Hobbyking Transmitter Aerial failure

[Stuart Eggerton]

Hi everyone, I would like to report an incident that I had with my Hobbyking 6 channel Transmitter. Before I go on I would like to point out that this failure was due to pilot error and the equipment was sound it was just a maintenance error on my behalf.

 

The Hobbyking radio gear is very good and lots of my fellow members fly on this equipment and we have never had a problem. The 6 channel set has an aerial which has a 90 degree bend in it and there is like a plastic pin either side to allow the user to pivot the very top of the aerial at the bend. I carried my transmitter in a rucksack and did not always turn the aerial to allow flat storage, and somehow he plastic pins broke meaning that the aerial would still pivot but was loose (i.e only the wire was really connecting the top of the aerial). I should have at this stage taped / glued the whole thing up but it seemed to be performing well, and the aerial would kind of click into position from time to time. I did get a few unexplained glitches with the signal being lost for a few seconds at a time for no reason from time to time and put it down to range or flying very low near the horizon.

 

On the last day I took my Gentle Lady glider out for a flight, it was absolutley flat calm and I was looking forward to a nice gently long series of flights. I launched the model and as soon as it got to about 30 ftt alt the motor stopped. I then lost all control, but luckily the aircraft was in a shallow diving turn to the left and control was re-gained in the nick of time and I just pulled out of the dive avoiding a crash.

 

I checked the battery and servo connection etc but no probelms. I finally noticed the recieved aerial and what had happeded was because it was not secured properly the aerial had chafed until it had almost been severed!.

 

I have now ordered a new v2 Hobbyking radio control set and set of new recievers and there are no problems now.

 

I now treat my transmitter with more repect and never put in in a bag or in a situation where the aerial could become damaged.