I'm going/went flying 2021 thread

[Wild man]

yesterday I put the first three flights on mine. The first two just after sunset and the third one hour after that. One of the main reasons I got one was to make it a night flyer, and with all the light I am very pleased on how easy it is to keep oriented in the dark with all the lights on. I made 6 more dlights with it starting about 7:00 pm two flights with smart batteries one G1 6 cell 5000mah 30c, one 6 cell G2 5000 mah 50c. two Admiral 6 cell 6000 mah pro 50c, two Roaring top 6 cell 4500 mah 70c and two Admiral 4000 amh pro 60c I just got home 4 of the flights were in the dark all I have to say is WOW. This Draco will do every ting you want it to and more I was even hovering it and doing torque rolls with it I put well over an Hour flying time on it tonight

 

[WMcNabb]

yesterday I put the first three flights on mine. The first two just after sunset and the third one hour after that. One of the main reasons I got one was to make it a night flyer, and with all the light I am very pleased on how easy it is to keep oriented in the dark with all the lights on. I made 6 more dlights with it starting about 7:00 pm two flights with smart batteries one G1 6 cell 5000mah 30c, one 6 cell G2 5000 mah 50c. two Admiral 6 cell 6000 mah pro 50c, two Roaring top 6 cell 4500 mah 70c and two Admiral 4000 amh pro 60c I just got home 4 of the flights were in the dark all I have to say is WOW. This Draco will do every ting you want it to and more I was even hovering it and doing torque rolls with it I put well over an Hour flying time on it tonightView attachment 117902

Had an interesting outing with mine on Friday afternoon. Playing with it in the wind and still not sure what happened but nose dived into the ground from about 20 feet. This thing can clearly take a beating! Minor damage - broke two blades off the prop, so this took the majority of the impact and load. Wingtip spotlight popped out, exhaust piece broke at the mounting, and filled the hole in the spinner with mud. All of my flights to that point had been with 4S.

A gentleman at the field generously gave me a 2 blade 16x10 APC prop. With it mounted and a 6S, all I can say is WOW!! This model came alive. All I did was rocket takeoffs, turn around and land, just to do it all over again!

Definitely a fun little plane!

 

[WMcNabb]

Need some insight from the great people here at GSN.

Yesterday, I decided to take the Python to the field and leave Draco at home.

Was a beautiful afternoon, clear blue sky, no wind and 80F. First flight was awesome, stayed up for ~15 min.
Landed, refueled and pulled it back to the starting station. Here I encountered the phenomenon I’ve been fighting for a while now - the throttle servo would not respond.

Actually, I’m not sure how I finally managed to make it respond, because I tried a few things.
2nd flight after this was uneventful. Flew for another 15 min or so.

Landed, refueled, and again - no response from the throttle servo.
Tried a few of the same tricks again, but nothing.
Was getting dark, so I pulled it back to the truck and disassembled it.
Before loaded the fuselage, I tried one more time.
Of course it worked!

So any ideas would be greatly appreciated.

Latest equipment - JR8411 throttle servo, Spektrum DX9 Transmitter, Spektrum satellites on a Powerbox Competition SRS, 2 x 2S LiPo 5000 mah batteries.
I’ve experienced this previously when running a different throttle servo, Spektrum AR12120 Powersafe receiver, different batteries, and different extensions.

 

[AKNick]

Need some insight from the great people here at GSN.

Was a beautiful afternoon, clear blue sky, no wind and 80F. First flight was awesome, stayed up for ~15 min.
Landed, refueled and pulled it back to the starting station. Here I encountered the phenomenon I’ve been fighting for a while now - the throttle servo would not respond.

Actually, I’m not sure how I finally managed to make it respond, because I tried a few things.
2nd flight after this was uneventful. Flew for another 15 min or so.

Landed, refueled, and again - no response from the throttle servo.
Tried a few of the same tricks again, but nothing.
Was getting dark, so I pulled it back to the truck and disassembled it.
Before loaded the fuselage, I tried one more time.
Of course it worked!

So any ideas would be greatly appreciated.

Latest equipment - JR8411 throttle servo, Spektrum DX9 Transmitter, Spektrum satellites on a Powerbox Competition SRS, 2 x 2S LiPo 5000 mah batteries.
I’ve experienced this previously when running a different throttle servo, Spektrum AR12120 Powersafe receiver, different batteries, and different extensions.

Does this happen only after a first flight? Where is the servo mounted? Is it getting too hot (eg; exhaust muffler)? Can you hear the servo - like if you were to try and move it by hand is it locked? If it was an electrical issue I wouldn't think it would reveal itself like you are talking. Given that it seems to reveal itself after a flight and after it sits for a bit it comes back, my initial thought is that it's getting heat soaked.

