I recently purchased a TAM F 18 from a fellow nearby. He had flown it over 30 flights with no radio or engine issues. It came with servos installed and ready to fly less an engine/rx and batteries. I installed my Wren Pro 160 turbine which I had approx 5 flights on in a Boomerang with no issues. I installed 2 4200 ma NIMH 5 cell unregulated batteries to run the rx and servos and a brand new never been flown) JR 1221 rx with 3 remote rx's which I installed in more or less the same locations that he had his 3 remote rx's. All batteries were charged and the preflight range check ( engine not running) was more than double the suggested minimum in the JR manual. I normally make an engine running range check as well on a new airplane but I failed to do so on this occasion. I plan to do that in the next day or two. I have never seen much if any range decrease with engine running in the past with this radio. Prior to the flight I had run the engine and shutdown the tx to confirm that the failsafe (engine shutdown) was working, and it was. Unfortunatly the ECU gives the same message for a normal TX commanded shutdown as it does for a failsafe commanded shutdown.

As you can by now guess from the subject line I had an inflight engine shutdown while still climbing out on approximate runway heading. Fortunatly I had attained 100feet or more of altitude and was clean with a fair amount of speed when I realized the engine was dead. Also fortunate was the fact that I was flying off a giant parking lot with virtually unlimited asphalt and no obstructions. I was able to turn back 180 degrees and land down wind with about a 20 mph tailwind. Used up a ton of room but did zero damage other than nearly wetting my pants and probably over speeding the tires. When we got the airplane back to our pit area I plugged in the data terminal and the message was "Normal Shutdown" which is the same message you get regarldess of a failsafe situation or a normal tx commanded shutdown. At this point I stupidly shut the airplane off without having checked rx perfomance with the little spektrum/JR device. I then did another engine off range check and it was the same as prior to the flight. I have since then restarted the engine and it is fine.

At this point I am opertaing under the assumption that I had a radio hold and that the engine shut down from failsafe.

I am interested if anybody has any other ideas or suggestions as to what might have happened and or what to do or try next ?

I plan to do some more extensive range checks and check the data log and see if that reveals anything of concern and I plan to do an engine running range check also.

I will also add that I have several of the wires that connect the remote rx's running in very close proximity to multiple servo wires and or engine related cables. This was of some concern to me prior to the flight but it is my understanding that 2.4 gig is WAY WAY less suseptible to outside noise sources and interferance . The remotes them self and the remote antennas are well clear of any of these possible noise sources. Having said that I do have the most forward remote rx in semi close proximity to the retract air storage tanks, (metal).