Failsafe settings

[Joe Garfield]

I'm grateful for this thread. I've never set failsafe before because I couldn't decide what was the "right way." But obviously making sure throttle is limited or cut is, well, obvious. My current plane is a glider so throttle off is fine. For something like my contest F3A plane, throttle to idle seems to make sense as someone said above, hopefully its making enough noise and slowing down to warn someone, but at the same time sustaining flight a little longer to hopefully regain control. Guys in my old club used set failsafe to full down elevator to intentionally ditch the plane and try not to hurt people. I guess if you have dihedral you can set ailerons neutral and the plane might right itself. But you never know what the plane will be doing when it happens, so I'm going to stick with limiting throttle and probably nothing else.

I'm voting 'custom' as I'm setting up new radios and a new plane anyway, so will set to throttle off for gliders, and throttle to idle for power planes.

 

[Txmustangflyer]

I'm going with custom. With all the sensors available nowadays, GPS, etc it might be possible to have the model come back towards point of take off to try to regain signal???
Depends on the model and sensors, but the recievers, with stabilization gyros, GPS, etc..it's almost within the realm of possibility.

Drones do it on command....why not a plane?

 

[Konrad]

Per the FAA our planes are drones!

 

[Txmustangflyer]

Per the FAA our planes are drones!

I got something for the FAA...

 

[Konrad]

Remember they have a bigger stick!

 

[Wayne]

Yes, there are some options out there that will drive your plane back to the point of origin if all signal is lost. You need to set your failsafe for No Packets to trigger the return to home feature.

 

[Txmustangflyer]

Remember they have a bigger stick!

I have better range lol

 

[gnichola]

I was the president of our club for the past two years and I harped on failsafe many times, but alas, it's really about herding cats. One member was doing a setup on the bench, with another member holding the airplane for him. He sort of finished and shut off the transmitter, at which point the motor went full and lurched forward. Though someone was holding it, he wasn't gripping it that tight at the time and it caught him off guard. The guy with the radio ended up with a couple minor cuts.
Another member crashed in an off-limits area, and of course, I got texts and phone calls, as I am the person that is allowed to talk to the land owner. I got to the field an hour later, and was immediately descended upon by a couple people. Well, as it turns out, this member, who regularly attends our meetings and has positively heard me harp on failsafe, wasn't sure if his plane had it setup. So, basically he had been sitting there for that hour with his transmitter on as he didn't want a poorly setup throttle to cause a fire.
I have brought up the possibility of requiring "proof of failsafe" for all aircraft.

 

[Spadhawk]

good morning all...i run frsky x12s transmitter on accst. i have no problem setting failsafe normally. recently i got an rb25 for a lager aircraft.
setup a RX8R and xm on sbus with redundant with all surfaces having their own servo. everything works as it should, except the failsafe. if i setup the failsafe on the transmitter through the rb25 , no matter which failsafe i select, it does the same thing. all surfaces slam opposite to each other. i then tried rebinding the recievers seperate from the rb25 and setting failsafe on transmitter then plugging into rb25. it still does exaactly the same thing. i thought maybe a faulty rb25, so i swapped it with a spare. same result. what am i doing wrong?

 

[gnichola]

The RB25 has its own failsafe setup, have you setup that?

https://www.frsky-rc.com/wp-content/uploads/Downloads/Amanual/RB25%28S%29%20Setup%20Guide%20-%203.0.5%20Ver.pdf

 

[Spadhawk]

that setup guide is for ethos and im using opentx. is there a way to setup with opentx?
is there a lua script for it ?

 

[gnichola]

Oh, I missed that part, and I am not sure. I did a quick search and couldn't find anything, but I would assume there is a lua script for it.

 

[G-man]

POLL: My preference is for custom preset.
I like the idea that flyers must demonstrate that their fail safe is working.

Could intentional use of RC fail safe reduce crash damage if loss of signal?​

Yesterday a buddy lost a plane - after a few circuits of the field.
Apparent loss of all control functions, then spiral into the snow.
Picked up the plane, and everything worked again.

Often I have wondered, is there a chance, is there a possible instance, where invoking receiver failsafe
(control surface preset positions) by quickly turning off the Tx could ease the damage in an impending crash?
Glide down rather than spiral in nose first?

I have tested receiver failsafe on FrSKY receivers by turning off the Tx in flight and gotten the result expected:
with throttle cut, a polyhedral plane turns into a free flight glider. A little rudder preset keeps it on the field.

// Dave

 

[Jarron]

I literally just started setting failsafe a month ago. On R/C submarines ironically. Motor stop, dive planes full rise.

 

[Wayne]

For slope I have always used "hold" as I think it the better option for slope. For thermal and normal planes, I like the idea of preset for these. (throttle off, maybe a bit of rudder, flaps down, bit of elevator)

I do not recall going into failsafe since using FrSky gear. Lucky?

Jarron reports killing a plane with HOLD when he had a bad antenna on a QX7 long ago.

 

[Jarron]

It just stayed in the turn and went into the ground at speed.

 

[G-man]

> I do not recall going into failsafe since using FrSky gear. Lucky?

My experience is the same with FrSKY.
In my test, I switched off the transmitter to see how failsafe would work in flight.
It worked as expected on 2-meter polyhedral with custom preset of: motor off, canted rudder, and a smidge of up elevator.
After watching for 8-10 seconds, turn Tx back on and resume flying as before.

OFB observer exclaimed "I would never do that".
Then he said, "But maybe I should."

 

[G-man]

> I literally just started setting failsafe a month ago. On R/C submarines ironically. Motor stop, dive planes full rise.

Man-o-man, a submarine is a VERY good use of fail safe.
And it's good to encourage people to start using it.

 

[doug35]

I decided early on that failsafe settings should be used. For my planes, I use the following. Throttle cut, self-level on, and some left rudder. That protects against the plane diving into the ground and should keep it near by. I have never had my FrSky go into failsafe except when I tested it. I suspect for my sailplane I should add in some crow to bring it down in case of a thermal.