PCM fail safe advice.

[Henderson,Eric]

There is a big difference between "Failsafe" and "channel-lock" (or hold).

In Failsafe you decide in advance what the servo positions should be. In
channel-lock the servos stay at their last setting until they hear from the
TX again.

I NEVER use channel lock on the primary controls. Failsafe on my radio gives
an automatic low throttle. I set it to have level ailerons, some up elevator
and neutral rudder. Only with retracts do I use Channel-lock. (Gear stays
down if, for example, in the pits, and stays up if flying - it's usually
better to "land" in the grass with the gear up.)

Some radios arrive with the default PCM set at channel lock. Some do not
have low-throttle hard-coded into the failsafe option.

Both and all have the potential for a high throttle runaway unless
"Failsafe" is selected and prescribed settings dialed. You could be
operating a potential disaster and not even know about it. Please check your
radio failsafe options NOW!

Regards,

Eric.



-----Original Message-----
From: Martin X. Moleski, SJ [mailto:moleski at canisius.edu]
Sent: Tuesday, October 01, 2002 1:14 AM
To: discussion at nsrca.org
Subject: Re: Receiver Choices/PCM fail safe


--On Monday, September 30, 2002 11:49 PM -0500 Keith Black
<tkeithb at attbi.com> wrote:

> ... What got a lot of this talk going is the situation where a plane went
into
> failsafe mode and flew quite a distance and hit and killed a young child
> (this is what I heard, don't know if it's true).  ...

That's the story of the 11-year-old boy killed in Britain.
He was standing next to his father at the flight line.
Someone was tuning an engine next to them.  An
excellent pilot lost control, the boy and his father
didn't hear people shouting warnings, and the plane
struck him in the head.

The plane flew for approximately 20 seconds in
failsafe mode.

In the final analysis, what caused the plane to go
out of control and stay out of control was someone else
turning on a transmitter on the same channel.

Story here:
<http://www.bmfa.org/news/bulletins/bull1_99.html>

Recommendation to put throttle to idle in
failsafe mode:

<http://www.bmfa.org/news/bulletins/bull2_99.html>

						Marty
						Marty #2874
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