Hey, don't shoot the messenger....

Background: Last year, the AMA required all turbine pilots to FS-program their radios so that in event of link-loss, engines went to idle. For '05, engines must be killed within two seconds of a FS initiation. Should the link be re-acquired within that two second period, engines would not die if we could take advantage of this full delay....one available only if ECUs added some time to any radio hold period (Futaba has about a second hold before FS, JR less).

So, FS has been required for a year (where ya been?!); but now it's engine kill, which can be easily tested at events. All agree (or should!) that flying high-speed models w/o FS is nuts....ya wanna go into a hold or gentle pre-program mode, rather than have the wild gyrations PPM permits; and ya wanna have the engine killed at some point (the two seconds may be debatable....) to prevent a runaway and to preclude fires upon impact.

Bottom line: For good reason, a link-loss must kill the engine within two seconds....now if you can do that w/o FS and or PCM...then go ahead; OK w/ the AMA, I'm sure. Typical PPM, however, has been obsolete for flying turbines for over a year, though there may be other PPM methods (IPD, someone above mentioned a add-on device, etc.). Further, there may be other ECUs that somehow recognize inconsistant PPM Rx info, and can be programmed to kill the engine in that event. I dunno....I'm just an AMTUSA rep....

To your point: AMT ECUs- old or new- need FS (therefore PCM) to initiate an ECU engine kill...whatever the added delay. And, c'mon, you should be flying PCM for the other safety concerns alone!

Incidentally, folks, no need to have ECUs updated at all.....i.e., if you are satisfied w/ no delay (or just the built-in radio hold delay). That's what we've had all along. But w/ the '05 kill requirement, the full two-seconds makes sense for glitch protection....otherwise you FO w/ the least loss/interference...which you'd otherwise never even notice.

Ray