be honest! how often do you range check?

[Boggy]

i stuffed in my new wot4 plank on sunday (only 6 flights old ) i use a dx7 and second flight yesterday the wot4 started to play up. the engine hesitated for a second as it took off,but i put it down to me giving it full chat too quickly as my helper launched it. the plane was left of me about 200yds out it cut to idle and i had no control.i had a guy stood next to me and as i turned to warn him it burst into life again. so i brought it around to land and same thing lost control then back it came, so it was just a matter of getting it down anywhere .but after a couple of seconds it cut to idle and i watched as it gently crossed 3 fields before coming down in long crops,so i hoped it would be ok.
sadly no such luck the u/c had snapped off and the spinner had dug in and crushed the bulkhead!! so im about to learn how to use balsa and glue

anyhoo
after retrieving it and a couple of the planker guys looking at it all seemed to work ok.till i did a range check and lost contact within 10/15 feet.! and i then found that if i stood about 100yds from it i had intermittent control as i faced different directions.(using full power)
i tried a couple more models after i got home and the same thing happens so it looks like the dx7 is fritzed. it and the wot4's rx (ar500) are now on there way to horizon

so the point of my thread. Do you range check??ive been a member of a couple of clubs. and been to charmouth quite a few times plus organised and attended flyins,and ive not seen many guys do it!! and certainly not regularly.

i ranged mine as ive built them or after binding/rebinding, but had i done it properly yesterday before flying i would have saved a model.

another lesson learnt!! so this weekend do me a favour and range check your model before flying,cos im betting like me you dont do it that often

[moonmanflyer]

I range check on new models, did on Ashleys wot 4, at home, lucky my garden is long enough to do it

[Allan]

I always range check after checking the heli over
used to fly with some guy that always did it so it
become second nature to me

[Steve]

Generally do it with brand new models - first day at the field etc.

But never again after that - if it fails one day 2 years down the line, just put it down to bad luck.

[trillian]

It may be OTT but I range check before the first flight of the day every time I take a model out to the field.

[Arceye]

It may be OTT but I range check before the first flight of the day every time I take a model out to the field.

Not OTT at all, just good safe sense

[Boggy]

good on you Sheryl and thats how it should be sadly i think most of us dont

[ChrisP]

Generally do it with brand new models - first day at the field etc.

But never again after that - if it fails one day 2 years down the line, just put it down to bad luck.

Same as Steve above. Once done at a certain field, job done. Been good so far (i've said now! If i have a failure now, i'll wish i'd never answered this thread lol)

EDIT: or range checked more often. Will be from now on

[sacko]

Never done it....

......ever! Oops.

[Mike W]

first flight of the day at my field as I fly planes as well ... TBH I do it alot with my heli's as well

[frog]

Exactly the same thing happened to a friend of mine last Sunday. ar7000 and DX7 on a glass hotliner, lost all control, LiPo fire AARGG!

On recovery we range checked again (had been done OK a week before) and signal lost with the model tail in. Bound it to my DX7 and it held solid. Sent his DX back to horizon, they couldn't fix it but sent him a brand new DX7 and Rx. Not knowing how long Horizon would take he bought another DX7 so now he has two

We were just glad nobody got hurt and no cars got damaged

[Grant85]

Never done it before but thanks for the heads up Boggy must now learn to do a range check properly.

Cheers Grant.

[shikari_chaos]

Sorry to hear you had a nasty landing I always range test my new models but like most of you i don't bother again unless maybe I go to a new flying site.
The dropping in and out of signal sounds like a power issue maybe (probably not) BUT that's kinda what happened to my raptor when the rx battery was low and a servo was binding causing a big amp draw and loss of power to the rx then once the servo/rx was "powered down" for a sec it gave me control as the system started up again. repeat that a few times and hey presto you find ground pretty fast

[VVazzo]

Never done it....

......ever! Oops.

+1 (and five more characters)

[Rctintin]

What kind of distance should I be doing a range check at please? (DX7)