Turbo Timber Troubleshooting

[NickRivers]

Hi Guys! New member here. I've flown off and on for a few years and recently got back into the hobby with some of Eflites models. Can't say enough good things about them, however I am completely stumped on a problem with my father's Turbo Timber. He purchased one as well as a NX8 to learn to fly planes as he mostly flies copters.

Right out of the box binded it up in AS3X and tested the control surfaces. When I stepped back to taxi it around I noticed the wheel spring connector was incorrectly assembled and the plane was leaning to one side. I immediately knew this would mess up the AS3X, so I fixed it and rebinded. Now every flight the plane just wants to dip in one direction. If I trim it out I have no authority on that side. On the ground the AS3X tests fine, and I don't want to start subtrimming either since everything looks identical to my Turbo Timber.

To me this is clearly an issue from binding in an unstable position. I just don't know enough about AS3X to troubleshoot and not seeing too much come up in my google searches. I have rebinded several times and even made a new profile on the transmitter. Is there something I'm missing here?

Thanks guys!

Side rant: Pretty frustrated with my google searches involving Eflite/Horizon/Spektrum. Everything seems to lead back to product pages. Happy to have joined Hobby Squawk!

[NickRivers]

Update - After adding about 100 sub trim to the left aileron the plane now flies straight. Im guessing even with adding sub trim if the AS3X was incorrectly balanced then it would still affected? Not sure why a brand new plane would need so much trim. Trying my best to not tear apart the servo decals to investigate...

[SanExup]

Rebinding would be the first thing I'd do, but you said you did that. Make sure you are pulling the bind plug.

Zeroing the subtrims and trim, then making sure the control surfaces are zeroed out, mechanically, would be my next step.

I would also make sure the wing and the h. stabs are parallel and the v. stab is square. Even though your initial inclination was pointing towards the landing gear/bind procedure, it is possible that it is another issue.

And same as what you said, do the initializing procedure with the plane level.

Welcome to the forum, I hope you can figure it out!

[SanExup]

Do you have a battery meter with a servo tester? Disconnect the control rods and center the servo maybe. What you are doing with the sub trim doesn't sound right. It should be done mechanically first, before using subtrims.

[NickRivers]

Rebinding would be the first thing I'd do, but you said you did that. Make sure you are pulling the bind plug.

Zeroing the subtrims and trim, then making sure the control surfaces are zeroed out, mechanically, would be my next step.

I would also make sure the wing and the h. stabs are parallel and the v. stab is square. Even though your initial inclination was pointing towards the landing gear/bind procedure, it is possible that it is another issue.

And same as what you said, do the initializing procedure with the plane level.

Welcome to the forum, I hope you can figure it out!

Thanks for the reply. Is rebinding standard procedure for resetting the center on AS3X? I'm also going to make a new profile on a different transmitter and start from scratch that way. I could understand this issue with a ARF model, but given this is BNF and I have several, I'm stumped.

[NickRivers]

Do you have a battery meter with a servo tester? Disconnect the control rods and center the servo maybe. What you are doing with the sub trim doesn't sound right. It should be done mechanically first, before using subtrims.

I do, I was just trying to avoid removing the decals since its a brand new model and the pushrods are internal. Post build all the control surfaces were flush, and even when powered up, 25+% throttle to activate AS3X everything was still straight as an arrow. It almost seems like a balance issue or a motor mount issue.

I fly on my property, and my Local Hobby Shop isn't quite local, about 50 mins out. Might have to take to a field and someone more seasoned diagnose it for me.

[SanExup]

Oh right, forgot about the buried pushrods.

Just curious if you used a downloaded TX setup for the TurboTimber off of the Spektrum site? It might save you time setting up another TX with it. I have done both with my eflite models, setup from scratch and downloaded files.

Based on what you've said, surfaces all zeroed on startup etc. It sounds like the servos are already zeroed out. Confusing.

If you can get a response from Horizon in a timely manner, they might be the best for troubleshooting it versus your drive time.

And yes, rebinding is the procedure I've used to zero out the gyro. That's another thought. Have you checked how the rx is attached? Maybe it was attached wonky?

[NickRivers]

I have tried the TX setup and from scratch, Just set it up on another TX and the same problem. Even when trimmed it only has about half the authority into the corrective direction.

So far the best bet has been a ton of sub trim, it just goes against my reasoning to send a plane up with the surfaces offset.

Just thought of checking the RX as well and it seems to be well intact. I don't think they need to be extremely precise correct? I have a receiver on my Timber X that does not have AS3X. I might swap that on just to see what the bare plane wants to do. If I could find the energy after all this thinking/wrenching. Time for a beer.

Thanks for the input!

[Denniswpb]

I have tried the TX setup and from scratch, Just set it up on another TX and the same problem. Even when trimmed it only has about half the authority into the corrective direction.

So far the best bet has been a ton of sub trim, it just goes against my reasoning to send a plane up with the surfaces offset.

Just thought of checking the RX as well and it seems to be well intact. I don't think they need to be extremely precise correct? I have a receiver on my Timber X that does not have AS3X. I might swap that on just to see what the bare plane wants to do. If I could find the energy after all this thinking/wrenching. Time for a beer.

Thanks for the input!

Same issue I am running into today with my Turbo Timber Evolution. In order to stop the roll, I need a ton of sub-trim. This goes against my grain! I want to mechanically trim the flight control surface and have all my transmitter trim settings at zero. Who decided to make this without being able to mechanically adjust the ailerons???

[HoldFastRC]

I know this post is a bit dated and you may have found your solution but I would have recommended not only rebinding, but resetting receiver to factory and going through the aircrafts orientation setup again. I recently unlocked my own reveiver in my TTE and upgraded the servos in the wing after putting each aileron on its own channel to achieve crow configuration. If it had the gangster lean on setup, the only way to counter it is trimming until you perform a new orientation with the lean corrected. Hopefully this helps someone else down the road