Hrmm.
I turn my power to my truck on first. that turns on all the servos.
Then i turn on the controller. It doesnt do any thing for about 2 seconds while it binds and then i get power to my throttle and steering.
But i dont see it shooting the throttle open before it makes connection[:-] dont know why yours does that.
A way to check your fail safe just to make sure is, hold the throttle all the way down and turn off the transmitter. If the throttle goes back to normal than your okay with the fail safe.