Silent-AV8R

Just to be claer. It does NOT have voice commands. What it allows you to do is to have up to 24 pre-recorded voice prompts that you can cue using a switch. This could be used to record an aerobatic sequence and then prompt yourself for each figure when you are ready for it.

John Murdoch

My Feedback: (11)

Good to know. Now that makes some sense. I didn't read the spec too closely once I saw the price tag. By the way, I said "LUCK", ........

brsseb

Btw, i dont think one should fear the way Futaba is heading now. More software, bells and whistles do come with more problems. But I think once the "prototypes" like this one gets a grip (and becomes ALOT cheaper), I think one can become really comfortable with it. I know alot of oldtimers who would never ever consider one of these, and I totally understand that. But the next generation of rc fliers just have to get used to the fancy technical stuff we get to play with just keep getting more techincal. But I bet that the classic non computer 4 channel radio will have a long service time in the years to come.

(Oh, btw, im getting a "hedgehog" for christmas too (Hitec Eclipse))

rajul

My Feedback: (58)

Guys, this site has probably the best info on the 14MZ http://www.jason.net/heli/t14mzs.htm Drool away............

John Murdoch

My Feedback: (11)

Mike.. Very informative. Seems like the MS format is used primarily to provide the screen/display effects. Looks really good when you read all about it. Like was mentioned before, the up and coming crowd doesn't know what to do without having 2 gigs of storage with half of that being memory. I thought Pong was pretty amazing! (really dating myself) I really think that this type of advancement in technology is only the tip of the iceburg. 14 channels! Just think what's on the horizon, (pun) for the new stuff that will go INTO the airplanes. If you can record your voice with a type of MPEG system, it won't be long until you can play a training video LOL.. I think I'll wait a few days for the competition to hit. 2K for a transmitter is quite a lot of mulah...

gow589

My Feedback: (1)

Well I don't think anyone really thought the software would be flying the airplane. My beef is not necessarilly where it is now but where it's going. Microsoft and industry is working hard at making everything from TV's, Microwaves, Refrigerators, Cars, computer controlled. They want your information, they want to find ways to make you pay for subscriptions, etc. It is happening everywhere.

It is not what this is but where it's going. I like technology as much as the next guy. I just don't like the way others are inching in to control my life.

RightThrust

My Feedback: (4)

Obviously most of you are not included in the market this radio is aimed at. BTW, WinCE only controls the interface with the menus and such, it has NOTHING to do with control over the airplane. Ponder that before you go trashing something that's not even released yet and that you know nothing about. Thx.

gow589

My Feedback: (1)

I think that was just said,

I gues since we're not up to your par we'll stop looking at it, since we're not allowed an opinion or a view.

brsseb

Perhaps one day you can download like a complete F3C exercise to the internett, put it in a flash disk and load it up on your radio, then play it out while flying. Say you want to practice a certain trick and you play off the voiced tutorial, giving you hints and tips, say when you must pull what, etc. Also with the right equipment in the flight pack it can measure your performance, maybe give you feedback on what you did good and where you can improve yourself. But as this would require some basic avionic systems in the plane it self (altimeter, airspeed, etc), it will be a few years before this is affordable for the average pilot. The future is bright!

As for ppl worried that the computer will take over the hobby, with radios just having a single "Start" button on it and the airplane will take off, fly ariund and land perfect with no input whatsoever,
just think about how fullsize aircraft are flown. Flight is 100 years old, and from the Wright brothers simple crafts to todays hightech almost-drives-itself-skybusses (like a Boeing 777), for all the computer stuff, the pilot still got a stick, throttle and rudder pedals to operate. Its just gotten easier and more reliable. And that cant be a bad thing, can it ?

John Murdoch

My Feedback: (11)

Yeah... That's just what I need. A transmitter saying, you dumb *****, blew it again. How many times do I have to tell you? It'll be even more hararious when it starts laughing at you.

