There should be tears...

Short and simple: I lost my incredible Eflite Pulse XT this afternoon. I think my DX8 burped... my new DX8.

I had noticed over these past several weeks that I wasn't getting a full charge indication on my DX8 with its stock NiCd (4.8V) batteries. Today it alarmed low voltage when it still had 4.8V (it will charge to 5.2V) and turned off. Before this flight I had charged it for almost 45 min and it read 5.1V. It binded to the PulseXT fine, I completed my pre-takeoff checks, and launched. She turned and I climbed to about 200ft, and started a vertical snap roll. It started but then seemed to mush and she tipped nose down and started a roll spin. I realized I had no control, and called out as she spun slowly, straight down to the ground despite my letting go and then trying to ease back on the elevator. She corkscrewed all the way down. The nose and forward fuse were shattered. The wing cracked but did not break all the way through (not pictured). The receiver showed a single blink... lost bind. In the field's Bermuda Quadrant where this sort of radio loss has occurred.

I got home planning to buy a new fuse and cowl, but the fuse was $111, and the cowl $16, or $137. A new plane cost $190, so I saw no point in just getting the fuse... I opted to buy a new replacement kit. I have all the electronics from the original (will ne
ed to replace the gears in the rudder MN48 servo, but I have them), so that will be it. I also need to update the DX8 software... good time to do so.

So I am bummed... but I am lucky enough to be able to get another.

PS: I forgot to mention that the other reason I suspect the battery is that later, still having to keep plugging it in, I flew my heli. Near the end of a long hover the heli suddenly came straight down from 10 feet, fast. No damage. No release of bind, curiously. I checked out the heli, it was fine. Took it up again, and within a few seconds it did it again, unfortunately I could not keep it from tipping on the ground and had a boom strike. No release of bind either. This is when Steve wondered if the radio itself was the problem. Being that I was having battery problems, I wonder if the voltage spiked down enough to decrease the power output allowing for a we signal. With the Pulse which was far away, it resulted in a loss of bind, but with the closer heli, just a brown out?