ORIGINAL: Tired Old Man
Ed,
Your last paragraph had a requirement that so many participating with 2.4 equipment often miss, or believe is inapplicable to them. The range test. Radio manufacturers do them no favors by leading them down the path of a glitch free environment becuae it's 2.4. Nor does using only a 2.4 radio for the glitch testing provide any safety. Any radio installation should be glitch free with 72 mHz equipment for it to be considered glitch free using 2.4. Unfortunately the effort and expense required to perform range tests using dual equipment eliminates all but the range test die hards.
Range test everything. Engine running and engine shut down. Note any differences and question the safety of flight if there is more than a 5 or 10% difference. Use a minimum distance as acceptable, such as 90-100 feet.
Agreed.... When I purchased my JR12X, I opted to also buy the extra "full range" Spektrum 9ch RXs they were selling in a fire sale of 2 for 1. Very tidy...
Until I went to actually use the "full range" 9 ch RX that is. Bad thing was that it was installed in a 40 sized electric model and when I lost range during the check, the motor came to life and crashed the model into my car. Scared the bejezus out of my flying buds. Horizon replace the so called "full range" RXs with ones that actually work full range
My take away from that experience was to always remove the prop from an electric model when range checking.....