The point is that while a windmilling prop does cause more drag than a static one the energy in the "falling" model is driving the prop and accelerating it to the point where it doesn't produce as much drag as it would at lower rpms.

My understanding of the new Hacker F3A and Shulze Future "KA" controllers is that they are modified versions of car controllers where the "off" point of the controller is nominally at half stick and that moving the stick from half to low gives proportional dynamic braking. Of course at some point during this movement the dynamic braking will be enough to actually stop the prop from turning and so reduce the drag.

The way these controllers are designed to be set up is that the low end point is adjusted to give enough braking to slow the prop and give good drag but not enough to stop it. The easiest way to do this is by using the throttle trim lever. Also most people will program a throttle curve so that the "off" point is moved way below centre to a click or two above bottom stick. This way the prop will start virtually as normal with all the braking on the last click or two. You cannot set up a controller with "normal" braking to do this as the braking levels are pre-determined and are too severe for the effect we want.

The Shulze controller uses fixed pulse widths to determine the full throttle, off and full brake postitions. i.e. auto detect is disabled. I don't know about the Hacker one.

The disadvantage of this system may be when executing stall turns etc. when a little airflow over the rudder is useful. It remains to be seen whether I can remember to keep a few clicks on in the heat of a comp, flight!

Malcolm