I saw another thread about the Champ S+ ignoring the virtual fence...I had a similar issue with the GPS except this was for the holding pattern.
I'll start off by saying I made the newbie mistake of reading the instructions once, thinking I understood it and then didn't read them again till it was too late. I have an old Champ (the yellow one) that I have thoroughly enjoyed, but for most of its flying days it has been held together with tape and sticks, due to my brother putting it into a tree on its second flight. I since then had torn the wings off a couple times, so it was crying for retirement. I enjoyed doing aerobatics in that model, so I looked for the next version up. I bought this trainer about a month ago, and only started flying it about two weeks ago due to weather and what not. One thing I noticed on its maiden voyage was that several times during the flight, it would apply full power, then up elevators till about 50-60 feet and then do some circles.
Fast forward to the 4th flight, I was doing some aerobatics, circles, practicing coordinated turns and maintaining level flight. The holding pattern starts up. No big deal, I let it do its thing, then resume flying. I then start a shallow dive, a little bit closer to the ground than I'm normally comfortable but I'd done the same thing earlier without too much trouble. Except it decides that is a perfect moment to start the holding pattern. Before it managed to bring the nose up, it smashes it face first into the ground, ripping the entire front end off in the process.
Discouraged, I went home and reread the quick start, and then looked at the manual. It clearly stated that holding pattern was only meant to be activated by a button press - not randomly, and I know I never pressed the button. I also learned there was a way to turn off the gps....which doesn't do me much good now.
I will need a new fuselage, a new vertical stabilizer, and a new prop mount and spinner (amazingly the prop is still fine, it just separated from the rest of the plane. Same with the motor.) Which, isn't too bad but when all is said and done it'll set me back $30-$40 bucks. I've also contacted Horizon Hobby about it, explaining the software bug, but that was a few days ago now and I've heard nothing.
It really comes down to two questions:
1) Should I rebuild the same plane if they don't get back to me, and try to turn off the GPS? I'm worried since it's already a buggy board that it may ignore this.
2) If not, how do you go about choosing a new controller board?
Thanks guys!
I'll start off by saying I made the newbie mistake of reading the instructions once, thinking I understood it and then didn't read them again till it was too late. I have an old Champ (the yellow one) that I have thoroughly enjoyed, but for most of its flying days it has been held together with tape and sticks, due to my brother putting it into a tree on its second flight. I since then had torn the wings off a couple times, so it was crying for retirement. I enjoyed doing aerobatics in that model, so I looked for the next version up. I bought this trainer about a month ago, and only started flying it about two weeks ago due to weather and what not. One thing I noticed on its maiden voyage was that several times during the flight, it would apply full power, then up elevators till about 50-60 feet and then do some circles.
Fast forward to the 4th flight, I was doing some aerobatics, circles, practicing coordinated turns and maintaining level flight. The holding pattern starts up. No big deal, I let it do its thing, then resume flying. I then start a shallow dive, a little bit closer to the ground than I'm normally comfortable but I'd done the same thing earlier without too much trouble. Except it decides that is a perfect moment to start the holding pattern. Before it managed to bring the nose up, it smashes it face first into the ground, ripping the entire front end off in the process.
Discouraged, I went home and reread the quick start, and then looked at the manual. It clearly stated that holding pattern was only meant to be activated by a button press - not randomly, and I know I never pressed the button. I also learned there was a way to turn off the gps....which doesn't do me much good now.
I will need a new fuselage, a new vertical stabilizer, and a new prop mount and spinner (amazingly the prop is still fine, it just separated from the rest of the plane. Same with the motor.) Which, isn't too bad but when all is said and done it'll set me back $30-$40 bucks. I've also contacted Horizon Hobby about it, explaining the software bug, but that was a few days ago now and I've heard nothing.
It really comes down to two questions:
1) Should I rebuild the same plane if they don't get back to me, and try to turn off the GPS? I'm worried since it's already a buggy board that it may ignore this.
2) If not, how do you go about choosing a new controller board?
Thanks guys!
Comment