Hai-Lee
Old and Bold RC PILOT
I am in a legal battle with a local club that insists that the old analogue radio rules for safety of operation are all that is required for safe operation digital radio equipment. Their idea of safety is to always turn the transmitter on first and to turn off the transmitter only after the receiver battery has been removed.
Anyway the "Safe" club with its rules had an incident, (unsurprisingly), in which a transmitter was accidentally turned off whilst the model was powered up in the pit area. Initially nothing happened, apparently, but a little later the model control surfaces started to move and the motor started to rotate randomly often at high throttle settings.
The club rules require members to always set failsafe BUT they are not expected to test it at all, (simply they cannot due to the tx on first and off last club rules), Well the experts "Investigated" the incident and decided it verified their rule requirement for rx battery to be removed before the tx is turned off. END OF INVESTIGATION!
The stupid part is obviously the issue was either a faulty failsafe setting perhaps combined with a receiver having other issues in itself like contamination, (water ingress or similar). Now consider if the model had flown away when it last flew, (quite possible and a known occurrence at the club), the plane might have come to rest well outside of the flying field, It is in a suburban area with a children's playground sharing a boundary with the field. If the plane landed or crashed where a child could pick it up to play with it and then the plane exhibited the same behaviour, as it exhibited in the pit area, a child could be seriously maimed or injured. In this case the transmitter being still turned on would make zero difference.
The safety message is simple. Use and test failsafe! If your receiver or model act erratically DO NOT FLY IT! Take it back to he workshop and fix it instead.
Use SMARTSAFE and leave the tx off until you need it as it is the only possible legitimate source of a throttle up command.
Just 2 other facts. It was a DSMX setup though it may not have been a genuine spektrum receiver AND the plane was allowed to be used again immediately without any performance, setup checks or any other safety evaluation.
To me it is a genuine case of STUPID. Which is typical of what I have been battling. See definition of STUPID;
Have safe fun!
Anyway the "Safe" club with its rules had an incident, (unsurprisingly), in which a transmitter was accidentally turned off whilst the model was powered up in the pit area. Initially nothing happened, apparently, but a little later the model control surfaces started to move and the motor started to rotate randomly often at high throttle settings.
The club rules require members to always set failsafe BUT they are not expected to test it at all, (simply they cannot due to the tx on first and off last club rules), Well the experts "Investigated" the incident and decided it verified their rule requirement for rx battery to be removed before the tx is turned off. END OF INVESTIGATION!
The stupid part is obviously the issue was either a faulty failsafe setting perhaps combined with a receiver having other issues in itself like contamination, (water ingress or similar). Now consider if the model had flown away when it last flew, (quite possible and a known occurrence at the club), the plane might have come to rest well outside of the flying field, It is in a suburban area with a children's playground sharing a boundary with the field. If the plane landed or crashed where a child could pick it up to play with it and then the plane exhibited the same behaviour, as it exhibited in the pit area, a child could be seriously maimed or injured. In this case the transmitter being still turned on would make zero difference.
The safety message is simple. Use and test failsafe! If your receiver or model act erratically DO NOT FLY IT! Take it back to he workshop and fix it instead.
Use SMARTSAFE and leave the tx off until you need it as it is the only possible legitimate source of a throttle up command.
Just 2 other facts. It was a DSMX setup though it may not have been a genuine spektrum receiver AND the plane was allowed to be used again immediately without any performance, setup checks or any other safety evaluation.
To me it is a genuine case of STUPID. Which is typical of what I have been battling. See definition of STUPID;
Have safe fun!
