Since acquiring my JR X9303 DSM2 radio in May of ‘09, I wouldn’t trade it for any other TX. Except for the new X9503. Yup. That’s right, 50 model memory.
Horizon’s website indicates shipping late this month, although we all know how that works. The official JR site has yet to be updated at this time.
A couple new features myself and many many others really wanted to see got incorporated as well:
A backlit LCD display
The ability to trigger the timer with the throttle. No more forgetting to start the &$%@ flight timer!
Manufacturers Advertised Price for the radio & 9-channel R921 receiver w/no servos is $549, $80 less than the previous MAP of the X9303. Considering the R921 is worth $169 alone, it’s a good bundle.
Then again, not everyone sells for MAP – “add to cart” and you’ll see what I mean. I would imagine this reputable vendor should have the X9503 radio priced similarly.
The radio retains %100 of the legendary 9303 programming, which was introduced with the 72Mhz S/PCM XP9303. Naturally it is compatible with all Spektrum aircraft receivers.
Add. model memory, more features (and useful ones at that) @ a lower price.
Although I won’t be in a hurry to replace my X9303 with this upgraded model it will be quite tempting!
This is one of those iconic airplanes that everybody should have in their collection of Sport aircraft. I bought mine from Porkeez here in Sonoma County, and instead of using all of the recommended Eflite parts I switched it up a bit.
I used a Scorpion SII-3014, 1040kv motor instead of the recommended Power 10. Scorpion motors have a very high quality look and feel to them, and they tend to be slightly higher performance, and less expensive than E-Flite motors in many cases. In addition, I’ve had nothing but good experiences with the NA distributor, Innov8tive Designs. They publish a handy Motor comparison chart that makes it easy to match up their motor with another recommendation. In addition, they publish extensive propeller data charts that are very helpful.
I coupled the Scorpion motor with a Castle Thunderbird 54, Hitec HS-65HB servos, and a JR R790 receiver.
The build was a very routine E-Flite ARF experience. I give it high marks for fit and finish, and a few negative ones in that the hardware looks a little cheap. Be very careful with the wing fillet. It’s plastic that has been painted on the backside, and before the bottom wing is installed, it is prone to damage.
I used the E-flite recommended throws, which are about maximum on high rates and very close to that on low rates. I found the thing a little twitchy on low rates with the recommended 25% expo, so I bumped the aileron travel down a few millimeters, and set the expo to 30%. It feels better to me, set up that way.
The model rolls out fast and takes off immediately- This took me by surprise a bit on the first flight. The light wing loading is immediately apparent, and you will see in the maiden video that I needed to use more right rudder on takeoff.
Once up, it tracks clean and fast. Turns look coordinated even when you do not use the rudder, and it rolls in and out of 3D with a grace that I have not experienced thus far. Aileron rolls are fast, crisp, and clean. The model flies as well inverted as it does right side up, almost hands off.
Landing was pretty easy, as well. It slows down nicely, and while it’s going to take a little practice to stop wagging the wings, it’s not a hard airplane to set down accurately. I used 1500mah out of a Turnigy 2200 in 5:30 of flight, mostly WOT. Peak draw was 46 amps on takeoff, and for most of the flight I was drawing 20-30A. The motor was cool to the touch after 5:30 of spirited flight.
In short, apply any superlative, positive term you can think of regarding the flight characteristics – I have yet to find something I don’t like about this airplane.
BTW the snap roll feature is BRUTAL at 100% throws. On my second flight, I hit the snap roll, and it dislodged Zeke’s Eagletree logger and smacked it against the leading edge so hard it bent the pins. (!)
Get yourself an Ultimate Biplane. I don;t know if the E-flite/Scorpion/Hitec cocktail I brewed up is the best combination, but it sure seems to work well.
Getting to Maiden it on Christmas Day with a good friend was just the icing on the cake.
I hate sending radios in for service. I say that, even though I’m told that Horizon will do all sorts of wonderful things to your radio while it’s in their care.
So, when my DX6i turned up with a broken rudder trim tab switch, I started using sub trim instead of sending it in. I have other radios, but that is my only DSM radio.
Last week, I tripped on East R/C. They are out of Florida, they sell on Ebay and direct, and they have a few special parts, such as the machined aluminum trim tabs I bought from them last week. Apparently the little plastic levers themselves are typically the part that fails, so this is a functional and cosmentic upgrade.
Actually opening up your radio is not for everybody, especially if your radio is still under warranty. The instructions that they wrote are well illustrated/easy to follow – check it out.
Broken trim tab
I am very pleased with the result. It gives the poor old DX6i a little bit of a nicer feel, and I plan to check out their aluminum ERC roller button upgrade!
The finished product
Here’s hoping that everybody gets something they enjoy this week. Cheers!
How much did you spend on the hobby in 2009? How much will you spend wrapping up Xmas, and how many of you will receive gift certificates that will be spent before year’s end?
Gift from Horizon Hobby
I think I must have spent too much this year, because the mailman brought me a little Xmas gift from Horizon today.
It’s a nice little aluminum water bottle, came with a card and a discount code good for 20% off a single order. Thanks Horizon!
