V-snap and Mglavin,

Well thought out and and very helpful responses. Thanks for your input.

Products keep getting better and we all keep pushing the envelope. A good friend of mine told me that sometimes you just can't figure out what went wrong. In my case I would actually feel better and wouldn't have invested time researching this if I truly believed this was a simple matter of pilot error. I'm not too proud to admit an error. If it was something I did wrong possibly in the construction or in flying then I would want to know to keep the same from happening again. This was the first time losing a plane due to some kind of electronics glitch. Maybe I should feel lucky.

I take my time when assembling an ARF and look for potential problems. The battery and the receiver were less than one year old. Same with all the electronics. All new with roughly 15 flights or so. Battery was well padded, charged and checked as a part of the preflight check. No metal to metal. The receiver was well padded and behind the battery with no wiring or metal connections within inches. I had the receiver tucked and supported under the cockpit. The antenna was mounted inside the fuse with an antenna tube. No kinks, or bends. Used parson clips for all connections and a JR switch with a charge jack. Did a range check. Radio was on the proper model, set to PPM and controls were checked in preflight. Airplane flew fine two weeks prior with no maintenance between flights. No one was on the same frequency at the time of the crash.

Until I get the receiver back I won't know if it was the cause. As for one product over another, well, they all can fail. Nothing is perfect. The argument goes on and on regarding PCM vs PPM. In the end, we all have to make our own decisions with imperfect answers to these issues. Time, experience and product performance will reveal the best overall answers. Purchasing power will push manufactures to keep getting better. I was going to suggest that maybe a receiver with built in redundancy would make a difference, but then this could be applied to everything on the airplane and the idea becomes unrealistic. Conversely, If the receiver is the weakest link in the electronics path, well, maybe this isn't such a bad idea. I know you can add a second receiver and battery which does in it'self provide some redundancy, but from a practical perspective, aren't dual receivers and batteries mainly used for driving multiple servos to control surfaces in 33%-40% airplanes? Just a thought........

Time to move on. Scott started this thread. I hope he got what he was looking for. Not sure he did, but it sure helped me remember the obvious. This hobby is alot of fun, even when things don't go just perfect.