thomas salisbury Posted December 29, 2012 Share Posted December 29, 2012 On past RC models i have used fail safe units and was having a clear out today in preparation of listing other items on e bay so i can mainly concentrate on model planes now.. So my question is do i need a fail safe for my Trainer ? If so would someone recommend a particular on. Thanks for any help... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GrahamC Posted December 29, 2012 Share Posted December 29, 2012 Thomas; you don't say what radio you are using. If you have a fairly modern 2.4ghz radio, it will almost certainly have a fail safe built in to the receiver. The most common system is for the receiver to failsafe to the stick positions when the receiver is bound to the transmitter. Edited By GrahamC on 29/12/2012 15:26:52 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Greybeard Posted December 29, 2012 Share Posted December 29, 2012 Can I add to Graham's reply and say that it is important to adjust the failsafe so that the throttle fully closes to stop the engine and not to hold the stick position on that channel. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thomas salisbury Posted December 29, 2012 Author Share Posted December 29, 2012 Apologies i should of mentioned that the trainer i bought come with a old JR Max 35 mhz radio... I should perhaps consider upgrading this also.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ian Jones Posted December 29, 2012 Share Posted December 29, 2012 On models below 7Kg there is no requirement for a fail safe but it's not a bad idea to fit one. If you are on 35Mhz/PCM then you probably have a fail safe already. In all cases the the BMFA advises that if you have a fail safe you should set it. That means you should know what you have set it to do - leaving to automatically look after itself is not really enough. As greybeard says the minimum normally being to lower the throtlle to either an idle for IC or to stop for electric motors. Gliders will be different and "correct" failsafe settings at are a hot topic... so put your tin hat on. A failsafe's purpose is that in the event of a lost radio signal the aircraft will come down near to the location the signal was lost rather than come down some distance away. The idea being to keep it within the normal flying area. It is definitely not intended to save the model, though that may actually happen. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thomas salisbury Posted December 29, 2012 Author Share Posted December 29, 2012 Ok thanks for the information i will ask about one more when i join a club... Thanks.. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cymaz Posted December 29, 2012 Share Posted December 29, 2012 I use failsafe on all my models......I'm sure the insurance people would say yes to it, wouldn't they???????? 7kg rule or not. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Privett Posted December 29, 2012 Share Posted December 29, 2012 I'm not sure what insurance has to do with it... Basically, if your radio has fail-safe functionality included then you must use it. If it hasn't, well obviously you can't! But there is no compulsion to add-on a fail-safe if the basic radio doesn't have one, though it wouldn't be a bad thing to do so. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cymaz Posted December 29, 2012 Share Posted December 29, 2012 Surely if you have to claim on the BMFA insurance then you may not be covered if the insurers can prove that you didn't use one if available. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Privett Posted December 30, 2012 Share Posted December 30, 2012 OK, BMFA insurance is a can or worms that gets opened from time to time, but I don't see how we "may not be covered" if the fail-safe wasn't used. The insurance is third-party liability cover. It is there to cover any claim made against us because we made a mistake and caused some damage. If an incident occurs for which we are blameless then there is no claim against us and nothing for the insurance to pay up. If we did something wrong - like forgetting to set the fail-safe - then that error could be the justification for a successful third-party claim against us, and that's what the insurance is there for. On a sub-7kg model the BMFA recommendation is to set the fail-safe (where fitted), but it's not a legal requirement. I'm certainly not suggesting that we should ignore the recommendation to set the fail-safe, but don't see the link to insurance. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WolstonFlyer Posted December 30, 2012 Share Posted December 30, 2012 Oh don't start up that can of worms again John's post above sounds spot on to me....... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Greybeard Posted December 30, 2012 Share Posted December 30, 2012 Can I mention insurance? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
road king97 Posted January 11, 2013 Share Posted January 11, 2013 I was buying these but then i started to make my own arming plug. It only goes on the positive side of the wire to your motor so all the sevos and reciever will work but not the motor. . I build my own now out of deans conectors and i make a thin ply plate to mount on my fuse. joe**LINK** Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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