I contrast that to my other experiences – I’ve been trying to get a return call from somebody (anybody?) over at Hobby-Lobby for over a week now. Their customer service has really gone to hell in the last few years, and I think I may have placed my last order with those guys.
I think it’s interesting that the hobby industry has not been hit as hard as other ‘non essential’ industries, and it’s encouraging to see companies like Horizon succeed. I can only hope that the recession causes other, less responsive firms to either tighten up the ship or get into a different business.
After owning the camera for a few weeks, I have a much better feel for how it works, and how to mount it without so much worry. The mounts they give you are very secure, but I find I need to run a thin strip of tape through them in order to keep them from rattling slightly in the audio.
Firstoff, Gopro: We really need the proposed upcoming firmware patch that will flip the video right side up in the camera without needing to use editing software. I end up flipping it in Premiere Elements, which is time consuming.
The non-waterproof door is ideal for RC use. You can hear plenty of detail when the motor is not running, and also wonderful wind and servo noises if that’s the kind of thing you like. Everybody I talk to says they prefer music, but I can see some utility for having accurate sound reproduction, especially from a glider.
Here is my latest attempt at a short (~7 minute) film. I took it from the same brushless Aspire as I did the last video, and I really tried to use only the sections of footage that I thought were interesting. There are plenty of air/air shots of the other planes at the field, and what I think is some of the best bits from ~25 minutes of footage.
We also had a chance to play with the still camera mode, and this turned out very nice. I will comment that it looks a little grainy under certain circumstances, but I also didn’t take any pains to adjust the camera for the ambient settings. First time.
5MP still image from Gopro HD Hero
The wide angle is extreme, and it does look cool for a lot of stuff. At this price point, I’d love to see a camera of this quality that had interchangeable lenses.
It handles difficult conditions well – the sun is a nightmare in this shot:
5MP still image from Gopro HD Hero
Next I’ll try some more exotic locations.
I’ll continue to experiment as my time and hardware permits.
Also worth checking out – a gent named Mario Schimanko wrote me last week, he’s got a Hero and has been doing some FABULOUS work on Vimeo. Check it out!
I pre-ordered my Gopro HD Helmet Hero the first week of October, after yet another day of disappointment at the field with my Flycamone2.
Well, my unit turned up today on Fedex, and I regret that I pretty much trashed the box taking it apart. It’s got cool-looking packaging. *More on the packaging later!
I’d been looking forward to this day for some time. Last week, I was in contact with the Support group at Gopro, and they are effective and nice. The company is located in Half Moon Bay, very close to where I live.
The instructions consist of a non-assuming large folded sheet of glossy paper. There is a surprising amount of information on this large form, and you can fold it up & fit it in your pocket without trashing it.
The instructions state that the battery comes with a storage charge of 50%, and that you can just go out and play if you like without hurting the battery, I like the fact that they thought of this. I was a good boy and charged the battery anyway.
I had a litle bit of a dilemma deciding where to mount the camera on my Aspire. The package came with a pair of nice sticky mounts for the camera, but I was nervous about just sticking this to the monokote. With the sun settling in the winter afternoon sky, I had an idea – use the ’shoe’ for the camera that came with the packaging as a mount!
I quickly knocked the sides off with a hacksaw, drilled a couple of holes, backed the bolts up with some plywood to reinforce the weak balsa floor and called it good:
Now, in retrospect I realize that this mount could use some improvement. First of all, I need better foam dampening between the mount and the body of the airplane. Also, I think the packaging ’shoe’ fits more loosely than the real thing, so this mount is definitely a 1.0 revision. In the video I hear something rattling, and I think it’s some combination of these problems causing the noise.
The camera has a number of modes, the nuances of which are discussed in the instructions. I wanted the glories of full-blown 1080p, though I ended up scaling that back down to 720p in Premiere later to reduce the size of the file I’d be uploading to Vimeo. When I got home and read the docs again I realized that I made an error – the camera has a nifty feature that allows you to tell it that it is inverted.
That way, it records the video on the SD in the correct orientation!
A note on noise: When inside the housing, this camera lives up to it’s claim of fending off wind noise. It has an amusing legend on the back of the unit, that advises the use of the waterproof case door if the wind encountered is expected to be faster than 100mph
I decided to buy Adobe Premiere Elements as an editing tool – I’ve been using good old Windows Movie Maker for a long time. Most of my evening was spent purchasing, downloading, and getting to know the product. Overall, I’d rate the Adobe online fulfillment experience as ‘deeply annoying’, but we got the job done.
I need to experiment with some mount options to see what I can do about the noise of the motor resonating through the airplane, and I am planning to be very careful about where I fly until I get a larger glider. In it’s protective housing this camera weighs darn near 6.5oz, and the case is a blessing. It adds an ounce and a bit more to the overall weight, but it’s one tough cookie and you would be insane to use this camera for RC stuff without it.
The camera was easy to use, and I’m very happy with the results. Considering that I was flying in the poor light of a Winter sunset, had a quickly rigged mount plus lousy Premiere editing skills, this product is a miracle.
Update 11/19/2009 – I put the camera on my Ultra 25 in better light, better mount, and with the sub-100mph door. The results are much bettter.
.. Now it’s time to improve my skills at video editing, for a start!
