Charlie P is right. With my 9CAP, I can get to the fence on either end of our runway and it's 500' plus some brown zone on either end of the runway. The real test is to set the TX on the ground at 100 ot 200 ft out. That gives the worst possible signal out of the TX. If it works there, it will work in the sky.

I took off one day and was out, way out, so I can stay clear of the experienced guys, and I looked up to see my antenna all the way down. I about lost the plane, not because I lost signal, but the panic of trying to pull the antenna up let me loose track of the plane. I had to be close to 1/4 mile out if not further. That tells you that a ground check that is iffy may not let you land after takeoff.

One of our guys was range testing his plane after a repair and he was way out to the end of the runway, with his antenna fully extended. We called him in and explained what he was doing wrong. He had earned his wings a couple months before and this was the first day that he had been told how to propperly do a range check. It's something that sometimes gets lost in the training.

Don