| 10.2.2010 | On 18 July 2009, the Beaver crashed at a model aircraft meet held by the Large Model Association in Cosford (Great Britain). Approximately 3 minutes after take-off the radio suddenly and without warning shut down. At that moment, the Beaver had just begun to bank to the left at an altitude of roughly 170 feet. Since both receivers were not getting any signals all the servos went into fail safe mode: all flying surfaces were locked in the last position before the black-out, and the throttle adjusted itself to idle.
The model aircraft started to slowly sink with the left wing pointing toward the ground. When the Beaver hit the asphalt the left wing was bent upward, while the left leg of the landing gear was upset and bent backward. That way much of the energy of the crash was absorbed, and as a consequence the engine didn’t sustain much damage: only the lower left cylinder head was scratched.
The stress of the impact caused the right wing to bend forward, while the mid-section of the fuselage was deformed as well. However, except for the wooden propeller, no other parts broke off or got otherwise detached from the aircraft. Immediately after the crash, the radio underwent testing. The end result was always the same: After a few minutes of operation the radio completely shut down. This was repeated numerous time in front of witnesses on site and a few days later (this time the tests were video-taped) at the shop.
The radio, a Futaba FX-30, was then shipped to Robbe, the Futaba distributor for the German market, where the technicians were unable to locate the problem. Next, the radio was sent to Futaba Japan where local experts determined that the cause for the total radio failure was a faulty battery in the transmitter. |
|
|
DEUTSCH 
ENGLISH
