My best flights are when I forget to turn on :-)))) David Webb <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: Gentlemen, I would like your feedback on something I created last season in a bit of a whim. I have been competing at various TD tasks in the Northwest over the last 3 years. Over this time I have witnessed far too many launches where the pilot after the fact admitted that he/she did not turn on the aircraft. Needless to say most of the aircraft were lost or seriously damaged. So in search of a solution I went to a local electronics shop and asked a young guy if he could give me a hand designing a safety component that might help avoid this scenario.
Basically we designed a switch with a small tilt sensor and some latching circuitry. The result is this: If you remember to turn on the plane the switch works as expected. The plane powers on and off as it would normally. If you turn OFF the plane and tilt the aircraft in the desired launch angle ( this is set by the pilot) the plane turns ITSELF on and stays on until the circuit is reset by disconnecting / interrupting the battery. The draw is tiny and the circuit and switch itself 1"x"x .25" or double the size of a typical 20 amp RC switch. I have tested the product in the lab and i know a shop that could likely get the size down to half its current size or close to the size of a standard switch This would of course cost some money out of pocket but I am not sure if the target market is too limited to bother creating this solution for. For the most part, the elite pilots I watch either don't even use a switch or are very disciplined in their launch methodology. The target market is more appropriately general pilots who may be approaching the more "senior" years as well as new pilots. What do you think people? At your local club have you seen anyone toss an un-powered glider to its death? Would a product like this be of value as a replacement for the standard on off switch for your more senior members or new eager soaring enthusiasts? David Webb RCSE-List facilities provided by Model Airplane News. Send "subscribe" and "unsubscribe" requests to [EMAIL PROTECTED] Please note that subscribe and unsubscribe messages must be sent in text only format with MIME turned off. Email sent from web based email such as Hotmail and AOL are generally NOT in text format
