ES CONTROL-I usually use an engine smaller than recommended so it's not very often I run out of fuel. All but one of my glow planes usually come back with half a tank.
But for my electrics I needed a timer and at the time I didn't have the RDS8000 I do now. So I got a cheap stopwatch at KMART and velcro'd it to the radio. For all my planes I ran them on the ground at full throttle and timed them till they were dead/empty. That gave me the worst case senario. After I fly a couple of times I modify it and see how much fuel/charge I usually have left. Here's some pics of the stopwatch.-BW

I will come in deadstick now and then if i'm the only one at the field b/c it's fun. But usually cutting the motor from the xmitter rather than by chance. With a crowd in the air or at the field in general. it's not a good thing to do as is stated everyone has to get out your way, etc. needing to walk out on the runway to retrieve the plane, etc, etc. Having flown sailplanes for many years it's really not that big a deal if you know how your particular plane reacts. our club will pull the throttle back all the way and make you land as part of the flight test. Engines have been known to quit whether the timer goes off or not. Eveyrone should know how the plane reacts with no power otherwise its sort of like driving w/out knowlegdge on how to change a tire. When it happens.. and it will.. you will be more panicked than needed.

For many years off and on I flew planes with engines that had no throttle. 1/2a being the most common. But I flew planes that used as large as a .36 engine before too. Only rudder or aileron and elevator, no throttle. I remember guys flying large .60 size planes with no throttle before too, but that goes way back though.
For pylon racing we used to use a fixed fuel pickup, no flexible clunk in the tank. You would simply go inverted for a few seconds to kill the engine.
Trainer types of planes are harder to do it with though, You usually wind up doing a 1/2 loop and hold the plane inverted until the engine dies. of course you get the plane up high before you do so.
Then you just perform a dead stick landing like normal.

So if the original poster does not have a throttle try a fixed fuel pickup and going inverted for a few seconds to kill the engine on command. If you have a extra RC channel, you can rig up a free flight fuel cutoff too, and control it with the extra channel servo.

I stuck an old digital watch to the front of my TX with s small spot of Velcro to keep track of my air time.

bhady

Pay attention to the elevator trim. As you burn off fuel, an airplane with the tank in the nose will start to climb. With practice you can judge the amount of fuel left to within 30 seconds with just knowing the trim position.

Being able to handle a dead-stick landing is different than making all your landings dead-stick. Think about full scale pilots - they train for and practice dead-stick landings, then do their very best to avoid them!

Dead sticks happen for whatever reason, always have always will.
It's good to be familiar with your plane in glide mode...even better if you choose to fly planes that HAVE a glide mode if called upon.
When I come in dead stick, there is no panicky announcement, no hullabaloo, no drama, I just land off to the side and pick the model up when there's a break in the action.

When I performed my first landing, it was a dead stick landing. It had to be dead stick because it was a high performance sailplane. Flying a sailplane is the very best way to learn how to fly. There is no such thing as a go-around. The question of how to avoid D/S landings has certainly been answered but the correct procedure to follow has not been mentioned.
Maybe I should present some vital info and ideas at this point.
I have watched many people fly at different fields all over the US and Australia. very few people that I have seen have ever flown their plane correctly or safely. (Safely???)
IMO all RC pilots should adopt the same procedure for flying and landing as the full size pilots do. This means taking off and discover how your plane reacts and handles in any situation. The plane should be flown high, about 100 feet or so and then the motor set to idle. Then find the most ideal angle for the glide path so the plane will decend at a safe rate without being too slow (and stall) or too fast (and overshoot). Once the glide path is established, go back up and then start the glide, now enter a 90 deg. turn of about 20 foot radius. Watch the plane closely and see how much height is lost in the turn. Can a turn be done where the speed does not increase? You should be able to turn with no speed increase and with a minimum of height lost. Height will always be lost faster in a gliding turn so watch your plane closely.
As with all landings, the plane (full size or RC) must be positioned to fly the correct landing circuit. This means entering the circut at the top end of the Downwing Leg and being at the correct height. Fly downwind to the turn for the Base Leg and do a smooth 90 deg. turn. Continue on to the point where you will turn onto Final Approach. The secret to a good (perfect) landing is to set it up correctly. This means knowing your planes flight characteristics intimately. This knowledge only comes from lots of practice.
Setting up for landing does not just mean flying a good looking circuit. It means knowing how high to be when you make that turn onto the Base Leg. It also means where to position the plane to make that important turn.
The next turn is onto the Final Leg. Again it is essential to know what height you should be as you start the turn and when to start so the completed turn will align the plane in the center of the runway. This is all relatively easy to do (?) when the engine is running at idle. You should be able to fly this same landing circuit with the plane being dead stick. So you also need to know how well the plane flies dead stick and gliding. By positioning the plane correctly throughout the circuit and landing approach you will never find yourself landing in a swamp or in the rough or anywhere you shouldn't be.
Nothing looks more beautiful that a perfect landing that results from a carefully planed and executed circuit to the Final Approach. If you think you can fly and do it easily, then go and fly a few circuits at a constant height of 20 or 25 feet. Make every turn a 90 deg. precision turn and don't deviate more than 1 foot up or down thru the flight; do the same thing but fly 3 figure 8s'. The most common and the worst mistake that I witness is seeing pilots fly a 180 deg. turn at each end of the circuit. Such flying teaches you nothing about precision flying. The day will come when you simply must fly a precision flight path so practice the correct turns.
Good luck and good flying.

