetry or some other method of monitoring the packet loss is crucial. I had two R7008SBs in one of my planes. After 400+ flights, no crashes, zero bad landings, I decided to replace the Emcotec power distribution unit to Booma RC Smooth Flite. The new power box shows packet losses online on the touch screen. One of the receivers had a packet loss rate of over 15% on the ground two feet from the transmitter. No matter how I turned the transmitter or the plane the packet loss was over 15%. The other receiver was working just fine.

I assume this problem had been there for quite some time. I can only guess but I think I detected the problem before the inevitable happened. I replaced the faulty receiver with a new one. After this the packet loss was gone. Just to make sure I connected this faulty receiver to another plane with similar power box. The packet loss was over 15% again.

I opened the receiver and went through the device with a loupe. I am no professional but I didn’t see any obvious reason for the fault.

Another very important thing regarding avoiding failures is inspecting and testing the equipment on a regular basis. I once had a Spektrum DX7 in a 55cc plane. I had flown it for years. One day the engine couched in the air unexpectedly during an upline. I tried it again with same results. Since there seemed to be a problem, I decided to land the plane. The engine quit just when the wheels touched the runway. First, I thought it was an engine problem. It was a receiver problem instead. The coughing was caused by the receiver briefly going to fail safe mode. During landing the receiver quit completely causing the engine to stop. This was not a brown out; both the receiver batteries were good. One of the cords at the receiver satellite was broken from the connector. I don’t know if this had anything to do with the failure. The receiver would not bind with the transmitter.

--kaboomski;

Originally Posted by Pittsflyboy

A number of planes have been lost flying Hitec as well at our field.

IS this the field in Fort Worth?