ORIGINAL: Villa
I hate to see someone bad-mouthing the Futaba radio like alfredbmor has done. I have been in R/C since 1972 and have had at least 7 Futaba radios. Not one of them has had the type of "problem" that alfredbmor has described. It is absolutely ridiculous to believe that a company as popular as Futaba is would do what alfredbmor has described. The cost of warrantee would eat them alive. Any company or product can and will have the occasional problem.
I agree. About 80% of the flyers I know use Futaba and I don't know of any issues particular to that brand. That includes one flyer who travels to Europe frequently to represent the US in FAI. My giant scale club mostly flies Futaba and they trust some mega time and $ models to that brand.
I've NEVER had a piece of Futaba equipment fail except for crashed components. And I bought my first four-channel TX from them in 1978.
Even some of my rebuilt servos (new gears) and receivers (repaired antennas and replaced crystals) from obliterated aircraft are still flying in other models.