In that last closed "crash" thread, I commented that I have seen the similar errant "failsafe" behavior in a Futaba 9ZAP using PCM (maybe I am on a lot of "ignore" lists!!).

Anyway, here is what happened. I was starting my plane, kneeling next to it. Suddenly, the gear go up (we have all done it), but I could swear I did not hit the retract switch.

Turns out another pilot, using a Futaba PCM transmitter on an adjacent frequency (!), overpowered my signal and could take control of at least SOME of the channels (probabaly all). At the time, it was not apparent which channels beyond the retracts were affected, as his neutrals turned out to be pretty close to mine, so everything else on the plane just stood still.

Later on I put my plane on a stand and watched my plane respond to his while he was flying. His neutrals and ATVs were very close to mine, although a couple of channels were reversed.

Now I know this is not the same scenario as David Shulman's, and might not have anything to do with the other crash, I just wanted to state that I have seen (with my own eyes), a case where an INTERFERING transmitter (on a different channel even!) could take at least partial control of a PCM radio (in this case a Futaba 9ZAP) WITHOUT causing a failsafe to occur.

At least in the Futaba case, I do not think this is a bug per se, but rather a statistically rare event.

For what it is worth,