I hear everybody talking about doing a range check.

How does everyone do their range check? I'm sure everyone has a different way.
Let's hear how everyone does theirs!!

Either collapse aerial and walk away until servos start jittering. Should be about 30 yds but difficult if at poolside with others transmitting. Better is simple clip on RF signal meter, see www.actionkit.co.uk cost £12

BoneHead,
The idea is to find out how far apart the transmitter and receiver can get and still allow good control of the model. Probably the simplest way of doing it is to just walk away from the model till you get to the point where control isn't 'positive' anymore. That can also be the 'not so simple' way of doing it, cuz' you may not be able to see that far!
Doing the same thing with the transmitter's antenna collapsed means you have a 'safety margin', since the signal wouldn't be as strong, so that whatever that distance is, with the antenna extended you would still have control. Make sense?
There are a huge number of things that can affect the control range. Whatever your maximum control range is, cut it in half to be safe(er). That is ~your~ control range for the particular model and transmitter. There is no 'standard' distance, really, so how ever you arrive at ~your~ range figure will be just fine...
- 'Doc

I collapse the tx antenna and walk out until i have no response from the model.

Generally 60' from the boat with the antenna fully collapsed and still operating the boat is what is acceptable.