Hi Michael,
I didn't actually have a power failure. I use only Duralite Plus Li-Ion's in my GS airplanes. I use dual 3600's and dual switches. The sides are totally redundant. There is no crosscoupling between sides, and this is what saved the plane. The incident was caused by a single connector that had there been only one reciever would've resulted in the loss of the model. My crystals are secured and I only use high quality JR recievers. This was not related to any type of equipment failure except for a simple connector. In fact, I've never had a radio related equipment failure since I switched to JR 18 years ago. I can speak for a model at wide open throttle...piece of cake...I simply fly it deadstick. It can get fast, but it's just a climb up and fly level turns thing until it runs out of gas. I had a rash of that happening on pattern airplanes with 3 different types of clevices I was using. I switched then to ball links that I secure with a wide washer that is larger that the ball should the link itself become dislodged from the ball and use double nuts and goop to sure the bolt. I cannot see this failing ever, and I use the same method only bigger on the ball links on my GS planes, and also on others that I build. As for hardovers I've never had one, and don't plan to, that's why I use only the highest quality JR gear, and have it checked once a year. Servos are slow and step tested once a month for bad pots as are new servos. As I said above, I've never found one bad in 18 years of flying JR. One day I might, who knows, but I can promise you that it will be on the ground. I check ***everything*** I can control and check on the ground. The one thing I cannot control is an intermittent connector or failed noise filter or crystal do to vibration. That is why I went with two recievers. It proved itself when it counted the most this past weekend. I will be using the new PowerBox Duralite Plus this next season and will be sending receivers in every 6 months for checkups. I have two recievers that will be rotated in and out in 6 month intervals so that there is no down time during checkups. I trust nothing. As good as my gear is I still trust nothing. As you know this stuff MUST be checked or it could be a disaster waiting to happen. I only fly when the airplane convinces me it's ready to fly. I have a 20 minute routine that I go through before every flight...even the wheels are checked. I knew long before this happened what would fail and was ready for it. You have to FLY the airplane no matter what's going on, and if you cannot control it there are only two reasons...it is uncontrollable, or it's beyond the pilots abilty. In the second case, the pilot should not be flying an airplane that is beyond his ability to control in the first place. You said it in a nutshell in your post...prevention! This stuff has to be checked it cannot be trusted at all. The only way I know to check connectors it to pull them once in awhile to make sure they make good tight contact and to shake and flip on them to make sure the wiring has not come loose and become intermittent. In this case it didn't prove to work, and I've had trouble with connectors before...this is why I say I can't really control those failures. I do know that all the power connectors on the PowerBox are isolated...should one fail or even be hard shorted the rest will still work independent of the others. This is one of the things that convinced me to get the unit because in the instance of the hard short scenario a reciever buss would more than likely be fried. Like I said, there are alot of ways to power these things, but these are the ones that work for me. With all of them there are risks, but you have to weigh the risks and what you can do about them. In just about 90% of the failures I've seen where crashes occured the pilot panicked and made a bad decision and most admitted it by saying "I shoulda' done 'this' or I shoulda' done that" I've only seen one recently where I don't think anyone in the world could've saved the airplane and that was a Rudder hardover on a FC. The pilot had it for awhile in KE but it was just too out of control to get down in one piece, and the airplane eventually spun in. I like the dual recievers, and now have complete faith they will bring my plane home, but now that I have seen the new Duralite Plus PowerBox I believe this will be the better setup for me. I will be using long leads and the Duralite Plus PowerBox no longer requires the use of ferrite rings. It has signal amplifiers built into the unit. It also has built in regulation of the current down to 6 volts which elimintaes the need for external regulators. That feature alone eliminates 4 connectors. When I compare the features of the PowerBox to what I am using now it just has so many advantages I can't see passing that jewel up. I also like the way the electronic push on push off switch is made and the fact that it fails on. It's also made so that dirt and debris cannot get into it. Just a little better design than a mechanical slide switch. The fact that it can withstand 20 A is also pretty amazing. These are definitely grand times we're living in. I remember a time when you took a model up and if you got it back it was a miracle. Now we have soooo mnay safety features built into these things that failures that result in the loss of one are very rare. The power systems are leaps and bounds beyond what they were even 5 years ago. I am very grateful for that fact as I said above in an earlier post. That airplane will soon be relegated to 3D only duty, and will be somewhat modified to do that type of flying at maximum performance. After I get the 40% up and going I will be getting a a set of wings cut that will be solid sheeted, and have some CF added to withstand high G stresses. I will also be incorporationg some added phenolic support through the use of sub ribs. The ailerons will be lengthened and lightened and all controls will be highly beveled for EXTREME throws. I have a B&B Smoke system that will also be installed and also have a few lightening tricks I am gonna do before recovering it. The new 40% will be for IMAC sequence flying only. Well, this is about too long winded and is really going onto other topics so, talk at ya later.