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FrozenGate by Avery

Banned Book - The Golden Book of Chemistry Experiments






Benm said:
Hehe.. okay, another mad scientist :D
Click to expand...

I never expected it to burn. I was actually designing a failsafe engine suppression system for an RC plane. Should the battery fail or the plane go toyota on me, a spring loaded valve would open up and release the gas to kill the engine. I initially thought it was completely inert until I (inadvertently) inhaled some of the exhaust. It was really bad to say the least...
 
I did consider CO2 but the whole mechanism would need to be designed from scratch and would be much heavier. I used a disposable lighter cell to contain the gas and modified the valve to be "normally open". A very weak servo held it down; when the power dies, the servo arm is simply pushed aside by the valve.

Also:

CO2 = 700 PSI
Duster gas = 30 - 80PSI

This project was scrapped since I decided to invest in a failsafe radio system. However, before that I was using a simple radio; a dead battery would mean a flying toyota ;)
 
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If you were out of range, the servos would be put back to "neutral position", it will basically force the plane to fly straight. No battery means no power to servos, therefore no control. You'd basically wait for it to run out of fuel and hope it doesn't start climbing. The system I had was older and had some sort of "low battery cutout" to "protect the battery"; as for protecting my plane, go figure...

Funny thing, I sold the remote system to a buddy of mine and I told him about the "cutout" feature. The idiot sticks it on a extra-300 (expensive acrobatic plane) and it ends up getting stuck in a very steep climb. We didn't find the plane...
 
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That sucks. Some people need to learn the hard way. I've always payed attention to the people who knew what they were talking about. Always seemed to be the smart thing to do.
 
Its interesting how these planes would go to neutral settings and continue flight if control is lost. Makes me wonder if one of them could just come crashing trough my window (i live on the 15th floor) because it escaped remote control range somewhere far far away.

I suppose they will not get very far with all control surfaces in neutral position though - depending on fuel mass that would steer a plane up or down, and eventually up to a stall and crash.
 
I have never been able to take my planes outside the max radio range; the plane is pretty much out of sight even before it reaches such a distance. The effects of going out of range can vary depending on the type of remote system used, some will throttle down and return the controls to a "neutral position" others might completely cut out.
 
I suppose the transmitter batteries could also run out, resulting in the same problem?

Cutting out would seem the safest option - the plane would obiously crash, but not very far from where it started. I have no idea how far these things fly on a tank of fuel, but i'd be really weird if one of them just zoomed through the city that started in a field 50 kilometers away.
 
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