RE: Emergency parachute
I dont believe it. I was just thinking about the exact same thing. Well not about making one, but if someone had tried. After more thought it seems like one of these nice ideas, but somewhat impracticle and beyond the scope of modeling.
Then I got to thinking, if you were to design it such that it req'd no more user input than to mount it, plug into a rx and remove a safty pin on cool a "REMOVE BEFORE FLIGHT" red flag. It maybe could work in populous areas and be usefull. It must also NOT use pyrotechnic devices, springs are a better option I think.
BUT I think to be truely useful, in addition to a manual firing via a Tx switch, say needing two clicks quickly to fire, it has to be like a PCM Rx going failsafe mode. Only for longer than a few glitches or based on other parrameters too, like no stick input at all for more than a set time, like 10 - 15 secs. How often are we not moving a stick at all, not even a hairs breadth for 10 -15 secs, maybe it could be shorter to catch the frozen in fear beginner, or anyone for that matter. It could be linked to a pitot/static system to act on certain rates of decent versus airspeed, like high rate of decent, out of control flat spin.
Its probable market though, given what I guess fairly costly R&D meaning a fairly high retail cost would limit it to those pilots who "have to have" and those truely having a need for such a system. Someone who flies regularly in high populous areas, like at air shows etc, where public liability is a major concern (like everywhere these days) and flies models considerably more expensive than a safety chute system, may find some value in it. The model also would have no touble carrying the weight of the device and chute. Since were talking about BIG expensive models here, lets spare no expense and make it a Ram Air parachute, steerable and landable, as in flair out to arrest decent at landing. Itd have it own battery, two channel Rx which switched on after the cute deployed, and two servos just big enough to do the job.
If only I had limitless money . . . .
I wouldnt be writting my idea down here if I had money to play with to make something like this work.