Habu: The problem with the ESC's BEC switch

[pvogel]

Flight #6 of the Habu, first flight of the day -- load the battery, strap her down, tuck the wires away neatly, close the canopy. Walk it out to the field. Check controls & range check, all good. EVERYONE is watching because they've heard of the Habu but haven't been lucky enough to get one yet...

Pick her up, aim 10* above the horizontal, hit full throttle give it a good toss into the wind, try to pull up: NOTHING. Plane starts to lose altitude and head for the ground. Kill throttle: NOTHING, still going full out. Plane hits ground slides about 30 feet on the ground before throttle dies.

Analysis: BEC switch was OFF when I arrived at my poor habu and it's broken + bent nose. Given that control + range check were fine I can only surmise that on launch something shifted and the switch was flipped off.

I'm now MUCH more careful of the switch's location in the electronics compartment, I'm planning to mount it somewhere out of harms way...

Meanwhile, some Sumo glue fixed the nose break and some heat *somewhat* straightened the bent nose, but made the skin of the nose pebbly. It's flyable, but not as fast as it was. It'll do until replacement airframes are available...

I hate that switch!

Peter+

[ATIS]

If I remember correctly you can just cut it off and the ESC will work fine...just but heat shrink over the bare wires. I dislike the switch as well and believe it to one of those things that are used on nitro planes more then electric.

[WJCJR1]

Yes ATIS you are correct cutting off the switch and isolating the wires from each other effectively leaves the ESC in the ON position. Or you could switch it to the ON position and put a dab of CA on it.

I haven't found it an issue yet but will now probably after reading this find myself hitting the kill switch time and again :)

Wayne

[pvogel]

I love the CA idea, I think I'll do that tonight!

Peter+