I don't understand why shutting the smoke pump off would draw down the voltage ? It should in fact up the voltage. When I got to the plane there was no power anywhere, all the connections to the rx came unplugged due to the down force, all clipped connections were still intake except for of course the smoke pump to the battshare because the pump was upfront in the midst of the crash, so the elevator was stuck deflected in the direction that caused the crash since the battery to rx connection came undone as soon as it hit. I just finished editing the video, uploading to youtube now.

Originally Posted by devildog_0431

The servo seems to work fine, i move it back and forth and hold it in both directions minimally and fully and it holds it's position. Explain to me how you dictate the servo went bad...

was just thinking out loud thats all. i didnt dictate anything. if everything works well, then maby it was just dumb thumbed. hey it happens. ive done it. and iam shure everyone in this hobby has done it one time or another. but again sorry for your loss

Did that throttle servo seize up or strip out?

The throttle servo had the arm knocked off it, i threw it away. I know for 1000% i did not dumb thumb the plane into the ground, not to brag, but i value my possessions too much to make easy mistakes. I fly it inverted inches off the ground with the smoke on regularly, I've flown planes for over 15 years now, here is the video. I'm pretty sure nothing came unplugged, but I am not going to rule out the brown out idea because it is very plausible.

Forgive the blurry camera, a fellow club member just bought it and didn't realize he got what he paid for, had a terribley slow auto focus. Having a video is better than none

Aerworks 50cc Edge 540 Crash (3 min 22 sec)

You gotta load test those batteries just to rule that out.

Originally Posted by ericb

Better yet, get a power safe RX and be done with the switches all together. I run a power safe RX with a Tech Aero IBEC. Very simple and reliable setup.

What Hitec servos are they?

Couldn't agree more. Add a single 2300 A123 and you'll be set. Fromeco has A123's with or w/out a built in balance circuit.
Video did look like the rx lost power.

Originally Posted by plowboy

You gotta load test those batteries just to rule that out.

I don't have anything to read them on, I'd have to run them over to my fellow flyers house to do that. I don't trust single batteries, always redundant, I had dual A123's for redudancy but one crapped out while bench using it, i waited months for the dealer to send me 2 different ones free of charge, so in the meantime i was using 6.0vs, go figure a couple days after the crash, my 2 new a123's showed up, i'll use them in the next plane showing up this weekend.

Originally Posted by devildog_0431

I don't have anything to read them on, I'd have to run them over to my fellow flyers house to do that.

It would be worth the trouble just for peace of mind. Then you can move on to the next potential failure point.

Overload has nothing to do with a brownout. Brownouts happen because you lost power briefly or they went below the cut off voltage briefly. The only way I can see it happening is if you stalled something and it pulled mega amps briefly and your rx packs took a dump. Brownouts occur at 3.5v as that is what the chip that controls all receivers stops working at.

Cheers

I've watched the video, dumb thumb is now my thinking, sorry man.

It all happened so fast and if you look at the curve it took you can see the angle got much steeper at the end which I assume was you yanking on stick to try to prevent it, but you yanked wrong way.

I would 100% chalk that up to thumbs personally.

Cheers

The dive definitely steepened big time at the end. Looks like it went in completely vertical. If the plane had a neutral to aft CG this probabaly wouldn't have happened in normal high speed inverted flight without additional up elevator being added in to steepen the dive.

It did look very smooth and controlled though. The one dumb thumber I had was a high speed, low altitude slow roll, but I panicked right away with the sticks in which my inputs could easily be seen by bystanders.

Originally Posted by devildog_0431

I've rotated the hub and can feel bearing friction so I know for sure the bearings need work, I'm sure the crank is bent too, one fin on the top of the cyilnder is chipped off at the end, no cracks or bends elsewhere. The ignition wiring is fine except for where the metal braiding over the end of the wire where the boot is has a small surface gash on it, still has good compression. I'll sell the engine for cheap if anyone is intrested in fixing it. I contacted chief aircraft about repair costs then made the decision to just buy a new da60 and get a combo discount with the new Edge.

How cheap?I'm interested.

IMHO the arc looked like the natural progression of an inverted plane with no elevator control. I'm putting a check mark in the no power to the receiver/brownout box.

Either way, sorry for your loss. It really sucks when you lose one like that. Nice smoke BTW.

kinda looks like a dumb thumb ?

S

Originally Posted by Robotech

IMHO the arc looked like the natural progression of an inverted plane with no elevator control. I'm putting a check mark in the no power to the receiver/brownout box.

Either way, sorry for your loss. It really sucks when you lose one like that. Nice smoke BTW.

I agree, depending on CG, that could very well be the case. When inverted and level flight, once a nose down attitude begins it will likely increase without any additional elevator input. Since it was such a smooth decent you would think it would be a cut and dry issue to the pilot as to whether he knew if he dumb thumbed it in or not. As which he has stated he feels confident that he did not. In my dumb thumb case I knew immediately what happened.

Once we get to this level of flying with giant scale gas planes, we've all long since learned that when inverted, down equals up! So yeah I think I'm now in the loss of signal camp too. Hope you get it figured out.