Doug
Elite Veteran
Location: Naples Florida....
| About two weeks ago, I was doing PM on my Raptor 50 V1 and I found that the antenna wire had become trapped between the canopy mount and the front landing gear causing a severe chafe (down to only a couple of wires). So I went to the LHS and got a new antenna. I took the receiver apart (FP-R138DP) and unsoldered the old one, cleaned out the hole in the PCB and proceeded to install the new one. On this radio the antenna is routed from the "back" side of the PCB through a small hole and then enters the "foil" side and is soldered. The new antenna comes with about the last 1/16" tinned. I inserted the wire into the PCB and soldered it I looked at it with a magnifying glass and it looked good. I put it all back together and went out flying last Sunday. I did my normal Range check (engine running with about 500 RPM on the head) and collapsed my transmitter antenna and got about 10 feet and it started "locking out". So, I "parked" it and flew my Concept. Today I took the receiver apart and unthreaded the wire so that I could put a strain on the solder joint and guess what? It pulled right out  The solder had missed the tinned spot and I had only a mechanical connection. The good news is that I do a "running" range check, because, I think it would have passed a static range check and would have resulted in a crash. Just a heads up for a stupid mistake that was caught by my normal "routine" 
First member of Member of Bearings Anonymous |
