[NSRCA-discussion] Arming plug and Failsafe +

[Jas]

Random thoughts about all this.

I've watched a pilot forget to turn off his plane (and subsequently not having pulled his arming plug) and idle up while near the pits (he happened to have a hold of it still). It surprised him when it did it. It was during practice here and we normally taxi up the taxi way to the no taxi line, so its not a 'normal' contest type situation. Point: arming plug did nothing in this case.

I personally feel that fail safe and an external on-off Rx switch is 'safer' (when fail safe is set correctly) and should be mandatory. If the fail safe is set correct then even if the Tx is turned off the motor won't turn on. If there is an external Rx switch and it gets turned off then (in theory and so far in all my years flying E) the motor doesn't run after it's off. I've always asked Dave (or whoever gets my plane) to turn off the Rx BEFORE picking my plane up from the runway. Haven't had one start back up when done this way. But once back to me, I pull the canopy and disarm it before it goes anywhere else.

For the way that I do things, I don't see an advantage of a safety plug on my personal planes. I've been flying electric pattern since '03, so my habits (Rx power off once landed) are just normal for me. I can certainly see where some would benefit from an external plug (screws holding on canopy, battery connection not easy to get to and newcomers to electric), but I think there is just a different issue...

Maybe as pilots we just need to be more self-aware and responsible?

Sent from my iP