Robert Roland wrote:

On Fri, 03 Jul 2009 13:46:58 -0500, "Pete C."
wrote:

There are full auto-pilot modules available for both RC planes and
helicopters that can keep the craft stable in the event of a radio link
failure.

Of course. But no matter how many possible failure modes you protect
yourself against, there will always be at least one you didn't think
of. Also, a failsafe system is going to cost money, weight, space and
power.

My most recent crash was due to a failed potentiometer in the
transmitter stick. The transmitter suddenly commanded hard left
aileron. Any on-board system would see this as pilot input, and not
detect any problem at all, unless there was some sort of intelligence
able to decide what types of maneuvers are OK at any given time.
--
RoRo

The intelligence is to instantly turn off the transmitter and hope the
autopoilt can recover. Of course you can also configure the autopilot to
detect full travel of any control as a fault state.