Futaba repairs

[Geoff Parkes]

Has anyone managed to get any futaba repairs since lockdown, I have a Futaba 10 chan. transmitter that needs a repair. I have E mailed Ripmax on two occasions (23 july and 22 Aug. ) and had an auto reply indicating that because of Covid virus Ripmax has been temporarily shut down since the 23 of march. has any one managed to get their Futaba gear sorted else wear ?

[Keith Berriman]

Hi Geoff have you thought of Mike Ridley Workshop e mail a query andfeeel sue you will get a response.

Mike has done a full check on a Hitec Flash 7 that I had accidently knocked over

Turned round in just over a week

Great Service

[Phil Green]

Mike is the man. Just out of interest Geoff,what's the nature of the repair?

[Test Pilot]

Very strange that both Ripmax and Slough Radio control have both been shut since the beginning of lockdown. Slough haven't even been doing mail order, and still aren't. The shop is closed even though they have been allowed to open under the rules for some time now.

Has anyone any insight as to why? I sincerely hope all the staff are OK and no-one has succumbed to this virus.

The longer it goes on the less I see the chance of them ever re-opening.

TP

[kevin b]

I am wanting some work done on a T14SG I obtained a while ago. In the past I have had excellent service from their engineer Jim. He has been furloughed and I am regular contact with the helpful lady answering calls. I am assuming that this will continue until the government stops paying and then in line with many of the other similarly run companies the employment situation will return to normal. If you have an urgent repair, or the item is still under warranty then Ripmax are sending stuff out to their engineer in Germany.

My advice is don't email - phone. Just don't vent any frustrations on the person who answers your call.

[Geoff Parkes]

thanks for the help and advise, the tranny is a 10cg, its about 10 years old, i lost a plane just before lock down, put it down to pilot error, but not flying and just building in the shut down i have not used the tranny much, on the resumption of flying at my club i started to double check the planes i had to maiden, to my surprise the first one checked the receiver had become unbound, thinking that it was a receiver problem i swapped the receiver, bound it as usual all seemed O.K. I checked the second plane and again on switching on the second plane had become unbound, on rechecking the first plane it had again become unbound, i dare not risk using the tranny in this condition, thinking because of its age i might opt to replace the thing all together.

[Jesus Cardin]

10CG is no longer supported by Futaba. Some Service Centers may still stock some spare parts and offer repair but Japan directions are the equipment is out of date and shouldn't be supported or repaired now.

Anyway that problem described by Geoff is very strange as if receivers become unbound or, at least, bind led is red instead of green this should indicate in genuine Futaba receivers the transmitter is no longer sending signal and thus should be impossible to bind again transmitter with any receiver. I do not know details about compatible but not original receivers and if they may lose bind with transmitter.