[NSRCA-discussion] Futaba and pattern

[Stuart Chale]

I agree Jim and that request is worth a quick story (sorry if I've told it
before).

Early this season after attending a Judging seminar with a bit of flying
afterwards I decided to copy Dave Lockhart's landing setup.  Droop both
ailerons, increase the differential, add in some aileron to rudder mix to
help slow speed turning with the ailerons drooped, and mix in a little down
elevator to prevent ballooning.  I even had the ailerons droop slowly with
the flip of the switch, and assigned a voice prompt on the 14 MZ to let me
know I was in landing setting so as not to fly with it.  I suspect it would
mess up tracking :-)   I tested the mixes at home and all seemed fine.

 

First time I tried it after about 9 minutes of flying; I flipped the switch
while flying slowly high enough over the runway.  No change in attitude,
seemed Ok, so I flipped the switch back to go around for a landing approach
and turned away from the runway.  But wait, she's deadstick.  This is a
Hacker powered electric they are not supposed to go deadstick.  I had never
even used more than 80% of my battery before and I had zip, nada.  The plane
started floundering a bit, I re-flipped the landing switch and it actually
helped the glide but still no power.  I caught the edge of a large puddle
(farmland) and tore out one gear.  No other sig damage.  After getting back
to the pits everything worked normally of course and the battery still read
37 volts.  

It wasn't till I got home that I figured it out.  The year prior I had setup
a throttle hold on the same switch :-).  Something I never really used but
had setup for safety and forgotten.  Both functions were hooked to the same
switch!  The throttle hold requires pulling the throttle stick back to idle
to rearm the throttle channel.  Something I did not do when she went
deadstick.

 

Have a happy New Year,

Stuart C.

 

 

 

 

 

-----Original Message-----
From: nsrca-discussion-bounces at lists.nsrca.org
[mailto:nsrca-discussion-bounces at lists.nsrca.org] On Behalf Of James Oddino
Sent: Monday, December 31, 2007 2:09 PM
To: NSRCA Mailing List
Subject: Re: [NSRCA-discussion] Futaba and pattern

 

One of the biggest concerns caused by the versatility of being able to  

assign switches is the difficulty knowing what you have when you are  

done programming or even worse if you come back to a plane setup after  

a few months. It would be very easy for Futaba to provide a means of  

printing out the .mdl file so one could quickly scan the setup and  

refresh his memory.

 

Jim O

 

 

 

On Dec 19, 2007, at 2:17 PM, Derek Koopowitz wrote:

 

> Futaba is looking for some new product ideas for upcoming equipment  

> and they are interested in seeing what ideas we all have for the  

> pattern arena that could be new and inventive.  This could be  

> anything from updating current equipment to new product development.

> 

> If you could put some thoughts together in an email to me, I'll make  

> sure that they're sent to Futaba USA's attention.   I'll need to  

> have this back no later than the end of the year!

> 

> Thanks!

> _______________________________________________

> NSRCA-discussion mailing list

> NSRCA-discussion at lists.nsrca.org

> http://lists.nsrca.org/mailman/listinfo/nsrca-discussion

 

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