ORIGINAL: tailskid
Let's face it...PCM or not....the fact is the pilot didn't have control due to a major malfunction of the electronics - and that can (and has) happen to anyone (at one time or another)> What a sick feeling one has when you wiggle the sticks and NOTHING happens to the plane. My heart goes out to the pilot....no tell'n how badly he feels!
Not sure WHAT happened here, whether or not he had any control, or if failsafe happened, or what.
But Gordon hit the nail on the head...the whole POINT of failsafe(or so I thought) was to kill the engine if radio link is lost. I find it hard to beleive that a model of this size did not have PCM, but I may be wrong.
As far as Gordon's question of how to convince people to use failsafe properly...the problem is...you CAN'T. People whose basic mindset makes the model more important than safety, well, I hate to say it, the only way they will change is if they are FORCED to do so. Hence the AMA reg for turbines about it. You canNOT trust people to police themselves, or do the right thing, too many people are essentially selfish. Just how it is.