Fail Safe Question

[Mark Harper]

When you guys set up fail safe on your radios, do you set it so the engine goes to idle or to cut off?

 

[Bunky.F.Knuckle]

I set mine for idle. Simply because if I do get put into hold, for whatever reason it may be, I can fly it back and land pronto and start checking things over.

 

[wfield0455]

It's really about what you feel comfortable with. Since I have receive signal strength telemetry and about as much faith in my equipment as anyone can have in a piece of commercial electronic equipment, I generally set my engine to cut off via both the throttle and ignition kill. If I do go into hold unexpectedly, I simply feel more comfortable having the engine die and needing to land dead stick if I regain control, rather than perhaps having the airplane go in with the engine running. Also, if an ignition failure of some sort was the source of the problem, killing the ignition MAY (probably not) clear the source of the issue and help me regain control. I've also gotten into this habit because I often fly Turbines and having the turbine shut down should a a jet go in, greatly reduces the chance of a fire.

 

[sweetpea]

I've always done idle. Just a personal preference. Normally a "glitch" or "hold" is temporary and I prefer my engine not to die so I have a chance to setup for a more comfortable landing. I use opto kills so if for some reason I don't feel comfortable once I am set up for a landing I can kill the engine if continues to "hold" off and on.

Just remember with most fail-safes......anytime you adjust throttle curve, idle trims etc etc......you must reset your failsafe or it will remember the old setting. Seen this way too many times to count with folks.

 

[BarracudaHockey]

Always kill for me, I'd rather take my chances deadstick than keeping a motor running in an unknown situation

 

[sweetpea]

My plane is never in an "unkown" situation. I put other surfaces to last known. That way the plane does what it was doing at idle.

Now what is uknown is what I might crash into. Only time I worry about people is approaches and IMAC. There are maneuvers that point you at the fence.

 

[Mark Harper]

Always kill for me, I'd rather take my chances deadstick than keeping a motor running in an unknown situation

This is what I've been doing too. Sweetpea, I guess what I'm afraid of is what if the hold is not temporary and you don't regain control. Say the reciever is totally toast, now you have a 100cc plane coming in somewhere with the engine running.

 

[sweetpea]

Yes you would. But idle is not too bad a situation. It's really preference and dependent on your flying style. If I flew a lot of toward crowd maneuvers then I'd probably set to kill. I fly mostly left to right so idle isn't as big a deal. I also range check, check batts etc quite often. The minute I do have a "radio" issue I do a lot of ground testing to determine why before it goes airborne again.

 

[combat chicken]

Set mine for idle. I've seen a couple of situations at my field where a system lock out occurred and the plane went to idle. The pilot shut the receiver off, then on and was able to reacquire signal and save the aircraft. I've dead sticked more than my share of birds and the energy level of a engine out and engine idle seems of little difference to me.

 

[Robotech]

=<clip> the energy level of a engine out and engine idle seems of little difference to me.

Unless it's eating your legs or the back of someones head. Zero RPMs hurts way less than 1700 RPMs.

That said, I set mine for low idle.