managed a few flights today no thermals but nice and relaxing plane to fly, had a scare though, my dx6i started beeping madly and screen was flashing on and off, thought I was gonna lose this bird yet again but I performed a spiraling dive and landed super fast from quite some height to find it was the transmitter battery had gone down to 3.7v it was 4.9v 10 mins b4, got home and found one aa cell was flat and others were fully charged, I think one had not got charged properly but I will keep an eye on it in case its a duff one.
I then took my asw28 down only to find that the rudder servo was not working so had to come back again! and the third thing was my dog got stuck in some barbed wire out on a walk took me ages to cut him free with my house keys, but he is fine no damage and keys still opened front door thankfully too. one of those days, tomorow looks like a good calm day so I will be up and out b4 wife and daughter get out of bed lol.

Originally Posted by nigelsheffield

http://www.hobbyking.com/hobbyking/s...mp_mAh_V2.html
is this the one you have
I have spektrum rc gear though and I see that some people have crashed due to interferance.

I've been flying with the Quanum gear for the past year on Futaba 2.4 (6ex - 7C and 8fg) controlled planes ...... all systems have been as good as gold ..... for my best and most expensive electric planes I wouldn't fly without telemetry these days .....

Originally Posted by hobie14

I've been flying with the Quanum gear for the past year on Futaba 2.4 (6ex - 7C and 8fg) controlled planes ...... all systems have been as good as gold ..... for my best and most expensive electric planes I wouldn't fly without telemetry these days .....

yeah I think futaba is more resiliant then spektrum dsm2, I can see me switching over to futaba sometime soon. I have 11 spektrum rx though and I do like the model match feature but I am finding myself more and more worried to fly with my speky stuff with all the problems people have reported and I myself have crashed due to 1 lock out, a few brown outs due to servos going faulty, and my asw28 has lost signal on numerous occations but fortunately so far has reconected with tx b4 conecting with the ground lol.
My mate has futaba and he has never had a problem, apart from flying with the wrong model loaded doh!
I think I am hoping that someone will make a complete system with telemtry built in that is reliable and cheap and then I will jump ship and sell all my speky stuff( or maybe keep it for cheap parkfly fun).

Originally Posted by nigelsheffield

http://www.hobbyking.com/hobbyking/s...mp_mAh_V2.html
is this the one you have
I have spektrum rc gear though and I see that some people have crashed due to interferance.

I use Hitec Spectra 2.4GHz with Minima (no telemetry) and with Optima (some sort of a bad sucking telemetry) rx's and had no issues using same time Quantum downlink. However just as a precaution I put always the telemetry tx antena as far away as possible from the hitec rx.

Maybe for a glider it's a bit overkill but I'm used to it when flying warbirds and it is really easy to handle, so why not to use it even with Minimoa. Can recommend.

Originally Posted by nigelsheffield

yeah I think futaba is more resiliant then spektrum dsm2, I can see me switching over to futaba sometime soon. I have 11 spektrum rx though and I do like the model match feature but I am finding myself more and more worried to fly with my speky stuff with all the problems people have reported and I myself have crashed due to 1 lock out, a few brown outs due to servos going faulty, and my asw28 has lost signal on numerous occations but fortunately so far has reconected with tx b4 conecting with the ground lol.
My mate has futaba and he has never had a problem, apart from flying with the wrong model loaded doh!
I think I am hoping that someone will make a complete system with telemtry built in that is reliable and cheap and then I will jump ship and sell all my speky stuff( or maybe keep it for cheap parkfly fun).

I was lucky and started with all the local blokes with FPV planes in the know and they all have Futaba TXs so I got a Futaba 9C second hand and it has been the best thing I have bought. I also have never had a problem and have bought a stack of cheap orange Futaba FASST receivers from hobbyking.com which are perfect (not as cheap as Spektrum ones) and now have three new FrSky modules for the 9C. I also have a Spektrum module for the indoor B&F planes and a 36mhz module.

