Our environment here in Dubai is not worse than anywhere else for using 2.4 Ghz systems. Most of the jets modelers here in Dubai have now switched to Spektrum/FASST systems.
I am flying with a 10x, air Spektrum module and AR9000 at least one day per week. I have owned air Spektrum systems bought from the States for the last two years and have experimented most of their early systems and versions. I have been recording the Flight log data on my flight folder for every single flight from the beginning and now have a good collection of samples to say what is going on with this technology. I am also doing range tests on a regular basis with my well proven system ( more than 120 flight with very few frames dropped ) and I know exactly how a good Spektrum system is supposed to perform and have been very pleased to see a HUGE increase in range performance from the early air module versions.

The typical range test will exhibit a solid RF link at 60 paces with frames starting to drop from that distance.
An optimized system will go up to 90 paces.
Please read my Spektrum technical review in the RCJI June/July 2008 publication for further information about the advanced range test procedure I am using.

Darryl, I have spent about two hours on this plane playing around with the components after the crash. What you saw this night was the plane state AFTER I did work on it. It was not representative of the flight configuration. The owner's worker also possibly removed components from the plane since we had to borrow some for the range checks after the crash.

The plane originally had 2 Spektrum remote receivers and an AR9000. The antenna placement was standard although not absolutely optimal. The guy had one Duralight regulator and the battery used was a big 4000 Mah Duralight. I carefully inspected the plane and the setup used and applied the evaluation criteria that I detail in my technical review. There was no carbon reinforcement in this Velox. The antennas were placed far enough from the ECU and all the metallic/conductive parts.
The regulator didn't fail during the flight and the power system was perfectly working after the crash. The guy didn't turn off the power until I retrieved the RF link data and there was no power interruption during this flight since the Flight log data was consistent. The electrical system test I did after the crash gave solid results.

I tried two different JR12x on the same plane and these two radio gave very poor results on the advanced range test. I believe that these radios were bought at the same time and there is a great probability that they are from the same batch.

After having tried two different 12x Tx with the same plane I was convinced that the plane setup/receiver was faulty. At this point I decided to take my own reliable system apart and I put my AR9000 with my own receivers into this guys plane. After rebinding the results were absolutely the same.
I was really surprised and I decided to use my own Tx to see what it would do. The following range test proved to be rock solid at 60 paces away. I did put back the original AR9000 that the guy had in the plane at first with the original antennas and binded everything to my own JR 10x. Once again the results proved to be perfect. We then rebinded the system to his own 12x transmitter and once again the results were really poor.
I then asked him if he could put his JR1221 with 3 JR remote receivers in the plane, which he did. After rebinding to the 12x the results were the same again and not flyable.

This is how I came to the conclusion that these two 12x transmitters have a range problem. It took more than one hour of work and I cannot see any other explanation at this stage.

I am not throwing stones at any particuliar system, my aim is just to give you guys feedback and make you aware of possible problems as I did previously with the AR9100 cabling issue.

I tried to persuade the owner of the radio to let me open the TX module to check the version and s/n, but he didn't want to. This is perfectly understandable since he was going to send the Tx back to Spektrum.
The radios were module based 2.4 Ghz 12x and there could be a problem with this specific category of TX and a batch of associated modules.

Guys just be aware of this possible problem. There is only one answer to this at this stage: NEVER FORGET TO DO A RANGE TEST before a maiden, after a rebinding and every month.

There is absolutely no doubt that this is the greatest radio from JR, however I did characterize a range problem with these two sets on this day.