Looking for advice
 

Well I finally made my first flight without the buddy box last week end and brought my plane home all in one piece. I was wondering if anyone can give me an idea of how long I can fly on a full tank of fuel. I have a Hobbico Hobbi Star with a OS 65LA. I realize it depends on how hard I am flying the plane. Say for the most part I was flying about 3/4 throttle. Also whats the best way to keep up with time I can fly? I have the Futaba 6EXAP but it doesn't any timers on it that I can see. DO any transmitters have timers on them?

Also I am fixen to purchase a park zone T-28D BNF. I have a DX5e I was planning on using with it. My instructor doesn't like the DX5e transmitter for some reason. Any one have any feed back on using this transmitter with this plane?

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

RE: Looking for advice
 

The only thing wrong with the DX5e is that it is quite limited in options but, for basic flying on a trainer or plane like you plan to get, it works perfectly fine.

RE: Looking for advice
 

My DX-7 has a timer on it. From what I've heard, the only problem with the timer is, it depends on what type of throttle you got. If you run full power all the time, your gonna have less running time. You said your going about 3/4 throttle, soI'm not sure how to set the timer exactly, but maybe fly it so many minutes, land, check fuel level, and keep doing that till your very close to empty. That may have sounded confusing, but thats how I did it on my AT-6 texan.

RE: Looking for advice
 

One reason some people do not like the DX5 (and some other transmitters) is because it uses individual batteries in spring loaded connectors rather than a battery pack with a plugged in connector.

Futaba has timers on the 7C and higher models.
You can get a stand alone timer for a lot less than the price of a transmitter
http://www.talkingtimer.com/index.ph...products_id/30 This one talks to you for $15 plus shipping
Six bucks will get one that does not talk
http://www.amazon.com/Taylor-Digital...768566&sr=1-25

I get tired and start to lose concentration after about 10 minutes of flying. Some of the planes I fly will run for 20 minutes but I cannot do it for that long. My timer is set for 10 minutes and I land within a couple of minutes after it beeps.

At 3/4 throttle your combination will probably fly for a good while. One way to get an estimate of the upper limit is to secure the plane on the ground and time how long it takes to use a full tank at wide open throttle. Set your timer around that mark and you should be fairly safe since you say you fly at part throttle.

RE: Looking for advice
 

Many local stores and places like walmart and target sell cheap countdown timers. I epoxied a clothspin to the back of one and can clip it to the TX antenna. Cheap, easy, and works well.

If you don't want to run the full throttle on the ground test (I've never bothered with that myself), you can get pretty close by going up a little at a time. Start with a full tank of fuel, fly 10min or whatever you've been normally doing during flight training, then land. Now empty the tank. Was there a lot of fuel left or just a little? If you use a hand-crank pump, you can count revolutions and figure out roughly how full the tank was. Or you can take the wing off before emptying the tank if you can see it from inside. Just about anything works to get an estimate of how much fuel is left.

If you flew 10min, and you think you had about half a tank, then fly for 13min or so and check again. Then do it again at 15min then 16min and so on. Don't make a big jump. And check your fuel level each time.

If you ever land with very little fuel left, reduce the time by a 1-2min and you're done.



The DX5 is fine for the most part. As an instructor, I find the location of the buddy cord to be rather brain-dead though. And the fact that a JR/Spektrum trainer cord often doesn't fit into the plastic around the trainer port with out some trimming of the rubber outter cover of the cord's plug or TX body is just silly as well. It's almost like no one at Spektrum ever actually tried to fly using 2 of those TXs on a buddy cord.

But other than the buddy cord follies, it's a solid, basic TX. No programming features of course.

RE: Looking for advice
 

[double post, sorry about that, browser setting issues]

RE: Looking for advice
 

I would venture to say he does not like that Tx because it has no model storage, in other words it is a one airplane one transmitter setup and possibly some are expecting more of it when purchased not being aware of that fact.

John

RE: Looking for advice
 

Most " Dollar stores" sell small count down timers for about a dollar that you can use. Most of my students Velcro them on the TX.

Also in agreement with above, I fly 10 min. and don't let my students fly more then that while training. As far as how long you can fly, fill it up and take it up and fly till you get tired or it runs out, just be sure and keep it in a good place for a dead stick. ENJOY !!! RED