I second the explanation of sun spot as the cause, simply the
Sun's reaction is indiscriminate to individual.
I often saw loss of control with near by sheet metals, turf farm
hose system and autos in parking lot ... The other popular cause
is intermittent electrical connections at connectors and cable
between connectors, not excluding antenna wire and telescopic
antenna. In most case a follow up ground range check do not
support such problem. But there is one thing in common among
those cases I witnessed is that it happen more often to the 'high
risk group'. Groups that practicing Rubber ducky, Metal and/or
CF pushrod bundle inside fuse, CF fuse, long wing/tail servo
cable without 4 cell operation and CF wing ... etc. One thing
ground range check will not detect is the 'death spot' of an
airborne antenna radiation pattern. The ground wave cannot
discriminate any death sport or not (not sun spot :-) ). This is
why I developed that "wake your plane test". In most
installation the natural death spot is pointing at horizontal.
There are at least one dominant but sharp death spot while the
2nd is shallow and coarse. The optimal antenna beam angle of a
typical RC plane is vertical. A low flying plane give chance to
the death spot and that explain a low and far plane out there is
at maximum risk. ( I place my dipole span wise to eliminate that
risk leaving a down wind thermal to far out) Try avoid circling
at low altitude near sheet metal the size of 2 meter or its
multiple. Soaring close above parking lot is a high risk act
(personal injury), although there is good thermal and perhaps
draw attention.
YK Chan
Seattle
----- Original Message -----
From: Walter Lynch <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: [RCSE] <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Sent: Sunday, February 20, 2000 3:27 PM
Subject: [RCSE] ?Causes of Radio interference/glitch(long)
> Hi all. I have been flying RC off and on since 1973. During
that period,
> as unbelievable as it sounds, I have, except for a Rx battery
lead short one
> time, never had any sort of a radio problem, not even a
recognizable glitch.
> Yesterday at a fun fly
> I was playing around in low level lift w/my Mantis, when the
plane started
> acting a little erratically. Since the Mantis is super
sensitive to any
> kind of bump, bubble, etc and I fly with a rearward CG - I at
first thought
> it was reacting to some bumpy low level air. Then all of a
sudden it hung a
> quick diving left, heading down into the parked cars at the
field- it
> wouldn't respond and at the last minute at about 20-30 ft I got
control back
> and landed. I immediately put down my Tx antennae and started
a range
> check, at which I lost control of plane at only 10 ft range.
Went home,
> tried to duplicate problem and nothing -every thing was fine.
Batteries
> were in the good range so I dont think it was that. Equipment
used is a
> Vision Tx, channel 54 PPM, new Hitec RCD Rx. Only one other
person I know
> of was on 54 and he was off, frequency control was in effect.
I do have
> antennae run down interior of the CF boom on Mantis, which has
never once
> caused a problem. I will now run it on the outside of boom.
Could I
> possibly have been getting a "hit" from some thing else? Dirty
Tx antennae?
> Maybe I need a new radio, but hope not as Vision seems to work
pretty good
> and I am comfortable w/ its programming. Any suggestions to
problem would
> be appreciated as I am new to radio problems. thanks, Walter
>
>
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