[Heli-Flyer]

Originally Posted by Dave Holmes

The "True Failsafe Co-Pilot", as he called it then, rolled the plane upright while throttling back to a preset level, and added a preset amount of rudder to put it in a circling holding pattern.

Are you sure that this whole fail-safe process is done by the Co-pilot alone??

I know that the earlier Co-pilot only does one job which is to roll the plane upright and that is it. The throttle and rudder preset were done by the PCM fail-safe in the radio system.

[Oilman72]

I saw the FS8 on a freinds raptor and it was inverted, he let go of the sticks it flipped over upright into stabel hover in seconds. He also had attached what was called a Z sensor which FMA offers. Overall and my knowledge is nil compared to all of yours but I was indeed impressed. If I ever get a bigger expensive machine I think I would consider it unless.... I am much better than now, we'll see. Anyways just wanted to say I thought it was a very impressive product was all.

[Dave Holmes]

Originally Posted by Heli-Flyer

Are you sure that this whole fail-safe process is done by the Co-pilot alone??

I know that the earlier Co-pilot only does one job which is to roll the plane upright and that is it. The throttle and rudder preset were done by the PCM fail-safe in the radio system.

What I have is the Co-Pilot, which only handles pitch and yaw. The "True Failsafe" is the Co-Pilot with the receiver and the Z axis monitor in addition. Total package is about twice the price of the Co-Pilot alone. I would love to have the whole enchilada, but the Co-Pilot alone has gotten me out of more than a couple of tight spots early on.

I get a fair bit of razzing from some of the guys about having "training wheels" on my plane, But I figure it's my plane and if I know I may be trying something new and may not react quickly enough on the sticks, what the heck, I'll use the gear switch to get it back in shape. In a gusty crosswind landing it will keep my wings level while I bring it in steering by rudder alone, and get it back in one piece, instead of ticking a wingtip and cartwheeling.

One thing though, don't count on the Co-Pilot alone to get you out of an inverted situation unless you have lots of altitude. It will apply aileron and UP ELEVATOR at the same time to attempt to achieve upright status. That can make for a lot of balsa sticks in a hurry.

Dave

[Oilman72]

Bottom line is that sounds like you saved your plane a time or two, who cares what anyone thinks. I would think it would be funner to be able to continue flying then fixing!! What you said about elvation is true, in that comment about my freinds heli that has it on when he went from inverted the heli did drop a good 10-15 reet before normal hover and stable, so if you were close to the ground game over no help...... cheers!

[Dave Holmes]

I agree, I'd rather fly with "training wheels" than crash unnecessarily. My best "incident" with the Co-Pilot occurred in November 2003. I skived off work early one afternoon, had the plane and flight box in the car, so off to the field.

Got set up, took off (Co-Pilot switched off) started shooting touch and goes. I did 14 circuits with a touch on each one, Beautiful! Land, taxi in fuel up and go again. Another circuit, another T&G. another circuit, and as I come around to final, the plane just simply disappeared against the heavy overcast! (see the plane in my avatar)

I have NO IDEA if it is wings level, still in the bank, nose up, nose down; I CAN NOT SEE IT!, Switch on Co-Pilot, increase throttle, and 3 or 4 seconds later, NOW I SEE IT! Land normally and look around. It is straight up 5 PM and the sun is dropping below the horizon, behind the overcast.

Doh! I got no business flying in that light, but I gratefully pick up my toys and go home for dinner.

Dave