[JimBrown]

I don't know about you guys, but after seeing/reading about that incident in Europe that resulted in two fatalities, I now set all my failsafe equiped aircraft to go to a snap roll on complete loss of signal, with engine to idle (or shut down, should I ever get a turbine.)

My thinking is that if I've lost complete control of the aircraft, I want it slowed down and on the ground as fast as possible. If I've lost complete control of the aircraft, it's going to be rekitted anyway, I don't want it going off in some unknown direction for some unknown distance.

It's not perfect, but it's the best I can come up with.

This may not be feasable with all types of failsafe. However, with my Multiplex IPD receivers, this is a good choice. The reason I say this is that the IPD receivers will fly through minor interference without glitching or "locking out". Only on complete loss of signal will they go to fail safe. Most other failsafe systems are similar. Not all though.

I encourage others to do the same where possible.

Regards,
...jim

[scaleguy]

Jim,

At the past two Scale Aerobatics / IMAC contests this year it has been a standing rule that if you have Failsafe available on your radio that you set it so the engine goes to a little above idle. This was done so that you would notice if you went into failsafe mode as the engine sound would change either if you were at idle or if you were going full bore.


The reasoning for only dealing with the throttle is that it was thought that not ALL hits causing a Rx to go to Failsafe will necessarily keep the Rx locked out. Most hits are momentary and may not be noticed so the reasoning was that it is not necessary to cause a drastic change in the flight every time a lockout occurs. With the engine retarded if the lockout continues then at least the engine will not be going full boar if/when the aircraft contacts the ground.

I know if I am landing and I get a momentary lockout I sure don't want to be doing a snap roll... it could end up be more dangerous to those on the ground then the aircraft just continuing to descend under minimal power.

[JimBrown]

Jim,

Agreed, which is way I put the proviso about my IPD receivers. If they have locked out, the signal is gone.

As I also mentioned, it is not perfect. I probably does not matter what kind of failsafe setting you use, there will always be the possibility of it not being the right setting for a specific scenario. The idea is to make it the right setting for as many scenarios as possible.

Consider this. At a recent jet meet, a turbine powered sport jet went into lock out during a high speed pass just as it was going by the pilot stations over the far side of the runway, at 25' altitude, straight and level. Everyone heard the engine quit (it makes a distictive sound.) That part of the failsafe worked. However, the rest of the failsafe settings saw the jet go into a slight climb and slight turn (in this case, away from the flight line, fortunatly.) It impacted the yellow line painted on the center of a local highway approximatly one kilometre away. The pilot never regained control. Again, fortunatly, there were no vehicles nearby at the time.

Food for thought.

...jim

[nony]

That's a pretty good glide ratio !!!!