[pianodude]

i was flying my new GP Viper last week(total of eight flights on everything) and i went to throttle up from a missed approach and there was no response. i still landed safely and thought i was just out of fuel. i was checking everything over last night for a great day today and the throttle wouldn't move. i tried a different servo in the same channel and it worked fine, so i had a servo failure. brand new futaba 4exa system and this happens?! i was just lucky that it was the throttle and not anything else. i am more disappointed than frustrated. quality ain't what it used to be....

[Ken E]

First time I've heard of a Futaba servo failure, seen lots of Hi-Techs go bad.I would check it out so it's replacer does'nt go the same way, never can tell what caused it till you investigate. ken

[442]

Glad to here you were able to get it on the ground without damage!

[Guest]

Originally Posted by Ken E

First time I've heard of a Futaba servo failure, seen lots of Hi-Techs go bad.I would check it out so it's replacer does'nt go the same way, never can tell what caused it till you investigate. ken

Futaba servo failures were one of the reasons my dad and I switched to JR years ago. There were other bigger issues that we had with Futaba, but both my dad and I lost airplanes to Futaba servo's (brand new) that decided to travel fully in one direction and stay there. Those particular servo's aren't in production anymore, and I wouldn't worry in particular about their servo's at all.

Any servo can fail, I can truthfully say that in all the years I've been flying RC, I have never PERSONALLY seen a JR servo fail in flight, but I have seen many Futaba, Hitec, Airtronics etc servo's fail. I'm sure there have been JR's fail too, but I feel the most comfortable with JR

[Gary Maker]

An older Gentleman in my past club, a diehard Futaba man, bought a high end Futaba radio system for over $700. ( about 10 years ago so was pretty high end at the time.) Right from the start he started having some minor glitching. He spent hours testing the servos, RX etc. Finally he decided to try a different frequency module and when he took off the TX module, almost every pin was loose. Cold solder joints. He repaired it himself and it worked fine after that.

Doesn't matter what system you buy or how much you pay for it, they can all potentually have problems. Another young fellow bought a similar expensive Futaba system and lost his plane because of a faulty on/off switch. Futaba gladly replaced the switch!

IF you look hard enough, I'm sure you will find similar problems with just about every Mfg;s systems. You personally might never have heard of such and such Mfg's system failing, but it does happen.

No matter what system you buy, you should check it out very thouroughly before you commit that new bird to its use. You know the old saying: " An ounce of prevention.....!!

Personally, I can say in all honestly, that I have used Hitec servos exclusively for over 15 years now, every thing from the HS300's to HS5955TG Coreless digitals, and they have been used to control many many different aircraft, from trainers right up to my latest 85" 50cc gasser Yak, and I have NEVER ever had a Hitec servo fail. I guess more than anything else, its just the luck of the draw.

I am very happy that you didn't loose your airplane and I doubt that your new replacement servo will have the same problem. You just happened to get a bad one this time. Hope you can continue to fly, problem free! All the best!!

[pianodude]

thanks for the encouragement guys, it means a lot! another friend at the field had a jr retract servo fail today on the second flight. again a completely new system and airplane. the airplane belly landed with minor damage, but this is really frustrating! john

[Wayne22]

Nothing to get frustrated over...it happens from time to time, not often, mind you, but it does happen. As Gary mentioned, checking over your equipment, linkages, and installation thoroughly before the first flight can help the model live a much longer life....

[Guest]

Originally Posted by Gary Maker

Doesn't matter what system you buy or how much you pay for it, they can all potentually have problems. Another young fellow bought a similar expensive Futaba system and lost his plane because of a faulty on/off switch. Futaba gladly replaced the switch!

No matter what system you buy, you should check it out very thouroughly before you commit that new bird to its use. You know the old saying: " An ounce of prevention.....!!

On the same note I once read an article in an electronics magazine (I cannot remember which one) about our electronic equipment and the dreaded Gremlins. The author referred to the Gremlins as little pieces of debris left inside the electronics during production. Most were stuff like plastic chips and such that might end up interfering with switch movement but the most concerning were the odd bit of solder, wire or other conductive debris that could short out the equipment. The article was done some time ago. Since reading this I have always taken any new electronic purchase apart and checked it for debris. I have found odd bits more than a few times including a bit of loose solder and once a small wire end in a Kenwood stereo receiver. As far as the RC equipment I have checked I have only found the odd plastic bits that may or may not interfere with the gimbals. It doesn’t mater what brand I was told its part of the manufacturing process.

Dennis

[labtec23]

Hey john I also had my futaba S3010 rudder servo fail on my last flight with my wild stick. I took it apart and sure enough #2 gear was stripped. Ohh well time to buy a gear set for 10.00 I guess it was just a bad day!

Nathan