It's not only the attitide that kills it for me (although that's a big part of it), I also don't like the aesthetics, they look like Kraft radios to me. I know that's a rather vain reason, but I choose my vehicles by the way they look as well.

But doesn't the place where that "one guy" works cover all warranty/non warranty repairs and service for the U.S.? Isn't he the one who decides what is covered and not covered under warranty? That is what I heard. If this is incorrect, please tell me/us here. I was all set to jump on the Jeti bandwagon a few years ago and wait for the 24 to be released when it was clear that Futaba wasn't going to release any useful updates or work with 3rd party vendors to step up their game with the 18MZ. That "one guy" has rubbed a lot of people the wrong way on this and other forums(including myself) and I could ignore most of that but I think he is an integral part of the Jeti distributorship in the U.S. and he was the one that a friend of mine dealt with at Kentucky Jets last year where he was told to just deal with the problem he was having with his radio which was still under warranty. That problem was the display fogging up to the point where it was completely unreadable. One time it took about a half hour to clear up to be able to fly. I was there and saw it for myself. Others have had this problem. Not a lot but some. To be told to just deal with it and don't worry about condensation inside your display made me rethink changing out my 18MZ for a Jeti.

That is kind of what took me so long to decide to change to Jeti. They are an ugly and heavy radio. Coming from JR, I had to learn to not accidently touch any of the buttons while in programming mode. You can easily change things and not know it. And if it is on this one setting, you can change settings on two hidden pages and not know it. Again, I bought it for the dual transmission. It does have some neat features too. I also think from my experience, that as English speaking Americans, the translation from Eastern European/German is a very harsh translation to English. We as Americans take that translation as an aggressive or blunt translation. I have found that they are wonderful people. The languages are the issue.

This is a great thread! I still have my first Tx from 1985, a futaba challenger 5 channel, it still works although I don't use it anymore. I have a working Futaba FF7 Super that I genuinely would use tomorrow, never let me down once!

Currently I have a 35mhz FF9 that i still use for my smaller models and a 14SG for my Jets. As you can see I like my Futaba, never lost a model to radio failure in all these years. I'm about to upgrade to a Futaba 18 as I need the functionality but basically I keep mine till I can't trust them!

[QUOTE=RCFlyerDan;12358272. I also think from my experience, that as English speaking Americans, the translation from Eastern European/German is a very harsh translation to English. We as Americans take that translation as an aggressive or blunt translation. I have found that they are wonderful people. The languages are the issue.[/QUOTE]

Sorry but that does not make sense, translation of all Jeti manuals was done by guys borne and raised in Tennessee and Florida who were involved in RC for 20+ years.

For me it's very simple, if new product offers significant advantages I will switch. I am not going to keep my flip phone because it never failed and look at other guys with envy how they browse internet, use navigation, check cameras, play games.... that's just silly.

It was more like some of the companies failed with any any kind of forward looking progress, it make zero sense to keep throwing good money after bad. Would you buy brand new obsolete BlackBerry or another 2017 Pinto?

I lost two large jets because of lack of features, no the radio did not fail. Simple $40 sensors would save me over $20,000 that are gone.
I stalled my BVM Mig-15 on landing because I freaked out, I thought my batteries are going to die and at 3rd pass I stalled model on landing and I crashed. Still had more than 3000mAh left from 6600mAh, small $40 sensor would save me. I could have keep landing for another 5 minutes.

My BVM Bandit was similar experience. I had leak in my air system, gear retracted but did not drop down. In my wisdom I have decided to land on the grass. Unfortunately wing tip dipped, grass caught it, airplanes jumped and it's all garbage. Small MBar air-pressure sensor would give me warning that I am loosing air and let me know that I need to drop the gear all would be fine.

If any of the Spektrum, JR, Futaba....... can provide any of that my Jeti can and do it better I will switch. No need to be brand loyal if the brand is not loyal to me.

I use a Robart gear safe that drops my gear automatically if the pressure drops. Easy and simple.

That's really dangerous and absolutely unnecessary, I do not want to have drop gear at pull speed low pass.

I have 3x repeat telemetry warning at 50 psa and if I ignore it at 45 psa automatic drop combined with 1/2 throttle after 4 seconds delay.

Attachment 2227211

I've had my 18mz for 10+ years. Wondering if/when the pots should be replaced? It doesn't have a ton of mileage on it, my radios prior got the **** beat out of them, this one not so much. Its been in for service a handful of times. Been thinking about sending it in and asking them to refurb it.

To me, telemetry is just an excuse for poor planning and preparation. And a distraction, don't want things beeping and talking while I'm flying. The speedo was a novelty, disabled it after a few months.

Ditto
 

I'm in the exact same boat! 12FG since 2008ish.. love it, no issues. Kind of considering the new 18ch Futaba but really don't want to re-program my planes or learn a new system.

I dare you to cover instruments in your car and just give it to your wife/daughter/son..... pretty much anybody. Just tell them honey do not worry, keep driving you good for next 4 hours. It would be silly and irresponsible.

It's stupid of me spent less on my radio than some of us spend on the scale landing gear. Radio system is your only limiting factor for future projects.
This reminds me friend of mine who could justify $600 scale retract but kept *****ing about spare tire costing him $50, I said dude your life depends on it.

Lowering the gear dangerous at full speed?? Ooooohhhhhhh kkkkaaaaaayyyyyyy. Way "safer" than having a wheels up cartwheel crash. But, to each his own I guess.

You see this is where you got it WRONG, why not have BOTH. Jeti sensor gives you warning and you slow down and lower the gear.

Have you ever heard about having cake and eat it too.

Purchase a Jeti.... keep it forever!

This is the one of the main reason Jeti is ahead of the pack, I can't imagine flying my Jet with out my fuel % reading, ECU battery, RPM, and EGT Temp from my Jet Central Turbine, and RX battery info, etc. I believe being prepared is being well informed :o

It doesn't need to beep or talk uncommanded, you can set up the accelerometer so a certain movement will activate the parameter you want to monitor...
But to each there own...

Why is it, that everytime someone asks a general question about a radio system, the discussion invariably ends up in the Jeti dungeons?

Jan

Except you're the distributor for Jeti in the USA. You'll never learn, ZB.. You're the reason people won't switch to Jeti. It has nothing or very little to do with the radio itself.

Simple.. because ZB goes full attack mode trying to sell you on Jeti radios.

It's ok, this only illustrates my earlier point of what turns me off concerning Jeti radios, the wonderful salesmanship, Ha!

Alrighty back on topic. I feel more confident continuing on with my 7 year old 18MZ after hearing some of your experiences and opinions so thanks. I've also ruled out a switch to Jeti after the last few posts.

How long do I keep my TX..... I have never switch because it stop working ;). A non sponsor view...

Start flying in the early 80's with the Futaba Gold....end up with quite a few of them one per plane, got expensive and comber some to keep charged as the fleet grew.

Purchase a Futaba single stick new on a killer deal from the hobby shop had been special order by somebody else.... used it for quite a few year, drop a screw into the open gimbal.....literally when up in smoke about 5 years after purchase.

In order to eliminate all those gold boxes or some anyway, I got the Futaba 9VAP my first real computer RC TX....I think it was holding 8 models....got it when ever it did come out(don't remember) sold it when I stop flying after 2005'ish. In late 90's I got into Helicopter an got the JR10 heli for those to eliminate those other gold boxes, end up loving JR gimbals.....so I eventually also got a JR10X fix wing, so I had 4 radio's, which was better then 10+ gold box.....sold pretty much all my RC stuff after I stop flying.

Got back I after quite a few year shooting IPSC, got a JR12x, once I power up that radio.....I was a little piss off, the software wasn't much different then my 10x (was expecting too much I guess) but the price was higher, with no RX no Servo's...that mean theTX was much higher....with no or very little improvement.

Then I saw the Jeti DC-16 that was coming out, and since I'm pincher I always had a tray of one sort or another.....it was the perfect radio for me, so I got one, sold my JR TX/RX's, thinking I will never use telemetry but I like the layout, well fast forward I'm on the DC-24 sold one of the DC-16 and now used a bunch of telemetry and love it, some discret some annoying...but save my butt and fingers more then once ;)

Sorry for the long wind, but I'm pretty sure I'm not the only one with story like this, I never did switch because of failure or I had too....I switch because I had the money and desired to do so. You Don't like ZB, fine get it elsewhere you only live once. I'm sure if you get from guy like Danny, that he will go to battle for you if required in case of problems.

You don't like the Jeti radio's that's fine too....if we all like the same thing's it would be a very boring world.

I got 90% of my Jeti stuff from Esprit, never had a single problem.

12 years now with my trusty JR 12x MV.

And yup, I'm on the jeti bandwagon because I need more channels. Still waiting on the DS-24.




"And ZB just needs to be ignored y'alls."
His Holiness The Dali Lama

I usually want a new feature LONG before the tx itself dies.

Electronics are generally more likely to fail when new (infant mortality) than when used, unless abused by being exposed to damp.

I was going to get a Jeti. But this thread is making me decide not to. Who does ZB work for? Esprit?

It's easy to ignore someone if you never need anything from them. My question asked in my post above as to who decides what is covered under warranty never received a retort so I can only assume he is the one which means there might be a slight chance you will have to deal with him in the future and like some European companies I've dealt with, the attitude is usually "if it doesn't work you obviously did something wrong as our stuff is perfect and never has issues". Like I stated, my friends issue was not addressed correctly from a customer service standpoint in my opinion and that left me with a bad taste in my mouth as I was going to most likely be a future customer. I can usually put up with a lot of crap but poor customer service is one thing that sends me on my way immediately.