as a newbie I tend to have someone stay with the plane and I either walk away with the TX or jump in the truck and drive away checking the range. I use line of sight to determine if the range is good enough. if I cant hardly see the plane and I can still control it I'm comfortable with the range, I don't let the planes get so far away from me that I'm struggling to see them. I wanted to get some AR6000 receivers so I could fly my planes with the same TX instead of carrying 4 radios to the Field when I fly my planes and Helios, but for now everything I own was RTF so I just use the stock radio gear.