Be honest, do you set the fail safe?

[David Ashby - Moderator]

Many thanks to Ian Jones for this great poll suggestion. Go on, be honest, do you always remember to set/check the fail safe facility for every model?

 

Edited By David Ashby - RCME Admin on 12/02/2012 13:20:13

[Steve W-O]

Only fly electric, and test the ESC no signal shutdown every trip.

[Alan Cantwell]

AHEM

 

OK, not a poll, but mandatory all the same,

 

and yes, if its got a fail safe reciever ftted, then it gets set,   throttle to tick over,    and if the reciever is cabable of more, then control surfaces to neutral,    if it has retracts, these stay up

Edited By Alan 4 on 12/02/2012 14:03:51

[Bob Cotsford]

ok, I put always, but that really should be qualified as 'I ALWAYS INTEND to set the failsafe but sometimes the excitement of a maiden overcomes the intent and I forget until after landing'

[Myron Beaumont]

I make sure nothing fails -It's worked so far (touch wood) .I'm such a dumbo , if I could figure out how to set fail safes to do something to help my model ,I'd probably make the impending theoretical situation even worse .

Just me !

[Alan Cantwell]

Myron, its not a matter if if something fails, if you have a failsafe, its a legality to set the thing!!

[Turbycat]

When I finally figured out how it worked, with some help from the guys at the club. Always set throttle to idle and control surfaces neutral.

 

Andy

[John Privett]

Myron, the "fail-safe" isn't intended to "help" or "save" the model. It's purpose is to make sure that the model comes down nearby, rather than flying off for 10 or 15 minutes maybe into conflict with full-size aircraft, or perhaps to crash in the High Street of the town a few miles away.

[BB]

Came into good effect for me last year. 'Low battery'. I tried nursing the plane back to the patch but there wasn't enough 'leccy'' juice left in it. Reciever went into failsafe and the plane came down a couple of hundred yards away. Written off but, not a flyaway. Had it not been set, the plane could have gone any where. As it had a full tank of fuel onboard.

 

BB

[Tim Mackey]

Not sure how that would be AFAIK...failsafe only operates if signal fails, not low battery as it needs a proper power supply to activate the failsafe

Edited By Tim Mackey on 12/02/2012 17:24:59

[Paul Marsh]

My older PPM stuff, small 35Mhz aircraft which hasn't got a failsafe can't do anyway. All the PCM and 2.4 is set up correctly.

[Alan Cantwell]

loose battery, loose fail safe, model going in was, i feel, just a coincidence

[Tim Mackey]

Forgive me Alan, but can I assume you meant to say LOSE battery, and you LOSE failsafe etc

Loose battery has another meaning altogether .

Edited By Tim Mackey on 12/02/2012 18:15:30

[Paul Adams]

Remember to rebind at the fail safe positions after you have set up the model control throws including throttle.

 

 

I have seen someone who was flying an electric model, landed, carried his model to the pits, switched off his transmitter at which time the fail safe came in and throttled up the motor to max at which point his model powered across the pits and finished up in a crumpled mess against the fence, still with the motor trying to turn the prop.

 

During the investigation that followed, he had bound the transmitter to the receiver with the throttle stick set to min (fail safe position) then found that it was in the incorrect sense, so had to reverse the throttle stick channel, but did not re-bind the receiver after he had made the change. This meant that the fail safe position was set at max throttle.

 

A lesson to us all.

 

[Major]

No - My equipment does not have the facility.

I don't even have the radio now:P

[Biggles' Elder Brother - Moderator]

Yeap - I have a really bad memory and as at least one person has mentioned the excitment of setting a model up can lead to forgetfulness.

 

So, believe it or not I actually have a pre-maiden check list pinned to the workshop wall! I know its a bit "nerdy" but its the only way I can be sure to check everything.

 

"Set Failsafe" and "Test Failsafe" are two items on my check list (along with "Charge Battery" and other "obvious" but sadly easily overlooked items!)

 

BEB

[flyeruk]

Yes,i always set it,although it has been an afterthought a couple of times.BEB, like you i have a very bad memory and would love to see your check list. I dont mind admitting that a check list would be a great help to have pinned up.

[Simon Chambers]

I always set a failsafe - I think the Hitec 2.4 kit enables it by default?

 

The next question, who actually ever tests their fail safe is in the correct position, before committing a model to its first flight?! I've forgotten once before, to reset the failsafe after setting the sub-trims, etc up.

 

Si.

[Erfolg]

I do find the dogmatic you must set the fail safe, both trying and annoying.

