ORIGINAL: Highflight-RCU
Wow, it's getting mighty deep in here so give me a moment to get my boots on.
1. It is infinitessemally rare that an aircraft will go blank in a normal cruise configuration. It is much more likely that you'll be in a turn or doing some sort of manuever. Failsafe will NOT right an aircraft and if you are in a turn or upside down, Failsafe will do nothing to save the aircraft and it will crash into wherever or whomever it's pointed at at the time. I get a real kick out of people dreaming up all sorts of scenarios where PCM will "save the day", but in the real world, those scenarios don't exist and if they could, it's a one in a zillion chance that they would actually happen.
And if the failsafe taking the throttle to idle gives control back, as it freqeuntly does, then????? There is a fantasy going on here that once a lockout occurs, it will never unlock . . . . . which is crap! But during the period the model is in lockout, the failsafes may keep it in the air longer, and WILL keep it from ripping the wings off due to violent, uncontrolled inputs ala PPM.
("Yea, like you could be flying and the airplane could be pointed RIGHT AT A GROUP OF CHILDREN and, and, and you could lose radio signal and the PCM Failsafe could take over, and, and, and, like, it could, like, save lot's of lives!. It happened, man, it really happened!")
Even if it was, but in a glide, it would be going in a CONSTANT path, not thrashing about the sky. Myself, if I have to dodge an incoming, I would rather have some idea where it was going so I would know where NOT to be!
2. You say that programming Failsafe on a PPM RX is nothing more than a mistake looking for a place to happen. How's that different from PCM Failsafe?
Since PCM failsafe is set in the model memory on the TX, you can't move the RX to another model and forget to set it, or hit the button in error and set it wrong. The TX resends the failsafe data at intervals throughout the flight, so if your RX fails, and you buy another, you can't set it wrong, 'cuz you don't set it on the RX! On the TX, either the JR DataSafe or a CamPak on Futaba, the failsafes are backed up as a part of the model memory, so don't get lost in most cases, and if you lost the entire model memory, you are a lot less likely to forget to reset it if you have to reprogram the entire mode. No, neither one of these systems will compensate for the flyer who never bothers to set it at all, but that is a problem between the ears, not a hardware issue.
In both cases, you're depending on the Receiver to "take over" (yea, right) and "do something". The single best failsafe feature you can program is to cut the throttle. But that still doesn't save the aircraft. And let's make up ANOTHER BOGUS scenario... How about you lose signal, the the throttle cuts and the airplane glides right into a GROUP OF CHILDREN and kills a couple of 'em? When if the throttle had stayed at full, the aircraft WOULD have continued on and crashed on the other side of the runway? (Hey, this making up stuff is FUN!!)
Unless you are flying a steel winged lawn dart, the chance for serious injury is a h**l of a lot lower with no engine power, so once again, failsafe wins.
3. The claim that PCM is "better" than PPM FM has been rehashed over and over and people trot out "technical" reasons for it's superiority. But in the real world of flying site management and actual flying experience, no one has yet to point out any difference that can be positively assigned to the mode of transmission (people keep touting their anecdotal "evidence" but there are always other variables that easily account for one mode seeming to be supposedly better than the other).
4. We're back to Potato/Potahto. I've flown LOT'S of PCM stuff; it's all I had for several years. And I've flown LOT'S of PPM stuff; it's all I have now. Potato/Potahto.
A typical argument for an individual who apparently cannot or will not take the time to understand the technology. ****SIGH****