We have all heard many accurate accounts of why the ACT on the SC is such a horrible thing. It has lured many a new pilot into crashing their planes because of its shoddy programming and limitations but what nobody seems to ever mention is the good it can do helping a new pilot get there first few flights under there belt. Ill start by quoting “Flydiver” on his previously posted explanation of the faults of the ACT:
ACT sucks. Pull the wires. Here's my babble for the umpteenth time-
[ACT works by using sensors looking at the ground and horizon. It differentiates shade (dark ground/light sky) and tries to keep them that way. If the plane goes up or down too fast and the shade isn't right it 'takes control' AWAY from you and essentially neutralizes the controls. You can achieve the SAME result just by letting go of the sticks. Of course new pilots don't they just over correct some more. The high wing Cub will self correct in time but not immediately.
If ACT kicks in up high, no problem, but then letting go of the sticks would work also. If it happens down low you have NO ABILITY TO CORRECT SINCE CONTROL IS REMOVED! Just like letting go of the sticks once you pointed it straight at the ground from 20 feet up it's going in! Its not useful down low and wrecks more planes than it saves, but it sure sounds good to new fliers. Since they can't fly anyway and they wreck anyway they figure it would only have been worse without it. They can't differentiate between their short comings and ACT's problems.
So it works up high where you don't really benefit from it and screws you up down low when it doesn't help. It also gets totally confused when you fly over water, snow or very light ground surfaces (light concrete, sand) since it doesn't know what to do with that. It's NOT SMART, it's just a shade sensor.]
What most people fail to mention is that the ACT is actually a 2 part system. One part being Shade Sensors/Eyes funtion that we have previously determined don’t work worth a (insert witty saying here). The second part is high/low rate function. What this basically does is it limits the speed and distance that your control surfaces are allowed to move. So when that nervous first time flyer pushes the control stick all the way to the left the plane will make a gradually left turn instead to a quick high rate left turn. I’m not sure about others but I will still will fly new airplanes on low rate for the first little bit if the aircraft comes equipped with it.
But how do we use the High/Low rate function without the horrible Shade Sensor/Eyes function? Well here is what you do.
1) Pull of the main wing to expose the electronics inside the body.
2) Trace the wires the come out of the eyes and unplug them from the ESC (little black box)
With the eyes unplugged you can now use the ACT switch to simple turn on or off the High/Low rate function while always having the Shade Sensor/Eyes function deactivated.
Hope this helps some of the new pilots or those who are training newer pilots on the SC.
Many thanks to Flydriver for his “ACT babble for the umpteenth time”