 

What must it be set to by law? Or is it one of those dogma driven rants.

 

I just set my own to low throttle and last command. Hardly fail safe, as the set up could still lead to an issue. It is a set up, not guaranteed fail safe. I am not sure that leaving the faii safe alone, in principal, could lead to just as safe outcome as my low throttle setting.

 

Perhaps we should all learn to be responsible for ourselves, rather than tell others what is good them!

 

 

[Biggles' Elder Brother - Moderator]

Posted by Erfolg on 12/02/2012 20:14:42:

I do find the dogmatic you must set the fail safe, both trying and annoying.

 

What must it be set to by law? Or is it one of those dogma driven rants.

 

Perhaps we should all learn to be responsible for ourselves, rather than tell others what is good them!

 

 

Erflog - I make no value judgement but purely on a question of information my understanding is that if your system is equiped with a failsafe then failure to set it to at least a minimum of low throttle and either "hold last command" or "go to neutral" for control surfaces, would be deemed a possible breach of the ANO in that you could be judged to have not taken all reasonable measures to ensure that the flight could be conducted safely.

 

As I say - don't shoot the messenger - I'm just trying to answer your question from my understanding of the situation.

 

BEB

Edited By Biggles' Elder Brother - Moderator on 12/02/2012 20:33:45

[Biggles' Elder Brother - Moderator]

Flyeruk - I'd be happy to share my checklist such as it is! - and perhaps others could add items I've probably missed. Its in a WORD doc so I'll have a go at putting it in a thread of its own rather than go off thread here which is specifically about failsafes and the poll.

 

BEB

[Myron Beaumont]

John

Thank you for mentioning the "legal" aspect of failsafe I fly where the nearest neighbour (on his own by the way )is about 2 miles away and my models aren't likely to fly far left to their own kamacazi unstable flypath due to a failure . As I said ,I've never used it cos I'm simply no good at programming anything & never had a problem anyway . How many more inventions are going to be compulsory to be used "by law" once they're invented .?.I rest my case .Thank you for your sympathetic attitude Erfolg . Let common sense rule for Gods sake I say .On the other hand it could be good fodder for the lawyers should I happen to be responsible for my low wing unstable Extra hitting my neighbour

Edited By Myron Beaumont on 12/02/2012 20:52:36

[Erfolg]

BEB

 

This situation reminds me of a project I managed as a Project Manager. The Safety Officer was insistent that all electrical equipment would be checked each year, irrespective if in use or in store awaiting installation. The potential bill was enormous.

 

I told him that I wanted to see the legislation that required this operation. After weeks it turned out there was none. Then it became a question of "best practice".

 

I told him, that he was to write the safety documents to require a certificate, and that at commissioning, the equipment was to be routinely tested as part of commissioning. Tools in use were to be visually inspected before use, any suspected faults to be reported and the equipment to be taken out of use until validation.

 

As you can imagine the issue did continue. Although he never tried to tell me something was required by legislation without it being a fact. Not just what he thought should happen.

 

The UK has to many jobs worth's.

[Myron Beaumont]

Erfolg

'xactly ! No wonder people who can do things get grumpy 'cos of "jobsworths ".I'll get mi coat otherwise I might start talking about politics (one of my favourite grouses ) and this is not the place to discuss such trivial matters

[Peter Beeney]

I had a failsafe once, the type that fitted between the rx and the throttle servo. There were two flavours, a slightly more expensive one, whereby you could adjust the end travel point, and one that you couldn’t. I think it was about £15, but I might be wrong there. I had the end point one, a mate had the other. When I tried it as suggested, turning the rx off, it worked perfectly; shutting down a running engine every time. However, I decided I would not be generally turning the tx off mid flight very often as I couldn’t keep an eye on the model and find the off switch at the same time; although thinking about it, I might not want to be watching the model anyway! So I though a more likely occurrence would be that someone might accidentally switch on on the same frequency, which has been known to happen. So I quickly tried this, I removed all the other servo arms first, during this sort of interference servos can do some mighty strange things, and low and behold the throttle went to fully OPEN, every time! 100%! It also had a quirky little habit of closing the throttle down and quickly opening it again in normal flight, before the engine could stop. This was entirely random, for no reason at all.
When the other lad tried his, he found that because of way his throttle control was controlled by the servo and the fact that the failsafe didn’t have an end point adjustment, when it operated because the travel was less than the servo it actually opened the throttle. He probably could have got round it, by altering the linkages and the ATV on the tx, but we just put it down to experience; I’m afraid not everything is always a total success. Or does what it says it does on the tin, indeed.

PB