This weekend I came upon the scene of a horrible plane crash. It was a remote-controlled Sky Zap airplane. Apparently, it was just left to die in a field. It’s a little banged up, but seems salvagable. I want to make it fly again.
It’s missing two main components: the battery and the radio transmitter. I can figure out the battery, but I have no clue about the transmitter. Will any old one work, as long as it’s the right frequency? It doesn’t seem to be sold seperately online. Somebody, help me bring the Sky Zap back to life!
I doubt if you’ll be able to buy just a transmitter by itself. If the plane uses standard servos (the little mechanical devices that move the flight controls) you can buy a whole two channel AM system for about forty dollars.
I found the manual for it here (PDF format). It has manufacturer contact info, so you might be able to get one from them. It’s not listed on the orderable parts list, so I wouldn’t hold my breath, but you never know. If nothing else, they might be able to tell you where you might be able to get one.
Heh. I did a whole bunch of research on RC planes last year. My friend and I ended up building an RC boat, but you gotta admit it’s easier.
When you buy a transmitter, you usually get the reciever with it, along with 2 or more servos. It’s slightly different with the low-end pre-built jobs, as they tend to be more like off-the-shelf RC cars, and have cheaper custom stuff.
It all depends on the reciever. I forget how many frequencies there are… your main problem is that you can’t tune the transmitter to a different one, it’s stuck on the one it comes with. (I understand that’s so some doof doesn’t mess his up so bad it causes interference all over the place)
I’d really recommend taking it to a hobby shop that sells that kind of thing. Most shop owners will be happy to help you figure out what you need; when we bought the prop for our air-boat, the proprietor helped us figure out the pitch and where to mount the engine and everything. Plus the stores are a lot of fun.
Note that you can swap recievers and servos between airplanes, so if you get real interested, there’s not much extra cost involved.
Yeah, it might be a good idea to see if I can find a hobby shop in the area. I’m still not sure I understand the whole frequency thing. Suppose I purchase the transmitter from Padeye’s link. Would it work, or not? Is the frequency specific to the individual plane, or the model? If I call the company and casually ask how I can just get a transmitter, will they laugh at the gaps in my knowledge? How do I tell what kind of reciever I have?
Wow. I seem to have a lot of questions. I don’t suppose somebody could just give me a crash course in how radio control works?
And yeah, I know it would be cheap just to buy a new one. But fixing it up is half the fun!
The PDF manual I linked to says the plane uses a 2-stick 27MHz transmitter (nearly identical to many of the ones RadioShack’s RC cars use, judging by the photo). You could take the plane to one of the stores after you’ve got the battery for it and ask if you can test their remotes (instructions for pre-flight testing are also in the manual), and then if one works, order that one from them. I know they can get replacement remotes, as I used to work for them not too long ago. It was a bad sales year for RC cars for them, so most stores will have a good supply of them left over from Christmas. Heh.
Mr. Broomstick has the suggestion that you examine the airplane for either an AMA number or phone/address information or both - it’s possible it’s an airplane that got away from the owner and he/she would like to have it back, or at least know what happened to it.
There’s nothing on the plane except the standard decals. I found the wreckage under a tree, so I assume it got caught up in there and the owner abandoned it. It was in the middle of Letchworth State Park. There was no one else around, so I claimed salvage rights. On the whole, it’s not in bad shape. Aside from the aformentioned missing parts, part of the tail fin is broken off and the landing gear is gone. Nothing that can’t be easily fixed. The wings and motors appear to be in good shape.
Although now you’ve got me picturing some poor kid in tears over his lost beloved plane. Until I see some kind of notice of a missing airplane, though, I call finders keepers.
The average age of an RC model flyer is somewhere between 45 and 50 - more likely it’s some middle-aged fart in tears over his airplane.
Actually, likely not - there are casualties in that sort of flying. Mr. Broomstick said he used to “go through” 3 or 4 planes a summer. He mentioned the possibility of ID information because he did once have a runaway RC plane returned to him. But if the owner failed to put the information on the airplane I’d say you’re off the hook.
Every RC plane is doomed. If you can’t accept that don’t take up the hobby. A slow electric schoolyard plane like this might have a longer live than a bigger, piston engine plane.
I was suggesting replacing the whole radio system, including the reciever and servos. If you get a radio on the same frequency as the plane they might be compatible with a simple two channel AM system. You might be able to replace just the reciever in the plane provided it’s compatible with the servos.
RC uses some funny and somewhat incorrect terminology. A “channel” is a control input in an RC system, not a frequency selection. Two radios may be on the same frequency but have different numbers of channels, or flight controls available. The simplest are two channel with control of rudder and elevator only. More sophisticated systems can have up to eight. There can be proportional channels for variable contol of 3-axis flight controls, throttle and flaps and simple swiched channels for things like retractable landing gear which are either up or down. I’m not aware of any one channel radios apart from the ancient pulse rudder only systems that actually fluttered the rudder side to side.
Anyway the airborne package consists of a reciever which has a small wire antenna and connections for battery and servos. The servos take the channel outputs from the reciever and use a motor to position an arm or wheel attached to a pushrod which moves the flight controls.
Ok, I’ve opened up the plane and I’m looking at the reciever now. The whole gizmo’s wrapped in yellow pastic with a sticker that says “27.095 MHz” There are four wires that go to the motors: two to each. Two power wires are also connected. Then you have your antenna coming out. I don’t see these servos you’re talking about. It looks like it controls the direction by managing the power to each engine.
So what now? Should I get a new 2-channel reciever and transmitter and replace the whole thing?
To to your nearest Hobby store. get a 2 stick transmitter with replaceable crystals. The crystals are what determine the frequency the servos respond to (in this case 27.095 Mhz) These frequencies are all standard and crystals should be readily available. Bring the plane in and have them swap crystals on the trasmitter test it to see if the servos respond. If they dont, swap the crystals on the reciever and try it out. If neither works, buy a transmitter and reciever set and change the plane’s receiver unit. The servos should work with any reciever. The transmitter’s affordability is up to you but most of the time they do come as a set (transmitter and receiver)
I dont know what you mean by “motors” since its a plane and should only have one motor which should have a propeller on it.
Servos are control devices. they look like little rectangular boxes, usually black that have an arm or wheel thingy on top. There should be 2 wires that connect to the receiver that tells it to swing the arm one way or the other. On the arem should be some wires that connect to control flaps on the wing, stabilizer or rudder. A good RC plane should have 2 servos and a prop motor. A cheap one has only one servo and a prop motor.
Reply, check out the picture in my link. This plane has two motors w/ propellers. Looks like it turns by decreasing the power to one of the motors. Unless it’s missing more parts than I thought, there are definately no servos. There are no flaps on the wings or rudder. I think this thing is pretty basic.
** X~Slayer(ALE) **, there are twin-engine (and more engine) RC planes out there. Mr. Broomstick is currently salvaging an RC much like FabioClone describes.
Thanks for that clarification FabioClone, your plane works quit a bit differently than is typical for RC models. It also gets a little more complex than just hooking one motor control to each channel.
IMHO I wouldn’t invest much in trying to get this thing running. You can get a similar electric plane ready to fly for about $60 and odds are you can get that transmitter to work with this reciever with a crystal change. Taht’s barely spending more than buying a radio system for just the transmitter.
When I get some time, HA! I may get my Futaba 5 channel out of storage and build a little schoolyard flier. Electrics have advanced a lot and NiMH batteries give them a lot more flight time than NiCds could with faster charge times.
