Re: Failsafe?
>seems risky if the signal just cuts out for a few seconds at which point it's in a nose-dive, if it carries on it can be guided back when the signal re-establishes
If it's heading away from you when you lose control link for an extended period (Say 10 seconds) then it almost certainly is not coming back.
If it's heading towards you, then if you regain control link after it loses it, you can pull it out of the dive.
Besides, unless you were close to stall speed anyway, it probably won't be going into an instant nose-dive.
> I dunno anything about these planes but the first option sounds like a full-spec autopilot, bearing in mind these things don't hover or do VTOL
You don't need hover or VTOL for this feature. All you need is gyros (So it knows what attitude it is at) and GPS (So it knows position / heading / airspeed).
It's not exactly expensive - a flight controller and GPS that can do this will cost you from about £50 - £100, and considering this is a 1.7m model, an insignificant fraction of the cost of the model. My mate's plane which weighs <250g has this, so it's not going to be a weight issue either.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