I realise a lot of people blame Spektrum unfairly for crashes when they have actually done something wrong with the hardware but there is a fault that Spektrum have agreed to with the DSM2 system and it eventually does crash planes. That is why Spektrum have changed to the X system. One of the problems is very occasionally when you turn on the Spektrum TX the two frequencies it uses are so close together they are useless.

WARNING: Spektrum owners will argue that I am wrong. There is a review by that reputable New Zealand bloke that explains the problems with DSM2.

Just put this in google "Spektrum brown out" and you can try it with Futaba and see the difference.

If you are going to buy a system I would recommend Futaba but I do not know anything about the Spektrum DSMX system. I suspect that one would be perfect being a new system.

For a cheap radio a lot are saying this $39 Turnigy is good but you SHOULD update to the free after market firmware.
http://www.hobbyking.com/hobbyking/s...Firmware_.html

Here is some info in it:
http://www.rcmodelreviews.com/dsm2flaw.shtml

http://www.rcmodelreviews.com/spreadspectrum01.shtml

Originally Posted by Firepower

I was lucky and started with all the local blokes with FPV planes in the know and they all have Futaba TXs so I got a Futaba 9C second hand and it has been the best thing I have bought. I also have never had a problem and have bought a stack of cheap orange Futaba FASST receivers from hobbyking.com which are perfect (not as cheap as Spektrum ones) and now have three new FrSky modules for the 9C. I also have a Spektrum module for the indoor B&F planes and a 36mhz module.

I realise a lot of people blame Spektrum unfairly for crashes when they have actually done something wrong with the hardware but there is a fault that Spektrum have agreed to with the DSM2 system and it eventually does crash planes. That is why Spektrum have changed to the X system. One of the problems is very occasionally when you turn on the Spektrum TX the two frequencies it uses are so close together they are useless.

WARNING: Spektrum owners will argue that I am wrong. There is a review by that reputable New Zealand bloke that explains the problems with DSM2.

Just put this in google "Spektrum brown out" and you can try it with Futaba and see the difference.

If you are going to buy a system I would recommend Futaba but I do not know anything about the Spektrum DSMX system. I suspect that one would be perfect being a new system.

For a cheap radio a lot are saying this $39 Turnigy is good but you SHOULD update to the free after market firmware.
http://www.hobbyking.com/hobbyking/s...Firmware_.html

Here is some info in it:
http://www.rcmodelreviews.com/dsm2flaw.shtml

http://www.rcmodelreviews.com/spreadspectrum01.shtml

Thanks for that, I have been keeping an eye on the turnigy one for some tiem and it seems most people are very happy with it as long as its updated as you say, but it still looks cheap so I may go over to futaba, but as you also mention speky dsmx may actually be ok too and has telemtry built in to dx8 but I think there has been problems there too so I will wait a bit longer till somthing with telemetry and glider mixes comes out that is 100% reliable.
I got my dx6i when they first came out and it was sold to me as being the end to all glitches and interferance free and you will never crash unless you do something wrong, well that was not quite right, well actually I never get any glitches that is true and never get shot down by another flyer on same frequency, but have had total lock outs, lost signal which take 8 to 15 seconds to reconnect(better now with newer firmware), and off course brown outs when servos go faulty drawing a bit too much current for bec causing rx volts to drop bellow 3.5v which depending on your point of view is or in not spektrums fault( other rx are quite happy down to 2.5v and less).
Lock outs are rare and have only happened once to me in 4 or 5 years of flying and the rest can be minimized by using decent becs or separate rx batt and placing aerials in proper positions so I am in no rush to replace yet but I will not fly anything too expensive on speky stuff as you just never know when you might get that elusive lock out and trash yr plane.
I think I would have bought a really nice built up powerd glider by now if I was not so worried about rc gear.

[QUOTE=nigelsheffield;20573043]Thanks for that, I have been keeping an eye on the turnigy one for some tiem and it seems most people are very happy with it as long as its updated as you say, but it still looks cheap so I may go over to futaba,..."

