I recall at NARAM during the briefing, we were told that we had received the COA for holding the waivered launch at the sport range, but not for any AMA activities like drones or RC aircraft. (unless.....it was launched with a rocket motor in which case it was apparently fine?)
That was specifically for NARAM-60 as a field owner restriction, for whatever dumb-ass reason. So the only R/C models allowed had to be rocket boosted.
NOT an NAR policy. R/C has been flown at lots an lots of NAR launches.
R/C models will be allowed at NARAM-61, because the field owner will NOT have a restriction against R/C models*.
I expect to fly my Lunar Module Quadcopter there (see my avatar), a couple of weeks after the Apollo-11 50th anniversary. Of course this year it was BANNED from flying at NARAM-60.
* - NARAM-61 will be held at Muncie, Indiana, on the AMA national flying site.
As for "Failsafe mode", most mid-range and all higher range multicopters, if they lose signal from the transmitter, they will go into failsafe and do one of two things. If it does not have GPS or no GPS lock, it will immediately begin a slow descent at a fixed descent rate, drifting downwind just like a rocket on a parachute does. It will land wherever the wind takes it in the time it takes to descend to landing, same as a rocket on a parachute. If it has GPS with a good GPS lock, then it will go to a preset minimum altitude, like say 100 to 150 feet, and fly itself horizontally to where it took off from (technically to right above where it was when it was powered up and got GPS lock). Once over that GPS spot, then it will begin vertical descent to a safe descent rate. Some even go to a slower/softer descent for the last 15 feet. Usually landing 2-3 meters from where it started. This is called RTL or RTH : Return To Launch (site), or Return To Home.
The copter in the video has 6 rotors, IIRC. Apparently the rocket took out one of the rotors/motors. A Hexacopter CAN fly with one motor/prop out, but it's hobbled. Would have plenty of thrust, most multicopters have at least 2:1 thrust to weight ratio so even losing 1/3 of its thrust that should have had at least 30% more thrust than needed to hover (I say losing 1/3rd thrust, not 1/6th thrust, because the opposing rotor's potential thrust has to be canceled out to prevent flipping out of control. This presumes a "smart enough" flight controller, some cheaper ones may be too dumb to handle it). This one seemed to try to stay under control at first, then started to rotate around and around. It should have had enough torque authority to not begin to rotate. But perhaps there was more damage than that (or the controller was not smart enough). If TWO side by side props/motors (out of 6) got damaged yeah, trouble time, even for an Einstein controller.
There are SOME multicopters that have emergency parachutes, that can be deployed manually. Or could be deployed automatically if the model begins to tumble out of control (in case of loss of R/C signal, Plan A would be failsafe controlled descent or GPS steered RTH. But if the model is gyrating or tumbling, indicating loss of control, then Plan B is to automatically deploy a parachute, if the onboard flight controller is smart enough to have that option. But I do not think too many are THAT smart. The Controller I use in the Lunar Module has that option, IIRC, as its an Open Source DIY'ers dream system with tons of options. But some of the big name upper end brands like say DJI may not have an automated "Plan B" option for loss of control. ).
Here's a slick 3rd party automated system, among others out there: