RCU Forums - Apparently I'm old... And so much has changed...

So long story short... I started flying RC planes back in '88... Started flying heli's back in 1998... Flew both up until about 2009 or so and then kinda dropped out of the hobby due to numerous circumstances... Still have some old stuff laying around (UltraSport, 4D Tensor, P-51, TT .30, Gohbee .50 and a TT .50 that's completely decked out full metal, all digital, etc. and of course the old Futaba 9C heli radio.) but I'll probably try to offload most of that stuff as I want to mainly focus on heli's and get some updated equipment... So much has changed in the past 10 or 11 years!

I've been trying to do some research and come up with the best info I can to try to make some informed decisions, but frankly, with everything being so different, I'm struggling a bit... So we'll start with this....

I was always a Futaba guy, but I really like the looks of the new Spektrum stuff... They were just rolling out a couple of cheap radios when I was rolling my way out, but it looks like they've really pulled things together. I was thinking about the dx9 black or maybe the ix12... Thoughts? Or should I be looking at a different radio altogether?

For the heli, since I was bored with the .30 and had really loved the .50 size stuff I was thinking of something in the 600-700+ class... I had an old Align T-Rex 450 that was souped up a bit that was fun to fly, but just too dang small for me... The Align 760 top combo caught my eye, especially since I don't really have to give to much thought or research into what electronics to put into it. I was looking at a couple of other options, but stock seems very low at the moment, whereas the align is available. I had previous found the new Spektrum FBL flight controller, but noticed the align comes with a microbeast plus... Can someone give me some info on a comparison? Do they both have pretty much the same features? Do I lose any functionality? Is the stabilization or recovery any better on the spectrum? Not that I hope to use it, but you know... LOL...

As far as my flights... I'd consider myself a mix of sport and 3D... I'm not going to be entering any 3D comps, but I can pull a few manuevers here and there, and would like to get much better... I'm quite happy at times just flying around a bit and practicing autos, but you know, that gets boring after a while. I guess the bottom line is, I'd really like the capabilities to be there as I grow rather than find out that the machine is the limiting factor.

So any thoughts on rather I'm looking in the right direction? Or should I consider something completely different? And can anyone tell me what batteries I should get with the 760 if that is a good choice and what kind of runtime I'd be looking at approximately?