Hi,
As you have confirmed that all you want is to decode an 8 or 9 channel PPM Stream and add a failsafe, Erni's suggestion would appear to be the best.
You may then be wonder why people use Arduino and go to the trouble of writting all of these libraries ?
Its because it allows you to add more functionality, for example to read sensors and adjust the incoming signals based on the sensor value before sending them to the servos and ESCs. As you have clarified you do not need this capability, I would second Erni's suggestion.
Duane B