As much as I whine about (w)Horizon's nasty pricing schemes and the way they've suppressed digital signaling development through their Draconian patents and such, even I am forced to admit their customer service can't be beat. I sent them a dead Vapor brick, a dead AR6100E, and a "BACKUP ERROR" DX7 with a broken antenna mast. They sent back a new-in-the-bag Vapor brick, a new-in-the-package AR6110 (I had asked for them to change the connector on the AR6100E to the straight pin type on the 6100), and a fixed DX7 with the display polished, the antenna mast replaced, and even a battery compartment cover (which I hadn't sent with the radio) and some little support extras. Total turnaround time: one week. Pretty nice.

So, it may be time to retire #1 pretty soon. It still flies really well when I don't put it into a fence post or a mailbox or tree or some other stupid obstruction to flight. Why do people put mailboxes out in front of their houses anyway? And on a post sticking up out of the ground where they can get in the way of an R/C plane? Dumb.

Fortunately I have a bunch more SDXSs on the way.

Later:

Okay, so I couldn't bring myself to retire #1 just yet. Instead I tacked on a bamboo brace across the wings and added a bunch more area to the control surfaces. Net result: like a new (albeit slightly heavier) aircraft. With good batteries this thing does wild and crazy stuff, as well as or better than the later ones. Now I'm thinking that I have to revisit all my plane designs and try them with stupidly large control surfaces to see if they'll improve.

Bah. I hate R/C airplanes. What a pain.