Returning after a couple decades out of the hobby

[kevinjt4]

I'm in North Denver, where are you planning on flying? Most parks around town state a permit is needed to fly but when i call to get one, they have no idea what I'm talking about, so I'm always looking for an open field instead of travelling to an actual club site.

DX6E is a solid choice and spektrum is fairly the norm it seems. I use Lemon and PowerUp receivers as they are much cheaper, and being that we're flying foam board airplanes, I try an keep the cost down as much as possible. I dont think you'd need telemetry right off the bat.

 

[kkelly]

Well that was a fun week of final exams and moving...

I haven't figured out a flying location yet. I'm not far from a lot of open spaces and big parks, so those are likely sites. There are some areas near Lafayette along 287 that would be amazing for soaring and general flying, assuming they're publicly accessible. There's a small airport (it can handle business jets) nearby. How close to those are we allowed to fly?

Whether I get telemetry right away will probably come down to cost, unless my geek side takes over and says "Ooh! Shiny! Must have!", which is entirely likely.

 

[jtrops]

If you are within 5 miles of the airport you will need to notify them that you are flying. If you are within 3 miles you can't fly above 400'. My school is less than a half mile from the airport, and it is in the direct path of one of the runways, so out airport manager has asked us to stay under a 200' ceiling. Flying the mighty mini's, and race quads hasn't been a problem to maintain that limit.

If we want to fly bigger stuff, or thermal gliders we can fly at our local RC airfield LEAF, which is about 15 minutes away from school.

 

[kkelly]

If you are starting out normally you buy something which is either disposable down the track when you finally realise which way you want to go or you buy a full house system that can do everything and try to learn and use all that it is capable later on!
Have fun!

I had been planning to get a DX6e transmitter, but then I saw I can get a DX8e for not much more. It seems like that should be enough channels to last me for a long time unless I want to put all kinds of bells and whistles into a plane. What's the difference between Spektrum's normal models and the 'e' models? The DX8 is quite a bit more expensive than the DX8e. What does the 8 do that the 8e doesn't?

 

[Hai-Lee]

I believe that the "e" stands for economy. Not sure of the tech differences perhaps a Spectrum expert may chime in and explain the tech differences!

Have fun!

 

[kkelly]

I found another thread about choosing a transmitter. I think I'll just go with a DX8. Some of the additional features sound nice, and in the grand scheme of things the extra cost isn't that much.

 

[sprzout]

I found another thread about choosing a transmitter. I think I'll just go with a DX8. Some of the additional features sound nice, and in the grand scheme of things the extra cost isn't that much.

The two biggest differences with the E vs. the non-E models are Diversity antennas, and voice alerts. The E models don't have them, and the non-E models do.

I don't know how well the diversity really works for the radios; I've never really had signal loss other than the failure of power through my ESC, but it's definitely a nice thing to have if you're worried about intermittent signal.

As for the voice alerts, I LOVE this feature. I've got it set so that I get a voice warning me that I've got 1 minute left, rather than a beep that sounds like everyone else's radios at the field. I also set it to warn me at 30 seconds, and then count down from 10 sec. left on my timer. Having that audible warning means I don't have to take my eyes off the plane or quad to look down at the transmitter and see how much time I have left. It's a preference for some, but I love having it.

 

[kkelly]

The two biggest differences with the E vs. the non-E models are Diversity antennas, and voice alerts. The E models don't have them, and the non-E models do.

I don't know how well the diversity really works for the radios; I've never really had signal loss other than the failure of power through my ESC, but it's definitely a nice thing to have if you're worried about intermittent signal.

As for the voice alerts, I LOVE this feature. I've got it set so that I get a voice warning me that I've got 1 minute left, rather than a beep that sounds like everyone else's radios at the field. I also set it to warn me at 30 seconds, and then count down from 10 sec. left on my timer. Having that audible warning means I don't have to take my eyes off the plane or quad to look down at the transmitter and see how much time I have left. It's a preference for some, but I love having it.

The voice alerts were what did it for me. I know the moment I look down at the transmitter I'll lose track of the plane and fly it into the back of someone's head. I also have a horrible sense of the passage of time, so an audible timer will be a major feature.