 

[Snoopy1]

Had an interesting outing with mine on Friday afternoon. Playing with it in the wind and still not sure what happened but nose dived into the ground from about 20 feet. This thing can clearly take a beating! Minor damage - broke two blades off the prop, so this took the majority of the impact and load. Wingtip spotlight popped out, exhaust piece broke at the mounting, and filled the hole in the spinner with mud. All of my flights to that point had been with 4S.

A gentleman at the field generously gave me a 2 blade 16x10 APC prop. With it mounted and a 6S, all I can say is WOW!! This model came alive. All I did was rocket takeoffs, turn around and land, just to do it all over again!

Definitely a fun little plane!

Does the plane have the spectrum gyro built in . If it does seem this happen switch it off and you should be ok.

 

[Snoopy1]

Need some insight from the great people here at GSN.

Yesterday, I decided to take the Python to the field and leave Draco at home.

Was a beautiful afternoon, clear blue sky, no wind and 80F. First flight was awesome, stayed up for ~15 min.
Landed, refueled and pulled it back to the starting station. Here I encountered the phenomenon I’ve been fighting for a while now - the throttle servo would not respond.

Actually, I’m not sure how I finally managed to make it respond, because I tried a few things.
2nd flight after this was uneventful. Flew for another 15 min or so.

Landed, refueled, and again - no response from the throttle servo.
Tried a few of the same tricks again, but nothing.
Was getting dark, so I pulled it back to the truck and disassembled it.
Before loaded the fuselage, I tried one more time.
Of course it worked!

So any ideas would be greatly appreciated.

Latest equipment - JR8411 throttle servo, Spektrum DX9 Transmitter, Spektrum satellites on a Powerbox Competition SRS, 2 x 2S LiPo 5000 mah batteries.
I’ve experienced this previously when running a different throttle servo, Spektrum AR12120 Powersafe receiver, different batteries, and different extensions.

When it does this can you see the receiver if you can is the led on solid or not.

 

[Wild man]

Went out again early this morning at 7:00 am. The wind was not to bad at 10 to 15 on the forth battery a did this video. The wind was up, blowing 15 to 20 gust at 25. The Draco is a fun plane to fly in the wind after every one else goes home

even with the AS3X I still had to add a lot of input to try and keep it level in the gusty wind.

 

[WMcNabb]

Does the plane have the spectrum gyro built in . If it does seem this happen switch it off and you should be ok.

Thanks for this one.
Yes, its the BNF with the A3X receiver which has stabilization. I’ll have to figure out how to turn that part of the receiver off.

 

[WMcNabb]

Does this happen only after a first flight? Where is the servo mounted? Is it getting too hot (eg; exhaust muffler)? Can you hear the servo - like if you were to try and move it by hand is it locked? If it was an electrical issue I wouldn't think it would reveal itself like you are talking. Given that it seems to reveal itself after a flight and after it sits for a bit it comes back, my initial thought is that it's getting heat soaked.

When it does this can you see the receiver if you can is the led on solid or not.

Thanks for the responses gentlemen.

Yes, the issue occurs after the first flight, never between the time I check the control movements just after assembly at the field, and the first flight. When this trouble happens, no noise can be heard from the servo, and I can move it freely by hand.

Best way to describe the throttle servo location is inverted at the top of the pipe tunnel. You can see it hiding between the two pipes in the photo below.

I did put new baffles in this thing not too terribly long ago, so it’s very possible that heat is the problem. Oddly enough, quite a few minutes had passed by the time the servo worked again after the 1st and before the 2nd flight. Similar delay between after the 2nd flight and when the servo worked again just before loading the model into the truck.

Looking at the receivers when this happens, all four of the satellites have solid LEDs. With the PowerBox, I can assign any signal to any of the servos, so I did this by assigning a different servo to the throttle input signal and it worked fine. However, I could not get the throttle servo to move, regardless of assigning it to any of the inputs.

 

[Wild man]

Thanks for this one.
Yes, its the BNF with the A3X receiver which has stabilization. I’ll have to figure out how to turn that part of the receiver off.

Are you talking about the Draco If so you can go in and program Flight modes on a three position switch. So you can have no AS3X or safe, position 1 then position 2 is AS3X only and position 3 will be both AS3X and Safe or you can set it to where position 2 and 3 are just diferent gyro settings like 50% and 100% of the gyro settings that are already programed in the receiver