Wedge

The point here, jimmyjames, is to teach proper methods of flying RC. Trying to learn to understand engine sputter as the tank runs dry, is defininely not the way to go. What happens if you are in a turn, way downwind, and run out of fuel? Are you going to land it in the trees or bushes, or in someone's back yard? It's hard enough when it happens by accident, but to intentionally allow this to happen is not the worst technique I've ever heard of, but it is right there with them.

The best way, by far, is to time the flight and to get it on the ground safely before it runs out of fuel. Having an ounce or so of fuel left in the tank is not a sin, it is just plane good flying practice.

CGr.

Out of habit, I fly the low stuff, T&G's, etc., early on in the flight and after a few minutes have elapsed go up higher to finish off the flight. At this point I know the plane is high enough to make the trip back home if the prop stops turning.

Well, we always say "Fly three mistakes high" for a reason.. It often works, but sometimes it doesn't. Depending on the wind and where you end up when that prop stops turning.

CGr.

I will give a good example of why I know its inconsiderat of dead stick landing all your flightsI have been on a field flying my Skydivers and someone goes up while we are gaining altitude for the drop and just dont care and cuts there motor just as we release the chute and hollars Dead stick well I cant control the chute to circle around and this dumm butz just goes ahead and lands while Im trying to do my best to land in the corn field or out of the way to let some one do a dead stick on purpose not withstanding the uncouth take off when all other flyers are holding till we get the jumper on the ground and back to the flight line not to mention we still have a plane in the air to bring down My rant and if it offends you well thats tough , just fly sensably and all will have a fun time

Peply is to all who think constant dead stick landing and cause othere to wait while they play is fun

!!
I've got no sympathy for those who think their free time is any more valuable than mine.
Sounds to me like your jumper lands deadstick every flight, but it's OK because it's your toy.

As` they say If ya ain't tried it dont knock it -we always wait on the flight line to jump when all rest are on ground or we are in line for next flight - we respect the fliers flight time and most respect the time it takes to land a jumper and our drop plane -Rc Skydivers are just another form of RC flying - We do draw a crowd where ever we show up as these newer style of jumpers can do most everthing a real skydiver can do except hook up

I usually fly the last tank of the day to dry and dead-stick the landing to make clean-up easier. If I have to walk more than 10 feet to pick up the airplane after a dead-stick landing, the landing was poor.

Nothing wrong with that way as you do what most of us do on the last flight and get the experance of a dead stick landing - But you and I dont do it every time we go up - except my Skydivers , and they are expected to not have power like gliders

I've had to keep one eye on my plane and the other eye on someone else's malfunctioning / deadstick plane countless times....it's part of the sport. The vast majority of deadsticks I've seen that were not intentional had nothing to do with running out of fuel.
You can choose to either accept this as part of the deal when you take part in this sport, or not.
Don't sweat the small stuff.

Read this for the solution chosen http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/fb.asp?m=9513845

I say just keep deadstickin if ya don't want to mess with a timer. Guys that do that all the time are able to provide re-build projects or scrap balsa for the trash cans! Can't tell ya how many things I've used deadstick landing balsa for to fix or add to a project.

Well, I have crashed my share of planes for one reason or another,,,only 2 in 10 years due to deadsticking in...for me its the same thrill as doing a perfect loop, if I mess up a loop I can go around and try again,,,but, once I run out of fuel, I have one chance to bring it in...thats the thrill....I generally fly alone during the week, but I could tell you the 5 guys that will be at the field saturday and they know, I'm gonna yell out deadstick, but if someone said hey, I'm dropping a parachute or skydiver, I wouldnt go up till they were done..I dont think I have ever seen more than 3 planes up at the same time at my field even though we have 100 members and 2 fields....I have had 1/2a events (no throttle) with more participants than pattern events here.....Rog

Thanks - Thats what the guys at the field do when we drop a Skydiver and everbody is happy - Heck they even invite me to talk at the meetings sometime and have fri morn breakfast each week as right now its to cold to fly in Mn- come summer we will continue the Fri Breakfast Club if weather is not good to fly or jump

Them early morn trash can looks sure do keep me in a good supply of balsa and many other small goodies , Nice to get to field before flying time with a few friends and a cup of hot coffee and go- Trash Can diving

I kind of like my talking timer. I don't have to look down at it to see how much time I have left.
http://www.amazon.com/Compact-Talkin...6971868&sr=8-1

If you have an iPhone there is an talking app for that.<div>
</div><div>It's called Talking Timer.</div>

Keep calm, everybody......

Don't no one have a panic attack if I show you this one.

It lands dead stick every time.

No need to act like a girl about it, screaming out "DEADSTICK[X(]"

It's part of the sport.