Which radio should I buy. All new flyers ask this question. I happen to like the Hitec series, but Futaba, JR and Airtronics all have good reputations.

How many channels do I need? You will get many opinions.

And, you will get a debate on whether you need a standard radio or a computer
radio and what mixes come with each. What does that mean?

First it is important to realize that you should be able to fly any plane on 4
channels. That is enough to control rudder, elevator, ailerons and throttle.
With that you can fly an indoor plane, an electric park flyer or a giant high
powered plane.

However, with more channels you gain flexibility. For example, you can put
two servos on the ailerons and control them individually. You can operate
moveable landing gear. And, when it comes to gliders/sailplanes you are
likely to do more surface mixing than on power planes, so if you into
sailplanes and plan to fly full house sailplanes, you typically want more than
4 channels so you can do that fancy surface mixing. The club wizards
recommended at least 7 channels for full houuse sailplanes.

Here is a typical channel breakdown. These apply to electrics, glo and
gliders.

Rudder - 1
Elevator - 1
Ailerons - 1 or 2
Spoilers/Flaps - 1 or 2
Motor/tow hook/landing gear - 1

That makes 5 or 7.

Could you use 9? Sure, if you have the money?
How about 12? Sure, if you have the money?

I am not pushing a given number of channels, just trying to help establish
what they are used for. In my opinion, most sport flyers will be well served
with a 5 channel computer radio and be able to do what they need to do for
years. A good example would be the Hitec Flash5X

Bump it up to 7 channels and you have about all you need to fly almost
any sport plane without feeling you are short channels. 7 will even fly a full house glider. A good example would be the Hitec Eclipse 7.

If your plane has bomb doors, fires rockets, ejects pilots, and stuff like that, 12 might not be
enough.