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WJCJR1
09-23-2009, 06:53 PM
Flew my T-28D for roughly 5 minutes today before the worst thing that can ever happen happened. The DX5e in my hand beeps just like it does when you first turn it on, the radio was turning on/off, on/off, on/off. It would not stay on long enough to get a hook-up with the plane.

The plane flies away under it's own power, I tried severla time to get the transmitter to turn on and stay on, no luck. The batteries are fresh from the charger, full charge, the darn batteries were not making good contact with the spades.

So the plane flies away over a highway and a couple hundred feet into a farmer's property and then disappears from site. The homeowners were cool and we found the plane right away but man it was so high up there. I climbed the near limbless tree for a bit and took the advice from my neighbor, who was going to be buddy-boxing on the Apprentice with me today, that this is not a good idea. We began chucking rocks/sticks at my baby. Finally hit it enough to get the nose clear juiced her up and got enough thrust out of the damaged prop to hop her out of the tree and onto another tree's canopy. I climbed this more climbable tree and shook the plane out which then my neighbor caught.

Plane is really dinged everywhere!!! Not a single foam part is not dinged somewhere. Few of the dungs border on severe dents.

MAN am I MAD! I have had this no-contact thing happen before but it was right when I put the batteries in and no harm just play with the batteries a bit and all good. Today this came out of nowhere and makes me very nervous.

So a bit of glue, maybe some paint and she should be good to go, nothing else got damaged. I am ssuming all the damage came from the plane hitting the tops of trees and crashing across the thops of trees before cartwheeling into a nice little cradle of branches. She was moving at a more than slow pace I'd say 30-40 moh when she went down.

After the plane retrieval, NO LESS THAN 45 minutes of labor, I went back to our field and fiddled with the batteries, pryed on the spades a bit and got good solid contact. I then set up the Apprentice and buddy-boxed my friend/neighbor for a solid 20 minute flight. He did real well.

Wayne

ATIS
09-23-2009, 07:38 PM
crap sorry to hear that. I never had an issue with my DX5 but i dont use it very often.

apprentice1
09-24-2009, 09:58 AM
That bites,,,when it's not something you can see coming. I lost a $150 heli that way. It was one of those tx's that had the removable battery holder.

WJCJR1
09-24-2009, 07:40 PM
Here's a few pics with the damage from the Fly Away event.

Obviously could have been worse but not something I needed.

Remember this is the plane with the Power15 being turned by a 4S battery. With the extra provided performance I have Epoxied the plane together as the wing was getting quite a bit of movement off the fuselage given the factory bolt/pin method. Same goes for the Horizontal stabilizer it has a dab of epoxy holding it in place. With that having been done separating any of these items will be no fun, so thankfully nothing is missing and I can clean this mostly aesthetic damage.

Wayne

Jason D
09-25-2009, 09:28 AM
Is that Duct Tape in picture 3?

If so, AWESOME!

Most of my planes have at least one thing from Ace, one thing from Walmart, and one thing from Menards or Home Depot in them.

I really think it makes them fly better! ::tonguee:

WJCJR1
09-25-2009, 08:08 PM
Yes JD it is Duct Tape. You have not seen this plane fly yet I am certain. When I upgraded to the 4S powered Power15 the upstep in speed tore off the tape Parkzone puts over the servo wiring. This was not an isolated incident both the intial plane's wing and this newer wing had the tape torn right off the underside of the wing in one maybe two flights.

Prior to the upgrade I had many flights with the stock setup with not a hint the tape was going to let loose so to happen to two wings signifies it is not meant for the speed it now sees.

First time I heard the tape fluttering I thought I wrecked something because boy was it making a racket. So I landed identified the tape issue peeled it off completely and installed 200mph tape (duct tape). So far so good and the coloring of the T-28D it hardly shows.

Going to be out there Saturday, so if you got a chance to fly we'll be there hopefully most the day.

Wayne

pvogel
01-05-2010, 01:17 AM
Make sure that when you bind your radio all controls are in a proper "signal lost" position:

Throttle: OFF
Elevator: SLIGHT up
Rudder: SLIGHT right or left.
Ailerons: neutral for a trainer, SLIGHT right or left for others

That puts the plane in a gentle right/left descending circle on signal loss, and if it happens on the ground your plane won't go jumping off on its own...

Peter+

Wattman
01-05-2010, 02:44 PM
I also had a flyaway a couple of years ago , have no idea what happened , a new foam Fok D-7 , launched , gained height so I could trim it out , and it just kept climbing and a gentle big circle ................:yikes:
And it flew till it was out of sight :bawling:
Never did find the plane , placed posters around this small town , and at the hobby shops , its STILL gone !

brianfp_400
01-05-2010, 03:14 PM
Sorry about this Wayne

WJCJR1
01-05-2010, 05:14 PM
Just an FYI this is a post from this passed summer. Flyaway was from a bad contact on the battery terminal. Many serious enthusiasts REFUSE to fly with a TZ with loose cells in it and I got an upfront taste of what they are talking about.

Wayne