94809 servo failure

[3Dmuse]

I bought 3 94809s from AMainHobbies in April 2010 and have used them in a Outrage G5 heli for about 30 easy to moderate flights. Today, one of them behaved abnormally and caused a nasty crash. When I was about to land one foot high, the heli flipped over towards me like I had applied full aft. elevator. The heli almost hit me and did the chicken dance in front of me. After the crash, I tested the servos with a RDS800 radio and also with a Futaba 8FG; the elevator servo just goes to one of the extremes instead of centering and stays there buzzing loudly. The other 2 servos are fine.

Now I wonder what Airtronics can do for me. The faulty servo certainly hasn't lived up to the standard I've come to expect from Airtronics...

[TMoore]

Why don't you email them and find out.

[3Dmuse]

I did email them and am waiting for an answer.

[3Dmuse]

A guy from the service department got back to me and said that most likely the problem was with the circuit board or potentiometer in the servo. He also said that the servo is out of warranty and I should buy a new one as repairing it is not cost-effective.

In conclusion, Airtronics are not going to do anything for me. They didn't even say a "We are sorry to hear this". Considering how close I was to get seriously injured and also a totaled heli due to failure in equipment manufactured by them, a few kind words from them would have meant a lot.

[3Dmuse]

Mike Greenshields from Airtronics and also their customer service contacted me and apologized. They will send me a replacement servo free of charge and will analyze the failed servo that I will send to them to figure out why it failed like it did.

I realise the servo is now 1.5 months out of its warranty time frame, however, considering how little I used it and what an easy life it had, and also what damages it caused, I believe offering a replacement free of charge was the right thing for Airtronics to do. Any company has more to gain than to lose by adopting a less rigid and a more proactive customer service.

Thank you Mike and Airtronics. This will make the repair bills easier to swallow.

[TMoore]

To be fair, the damages it caused are way out of the scope of the warranty. There's no way that any company can possibly hope to anticipate all the ways a servo is used or all of the myriad ways that a servo can fail or what flight attitude a model may be in when it succumbs. Replacing the servo was what I had in mind. Analyzing the failure mode of the servo is good business, IMHO.

TM

[3Dmuse]

TMoore, I did not ask nor expected Airtronics to do something about the damages. Equipment failure and associated damages are risks we all take in this hobby. Frustrating though when crashes and damages are caused by equipment that you would think would last longer. I hope they can figure out why the servo failed and take the appropriate measures. The 94809s are the best servos in this size that I've tried to date and the customer service did the right thing in the end.

[TMoore]

Originally Posted by barzaun

TMoore, I did not ask nor expected Airtronics to do something about the damages. Equipment failure and associated damages are risks we all take in this hobby. Frustrating though when crashes and damages are caused by equipment that you would think would last longer. I hope they can figure out why the servo failed and take the appropriate measures. The 94809s are the best servos in this size that I've tried to date and the customer service did the right thing in the end.

I'm glad they did though and I'm sure you are too. At least that is something in the grand scheme.

Like I said, ya can't pick the time and date when this stuff decides to sh*t the bed.

TM