You are in for a very pleasant surprise!!!
I have three of those 9 channel Tx's and 15 of the $9.00 Rx's, the first ones bought 2 years ago. Never had a problem. They are built by Flysky and sold by HK, Leaders Hobby, HobbyPartz and others. The upgrade issue mentioned here is old stuff and nobody sells any more "un-upgraded" models.
However doing another available upgrade to the free firmware called Er9x is fantastic and some say makes it the equivalent of a $600 JR or Futaba.
The programming possibilities it offers are amazing.
There is a lot of info on these forums:
a massive one but see post #1 first:
http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1266162
and a more systematic one:
http://9xforums.com/forum/index.php?...d32084099931ac

This is a happy case where cheaper does not equal poor quality!

[QUOTE=Galand;20573320]

Originally Posted by nigelsheffield

Thanks for that, I have been keeping an eye on the turnigy one for some tiem and it seems most people are very happy with it as long as its updated as you say, but it still looks cheap so I may go over to futaba,..."

You are in for a very pleasant surprise!!!
I have three of those 9 channel Tx's and 15 of the $9.00 Rx's, the first ones bought 2 years ago. Never had a problem. They are built by Flysky and sold by HK, Leaders Hobby, HobbyPartz and others. The upgrade issue mentioned here is old stuff and nobody sells any more "un-upgraded" models.
However doing another available upgrade to the free firmware called Er9x is fantastic and some say makes it the equivalent of a $600 JR or Futaba.
The programming possibilities it offers are amazing.
There is a lot of info on these forums:
a massive one but see post #1 first:
http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1266162
and a more systematic one:
http://9xforums.com/forum/index.php?...d32084099931ac

This is a happy case where cheaper does not equal poor quality!

yeah I see it has glider mixes too! just noticed this http://www.hobbyking.com/hobbyking/s...er_Sensor.html a vario altimeter!! now I'm interested, now what do I need to get this to work? I have no idea what I would need to buy to fix it all together, and the 9x is out of stock at hk.

[QUOTE=nigelsheffield;20573043]Thanks for that, I have been keeping an eye on the turnigy one for some tiem and it seems most people are very happy with it as long as its updated as you say, but it still looks cheap so I may go over to futaba, but as you also mention speky dsmx may actually be ok too and has telemtry built in to dx8 but I think there has been problems there too so I will wait a bit longer till somthing with telemetry and glider mixes comes out that is 100% reliable.
I got my dx6i when they first came out and it was sold to me as being the end to all glitches and interferance free and you will never crash unless you do something wrong, well that was not quite right, well actually I never get any glitches that is true and never get shot down by another flyer on same frequency, but have had total lock outs, lost signal which take 8 to 15 seconds to reconnect(better now with newer firmware), and off course brown outs when servos go faulty drawing a bit too much current for bec causing rx volts to drop bellow 3.5v which depending on your point of view is or in not spektrums fault( other rx are quite happy down to 2.5v and less).
Lock outs are rare and have only happened once to me in 4 or 5 years of flying and the rest can be minimized by using decent becs or separate rx batt and placing aerials in proper positions so I am in no rush to replace yet but I will not fly anything too expensive on speky stuff as you just never know when you might get that elusive lock out and trash yr plane.
I think I would have bought a really nice built up powerd glider by now if I was not so worried about rc gear.[/QUOTE]




I have a nice balsa Yak54 my daughter gave me one Christmas and took me almost 12 month to finish (I am a bit slow Ha Ha ) so what transmitter would I put in it:
1. Spektrum
2. Cheap Turnigy or similar
3. Futaba

Guess there is no choice.

For the cheaper planes buy anything but even my large foam FPV planes I have hundreds of dollars in them so Futaba is the only one for me and the orange HK FASST receivers are perfect.

Just watch if you buy Futaba say a Futaba 9C or 10C that you buy the one that takes modules. You never know you may want to one day even put in a UHF module.

