That's what I mean ... with 2.4 you have failsafe built in ... but only if you rebind after getting all the programming done, otherwise the failsafe defaults to wherever the receiver thought servo centers were when first bound. The fact it rolled over says the ailerons at least displaced on loss of signal.

Instead of wildlife-harming chaff, how about tissue paper? Pretty reflective and easier on the environment.

What an elegant and simple solution. Little surprised that no one commented on it.

Thanks for sharing it, Larry.

Mike

Originally Posted by Larry Jolly

I am late to this discussion but I might pass on a few tips for you to consider.
I use to race quite a lot of XCountry in the 80's. I know the sick feeling of losing sight of a high flying model. Returning from Taft after losing a model, I thought of all the potential ways to safely return a model that has flown out of my vision.
If you are flying a model that uses a flying stab, it is very simple to file the drive slot so that the stab can be driven to greater than 45 degrees and not greater than 75 degrees up or negative pitch angle.
I then fabricated a sliding servo tray to carry the elevator servo. I then used a duplicate servo used to drive the elevator servo to the extreme negative angle.
This servo was driven by my Gear switch. I tested the described unit and it worked perfectly. The model was tested at all airspeeds and the results were the same. If the model was at Cruise speed and the switch engaged the glider would do one or two tight loops and then go in to a deep stall mush mode, the same as a free flight model that had been de-thermalized. The main problem with trying to find your model after losing it is that if it goes the opposite direction you are going to have a hard time re- acquiring the model. Using my method if the model is lost and the switch activated the model will stabilize in a vertical descent and is more easily seen as it slowly comes back in to view. We tested this all the way to the ground with good results. But if the model is seen, all you have to do is throw the switch in the opposite direction and you are off to the races...LJ

I'll comment on it: we used sliding trays before computer radios for v-tails and flying wings. The problems were slop and possibly damaging the elevator servo on a hard landing.
Because this is an emergency system only, these problems can be eliminated. First, the tray can be built and positioned such that it can slide backward only, not forward on landing; that would prevent damaging the servo.
Second, the tray can be quite tight so as to eliminate slop, particularly in the full forward position. If the emergency servo is sufficiently powerful (it should be), a spring or rubber bands can be added helping pull the tray forward.
Modern XC planes may have the elvator servo in the tail, making this add-on difficult. Also, weight may be an issue, with some of today's XC planes barely making the 5 kg limit.

Dieter Mahlein, ShredAir

Originally Posted by awilmunder

How about a different approach. Telemetry systems can already send voltage, amps, altitude, airspeed, G-Force, RPM, temperature, and GPS. Horizon has a receiver module that connects to your iPhone or iPad. Since the iPhone has a GPS and compass, and it would be receiving GPS from the plane, seems like pretty soon we could see a physical device that continuously tracks and points at the plane while it is in flight.

There are several cheap and lightweight GPS systems used by FPV flyers to send back the position and altitude of the modelto the ground.
hardware and software then picks up the data and used to track a ground based directional aerial at the aircracft to improve reception of the video signal.
This could be used to regain optical sight of the model.

personally I think the cost of fitting an simple autopilot system ($US 300 ) to a model costing 3K to be used in emerencies to circle the model would improve safety and save expensve losses and avoid the risks caused by unguided models at terminal velocity

Look, what i´ve found:

Glider Anti Collision Light

http://shop.rc-electronic.com/e-vend...&c=2014&p=2014

Bernd