This past summer I’ve attended some area fly-ins and I’ve been asked “how can I kill my engine from my radio just like you do by not thumbing down my throttle trim all the time”?
Here’s the answer in what I hope is a simple to understand procedure. First I must explain that some computer radios already have a built-in throttle kill switch or they have a program already set up where you can assign a particular switch to be used as your kill switch. If your like me and have a DX7 or similar type radio you don’t have this function already built into the radio programming so you’ll need to set up your own simple mix to accomplish this. I’m pretty sure other radios will work in similar fashion. For me I start by using my landing gear switch. If you have retracts you’ll need to assign this new “kill” function to another available switch – no big deal. So here we go:
- You’ve decided which switch will be your throttle kill switch.
- Find a program mix on your radio that your not using such as ( PROG.MIX1)
- Next enable it – turn it ON. At this step you will also decide the mix. I use GEAR – THROTTLE. Which means the gear switch is now controlling the throttle at each end of its limits.
- Next we will turn on the switch. The screen will look like this: SW:ON
- Now decide which way you want the switch to move to kill your engine; up or down? I use the switch up as my run position and down as my kill position.
- Now you’ll need to adjust your rates ( the extent of your servo travel in the mix ) to make sure the throttle is closed completely when the switch is in the position you have decided to use as off.
- On the DX7 there are two rate settings – one in each position of the switch. The up switch position or run position I leave at “0″. Now when I flip the switch down I will adjust the rate to completely close the throttle opening so the rate will be something like 115 or so. If you’d like the switch to operate in the opposite direction just set your rates opposite to what I’ve done here.
- Last thing to do is test your set up on the ground with your engine running. Usually this works perfectly right out of the box.
Ok, now you know exactly how to do this and you’ve just outsmarted that horrible computer radio manual that’ll never show you how this is done. If you call Horizon they’ll agree with my opinion. Two things to remember now that you have this working; first, while your flying if you switch this switch you’ll either kill your engine or you’ll go to half throttle or a little less depending on where your stick is set at the time. Also after you’ve landed and killed your engine the “cool” way remember to flick the switch back to the run position you’ve decided on … makes the engine much easier to start.
Ask me how I know? Gas or glow this will work on either one. Next time out we’ll do dual aileron servos using two channels. “ Embrace technology”!