But it all comes down to how much anyone has to spend of a transmitter but I was lucky to be able to get a good one but it was a good second hand one.

To stay on topic I am still deciding whether to get the Minimoa going again or sell it.

Have been out the last two days to a site where a school has a large grassy multi-use playing field area that is on the side of a hill. The western and southern edges of the playing field have nice ridges for soaring.

Yesterday the winds were 10 mph or less, but today we had more like a steady 15 mph. I experimented with position vis-a-vis the ridge, as well as height and speed. I typically used some power at the end of the ridge to gain altitude and turn. The ridge was not producing enough lift to fly without power, however I had long stretches down the ridge where the Minimoa maintained its altitude. On several occasions I made the turn without adding power.

Yesterday, I had a friend out with his FPV ship. After he finished flying, he took some pictures of my Minimoa with my Nikon D40 camera. Here are some of the better ones.

Cheers from Colorado,

Jackson

I made a You Tube video from the pictures my buddy took yesterday. Check it out at

Hobby King Minimoa Ridge Soaring in Colorado (1 min 22 sec)

Jackson

Originally Posted by Jackson Stone

Have been out the last two days to a site where a school has a large grassy multi-use playing field area that is on the side of a hill. The western and southern edges of the playing field have nice ridges for soaring.

Yesterday the winds were 10 mph or less, but today we had more like a steady 15 mph. I experimented with position vis-a-vis the ridge, as well as height and speed. I typically used some power at the end of the ridge to gain altitude and turn. The ridge was not producing enough lift to fly without power, however I had long stretches down the ridge where the Minimoa maintained its altitude. On several occasions I made the turn without adding power.

Yesterday, I had a friend out with his FPV ship. After he finished flying, he took some pictures of my Minimoa with my Nikon D40 camera. Here are some of the better ones.

Cheers from Colorado,

Jackson

Nice you have a great place to fly, I managed 4 flights yesterday 18 mins each, I also managed 2 flights of asw28 but today my back is bad so even though the wind is down I am not flying today.
I am very happy with my power system now climbs of about 20 to 30 seconds is all that is required unless I want to go to stupid heights. Motor still vibrates though I think its the shaft, but it was always like this and the ask21 is the same uses same motor but its holding together ok so I will just fly till something breaks.

Nigel, glad to hear you got out for some good flying. Sorry about your back. My Minimoa is at 160 watts using the 11x8 (?) Art-Tech prop and it has plenty of power. My next build is the Hobby King GL Speedy Hotliner. I plan to have 500 watts for that 1.5m 30oz plane... gobs of power! Hope you have a good week.

Jackson

Beautiful pictures of the Minimoa Jackson! Nice to see someone flying it and read flight reports. My flying field is all ice ridges now, snows thaws rain and re-freezing make it damaging to land anything. Flying small planes indoors now.

Vermont,

Those Vermont winters are tough! Even though I am at 6,300 feet here in Colorado we benefit from abundant winter sunshine to help melt the snow. It was fantastic to be out flying the Minimoa both Saturday and Sunday. I have gotten quite comfortable with the plane and how to use different combinations of rudder, elevator and ailerons in turns. My favorite turn is entered with some speed. I apply elevator to pull up, then use the rudder to rotate around like a hammerhead, then level off with the elevator and ailerons. Don't know if you caught this but I just ordered the HK Ventus 2.3m kit. Will install my own choice of motor, ESC and servos. Use a Spektrum DX8 Tx and mostly Orange six and nine channel Rxs. The Ventus will get a seperate BEC as I think that brownouts due to inadequate UBEC amperage are the primary cause of Spektrum-compatible Rx issues.

I have also ordered the HK 1280x720 wing camera with a 120 degree field of view to mount on the top of the Ventus horizontal stab so I can get high-def inflight video.

Spring is coming my friend! Wishing you many happy Minimoa flights to come.

Jackson