Rdlx3m wrote:
Why would this be any bad thing?
For me, the idea of a 700 heli flying around with no control from the pilot, at 10km distance is just really, really scary. How are you managing to get 10km and back again on a battery? 10km there, 10km back at 100mph would be 7 minutes of flight, if the heli can fly at 100mph.
Spirit is a great FBL, but it's not safety-certified, it's hobby grade, and so is your helicopter. I get that its expensive if it crashes, but that's part of the hobby, things fail, and you don't know what will fail or the state of the system when it does fail.
There's a reason that safety standards exist in aviation (DO-178B/C, etc), and a reason for multiple redundant systems, etc.
What you're talking about is illegal in my country.
A radio link failure is the most serious of all failures. You're no longer in control of the aircraft. At that point, it should fall from the sky.
I'm fine with return to home if the radio link is still connected, but with a radio link failure, I think it should just fall.
In fact, I think spirit should add the option of what to do when a failsafe occurs. My preference would be to kill the motor, then rescue into a stable position + altitude hold hover and 'auto' the heli to the ground the best the spirit can to limit damage, but 100% the motor must be turned off.