As everyone knows who’s been to a Joe Nall, our goal is to provide fun, fellowship and hospitality. Naturally, the underlying tone is that we have to conduct everything we do safely.

Well, this year we’re going to kick things up a notch in the safety department. There have been no accidents at Joe Nall, and with your help, we’ll keep it that way. By thinking proactively, being responsive and learning from other incidents in the country, we’ll keep this event alive and growing for everyone’s enjoyment for years to come.

For 2005, we’re asking that all planes be equipped with a functioning failsafe system which, in the event of a loss of signal, will reduce the throttle to idle. You’ll be asked to demonstrate this capability on the flight line before you take off. With the engine running, you’ll shut off your transmitter and demonstrate the low-throttle hold. How you decide to program your other surfaces (hold last position, neutral – whatever) is your choice – these things are largely a matter of personal preference. But low-throttle hold is an imperative.

We hope you’ll embrace change and take some time to learn about how to make this feature work in your radio. It’s our observation that most fellow’s radios have this function – we just don’t use it. For everyone’s safety, we believe that should change.

Failsafe systems are available for fliers using FM systems too. These are common in the 1/8th gas car market, but for some reason haven’t been popularized for R/C planes. It involves a relatively inexpensive purchase and the insertion of a device in the throttle servo lead. When the device detects an absence of a signal, the throttle is commanded to a pre-set position (low-throttle).

We’re not stopping at fail-safe, either. We’ve installed a permanent fence at the site, and will soon install a device for alerting flyers and spectators should a plane become out-of-control (while failsafe systems work well for loss-of-signal, power system failures can create other issues).

Thanks for embracing these changes. We believe that they will be of minor inconvenience in the big picture. And with your help and support embracing these changes, it’ll insure that we all have fun fellowship and safe flying for years to come