One of my biggest fears of flying RC is if the radio system fails, and the Model runs off on me. I read that some people are able to put on a kill switch on a gas engine. I was wondering if there is a way to remotely kill a glo engine?

A gas engine is "killed" by ignition cut off or by throttle cut off.

A glow engined is "killed" by throttle cut off. I don't know of any practical way to stop a glow plug from glowing while the engine is running on it.

 most recevers this days have a fail safe setting. This means that if they lose contact with the transmitter, the control surfaces go to nurtrual and the throttel goes to minnimum or cut of. I know that the oldtimers had a fuel shut off for the free flight airplains. Any way, to see if your radio is set up with the fail safe, set up and start your aircraft,  then while standing in front of the elevator/horizontal sabilizer, turn your transmiter off and see if the failsafe kicks in. Hope tis helps.
                         
                                                       TC   

Both answers above are correct....the kill switch does kill the ignition....but a glow keeps glowing. So a fail safe setting on a glow is your way to go.

Failsafe works if the signal between the transmitter and receiver is lost.

If the receiver battery, onboard switch, or receiver fails; the failsafe will not work. Of course kill switches will not work in those situations either.

Optical kills shut down the ignition if they loose power, or loose signal.

If you really want to a kill feature beside the throttle a seperate fuel "off" can be made by forming a "J" wire and connecting it to a servo behind the firewall.  Two holes are drilled in the firewall for that wire - the long end to the servo horn and the shorter end of the "J".  The fuel line is run against the firewall through the loop formed.  When the servo is triggered the wire is pulled and it squeezes the tube against the firewall - stopping the flow to the engine (still takes 10 to 15 seconds to die).  It takes some diddling to get the right sized loop and a hardwood "V" block between the fuel tube and the firewall helps.

This was a system used before engines had throttles; or at least on throttleless engines - when control line was more popular than R/C.

MUCH easier to use the failsafe feature and kill the throttle should the connection be lost.  If you lose power - nothing helps.

Without going on and on off topic,, Andy that is true,, that is how the optikills are designed to work,, But it depends on the Failsafe programing weather it works or not.. If the Failsafe is set to "Hold" it will hold the ign in the on position on signal loss.

He wont have servo operation if the radio fails which is his fear so there is no way to stop a glow engine if your radio fails for the reasons mentioned above.

In all my years of 72mhz and more recenlty 2.4 I've never had a glo issue so personally I wouilidn' worry about it. If you lose radio contact for reasons where the pre-set kill does not work... trust me your plane won't be flying away.. for very long anway ... probably 5 or 10 seconds before it hits terra firma.

Even with failsafe, a full radio failure can continue flight for lots more than 5 or 10 seconds. I've had it happen twice, once due to a battery that ejected itself from the aircraft and another when the battery failed due to a bad charger and me not double checking the charge. Yep, both errors on my part.

One time I was in a big huge split S when the battery departed company of the aircraft, the other I was in a loop when the battery died in spite of having a fresh charge. Both had the same result. We watched while the airplane was "making lazy circles in the sky!" They looped and looped and looped, getting a little lower on each pass while drifting down wind. They did eventually contact terra firma but both made for long walks to retrieve the remains.

Unfortunately, I don't know of any sort of kill switch that is going to work after the receiver has lost power. Otherwise, failsafe is your best friend.

Dave

Some of the heli pilots were putting a spring on the throttle servo to pull it to idle if they had a battery or switch malfunction or if they crashed and the battery came unplugged. That way the throttle would come to idle and no more chicken dance.

Ken

We had a guy losee radio connection once and his plane flew straight out of sight. A few weeks later at a swap meet a lady comes in with the wreckage and says, this plane crashed in her yard, she lived over 3 miles from the field! Now that was a well trimmed airplane!

True.. there will always be exceptions but on average I'm sticking with my 5 to 10 seconds. Count it out.. it's longer than you think .

Sure, it depends on the airframe,, a buddy at the field had one of those Witch on a Broomstick things,, he lost the battery for some reason and that witch just circled and circled and the wind blew her out of sight,, she must have been up there 20 minutes before we couldn't see her any longer,, I'm sure she's some one's lawn decoration now

I think most pilots worry more about the glow engine quiting in flight. However, my sweetest landings seem to be deadstick