Pete:

There have been reports of a couple of matchbox failures on Giant Scale birds.......BV started recommending not using them on ailerons or elevators after his buddy Kemp Gallineau lost his Bobcat at liftoff due to a matchbox failure on the split elevators.....the common failure mode in the reports was signal in, but no signal out to either channel......rare, but it does happen.........if this failure mode happens on rudder or flaps, i.e. no signal output, then the surface should go to neutral trail, hopefully not fluttering, and the plane remains controllable.......at least so goes the logic.......obviously, a scenario can easily be constructed where the logic fails....i.e. a Bandit cruising at 200MPH that loses a rudder servo......chances of catastrophic failure of the bird due to flutter are very high........

I prefer a straight shot from RX to elevator servo, using a reversed servo and a simple Y-connector(no adjustment pot) where necessary...slight asymmetry in speed, centering or endpoints is rarely noticeable since we are not usually doing precision F3A serobatics with our jets.....I have found that it is easier to find a near perfectly matched set of 8611's compared to the older 8411's....if I have enough channels, to keep things simple, I prefer using separate elevator channels on split-elevator birds.......although this is getting harder on our jets with crow setups, bomb drops, and smokers.....

Tom