T-33 Retracts Issues
Hi Folks,
I am having problems with the retracts on my T-33 and I am at a loss as to what to do. I hope someone in this group can give me some advise .
I bought this T-33 airplane back in Feb 2020. It took me a month or so to put it in the air and, given that I just came back to the hobby after a 12 year hiatus, I have not flown it much until I rebuild my skill (maybe 10 times so far). From day ONE, the retracts misbehaved. After I realized that there was a delay in deploying and retracting (likely by design, programmed from the factory and part of the set up of "Blue Box" where the servo get plugged) the main gear would deploy and retract fine but the nose gear would not reliably deploy. After a while I realized that if I cycled the process twice, it will deploy (i.e., flip the switch, wait for the main gear to deploy, then retract it, then flip the switch again and NOW all main AND nose gear would deploy). Unfortunately, I did not complain to Motion RC (as I found a "workaround") at the time so my warranty ran out. Well, the "workaround" stopped working last week and I had to land without the nose gear (saved the plane but scratched the belly).
I then proceeded to bypass the "Blue Box" (using a three pronged Y harness and going straight to the receiver) and ...
a) With just the nose gear going directly to the Rx (and the main to the Blue Box)... the nose gear would work well... until it did not and operation became unreliable as before.
b) With nose AND main gear going directly to the Rx... they worked well... until they did not and all THREE became unreliable
c) Then I went back to "a" and this works fine about 80% of the time (i.e deploys 80% of the time at the first or second attempt)
At this point, I do not know what the problem is or what else to do. Now I only dare to fly it with the landing gear deployed... but that is a shame as it takes some of the fun away.
Has anyone experienced a problem like this with the T33 or any other Freewing retracts? - Does anybody have any idea of what the problem can be or how to go about solving it?
I would appreciate any input that you can offer.
Thanks,
Cesar.
San Diego, California
I am having problems with the retracts on my T-33 and I am at a loss as to what to do. I hope someone in this group can give me some advise .
I bought this T-33 airplane back in Feb 2020. It took me a month or so to put it in the air and, given that I just came back to the hobby after a 12 year hiatus, I have not flown it much until I rebuild my skill (maybe 10 times so far). From day ONE, the retracts misbehaved. After I realized that there was a delay in deploying and retracting (likely by design, programmed from the factory and part of the set up of "Blue Box" where the servo get plugged) the main gear would deploy and retract fine but the nose gear would not reliably deploy. After a while I realized that if I cycled the process twice, it will deploy (i.e., flip the switch, wait for the main gear to deploy, then retract it, then flip the switch again and NOW all main AND nose gear would deploy). Unfortunately, I did not complain to Motion RC (as I found a "workaround") at the time so my warranty ran out. Well, the "workaround" stopped working last week and I had to land without the nose gear (saved the plane but scratched the belly).
I then proceeded to bypass the "Blue Box" (using a three pronged Y harness and going straight to the receiver) and ...
a) With just the nose gear going directly to the Rx (and the main to the Blue Box)... the nose gear would work well... until it did not and operation became unreliable as before.
b) With nose AND main gear going directly to the Rx... they worked well... until they did not and all THREE became unreliable
c) Then I went back to "a" and this works fine about 80% of the time (i.e deploys 80% of the time at the first or second attempt)
At this point, I do not know what the problem is or what else to do. Now I only dare to fly it with the landing gear deployed... but that is a shame as it takes some of the fun away.
Has anyone experienced a problem like this with the T33 or any other Freewing retracts? - Does anybody have any idea of what the problem can be or how to go about solving it?
I would appreciate any input that you can offer.
Thanks,
Cesar.
San Diego, California
Comment