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"You have to have a lot of confidence in a servo to build it
into the wing."
Jeff Foley, Mr. Top Gun 2003 on why he uses JR servos in his award
winning Me-109. |
Jeff Foley has used JR equipment for years in scale competitions across
the country, and as a JR dealer and Team member, he has a broad knowledge
of all the line has to offer. Still, it wasn't until this year's Top Gun
competition that he experienced firsthand just how far a fully integrated
JR system using digital servos and the MatchBox servo matcher could take
his flying experience.
It all began with an unfortunate mishap involving his beautiful, championship-winning
Me-109. Since the needed repairs required him to open up the wing, he
decided to use the opportunity to replace the tried and true JR S537s
he had been using on ailerons and flaps. In their place he put DS8411
digital servos on the ailerons and S4721's running through a JR MatchBox
servo matcher on the flaps. As a final touch, he used his 10X's "Servo
Slow" function to add realism to the flap extension and retraction
sequence for competition.
The results? To hear Jeff tell it, they were nothing short of breathtaking.
For starters, he found he had to add expo due to dramatically increased
responsiveness about center. In fact, he estimates a full 50% increase
in precision simply by adding the digital servos to the ailerons. He did,
however, notice something was missing, but it really wasn't something
he missed. Gone was the slight uncommanded roll he used to have to anticipate
during flap extension and retraction because one flap would extend faster
than other. The MatchBox so thoroughly synced the flap servos that he
could deploy and retract them without budging the ailerons a bit.
Jeff wasn't the only one impressed with the difference his new setup
made. When he flew the refurbished Me-109 at this year's Top Gun competition,
the judges awarded him 9's and 10's on just about every flight maneuver.
While Jeff is the consummate builder as well as an extremely skilled scale
pilot, he readily attributes much of his success this year to the near
fly-by-wire feel JR digital servos and MatchBox technology added to his
flying experience.
If a "been there, done that" flyer like Jeff can be blown away
by JR digital performance, imagine how it could transform your flying experience.
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