Spelling? Maybe it can teach me that too.

gow589

My Feedback: (1)

I am actually for good new technogy. I am always tinkering with something. I have converted a radio to a "Flying station" and I have an airplane that transmits video back to a set of video goggles. I have landed the airplane with a towl over my head looking through the video goggles. I am developing a program that interfaces the movement of my head to the movement of the camera. The technology is not what bothers me, it's Microsofts involvment and domination as a company. It's not what it is now but what will become.

As far as the Full scale aircraft automation, each year I go through Flight Safety for recurrent training. Over the last few years the shift has gone from teaching the airplane to teaching the "black boxes". They have such a hard time getting one to where they can operate the new stuff that they no longer emphasise the airplane itself. Companies are building FASCINATING equipment for the airplanes but much of it is distracting from the flying. This equipment does GREAT STUFF at the expense of the pilot who is not paying near as much attention to the airplane. We are in a dawn of a new erra in the cockpit but safety is on a decline because of it. It will be another 100 years before we get a grasp of the emerging technology and learn to manage it. Everone though that computers would create a paperless society. What happened? It has generated turned out to be a paper generating mechanism.

Just because we can doesn't mean we should. My problem is not with the technology but with:

1. Microsoft involvement
2. Companies not listening to the ustomers in the first place.

I may not own one but I think I am allowed an opinion.

brsseb

Totally understand you. By the best way to get rid of a product that are just expensive, fancy and not relly needed is just not to buy it.. And at that prize, lol, who is gonna? Hopefully, once these radios are cheaper and more common they have moved forward a few generations, with more manufactures getting involved so we have more competition. Cant wait to see what the tech dudes over at Hitec or JR can come up with thats better.

gow589

My Feedback: (1)

Those fancy ones always seem to get outdated quicker. I had one of those old 9ch Futabas that was about $500 in 1987. It sure was fancy but I couldn't sell it 10 years latter. It was so heavy. I got finger cramps trying to reach the other buttons. Never could figure out which was which. I was always a smoother flyer with a 4channel cheapie due to the lightness of the radio.

SwampFlier-RCU

Well BRSSEB, flight might be 100 yrs old but nowadays the pilots are in the cockpit just mostly to check the black boxes and to lend the passengers a sense of "control" I have been in the cockpit of an ATR 42 which compared to a 757, 777 or airbus is as neanderthal as my car is to an F-1 and my experience is the following...
Ok I give you the pilots land the plane and take off --- but after that you engage the flight control system, the GPS tells you when to turn, the radar scans for bad weather in case you want to aviod a storm and if either of the previous things happen, then you reach for a knob and casually while maintaining a conversation you move the knob and voila!!! we turn left ot right with the appropritate banking and maintaining airspeed and attitude... (IOW .. no pedals, handles, yoke or trims are touched)
IMHO we are a hair's apart from simply programming all these actions and then a monkey could be in the cockpit for all we care (a well disciplined monkey mind you ) technology will continue creating wonderful (and a lot of unnecessary) devices but it will also continue creating havoc in our daily lives as well as the work places.... plus the diminishing natural resources.. I guess a lot of intelligent, well trained and unemployed people will have to find a way to keep this ship (the earth) somehow able to support our life

Call me a cautious optimistic...

Volfy

My Feedback: (23)

Nobody is holding a gun to any of us to be in this hobby. RC is discretionary spending, so even a $109 4ch radio can be considered frivolous spending by those who don't have any disposable income. Fortunately, most of us have a little cash leftover to buy some happiness. Some just have more than others. This 14MZ does things no other TX does, and if a guy spends money on one and it makes him happy just owning it, then it is worth every dollar.

Don't like the 14MZ?? That basic $109 4ch radio has always been available in all the years I have been in RC and will be available to those who don't care for fancy displays and complicated programming. Keep buying those and be happy.

LarryC

SwampFlier

The future heavy aircraft, with the heavy avionics, will still require a crew of two, a pilot and a dog.
The pilots' job is to monitor the systems.
The dog is there to bite the pilot if he tries to touch anything.

If I could just get my dog to growl a bit when I start to give the wrong rudder input...

Larry

SitNFly

My Feedback: (54)

JMurdoch, you are a funny sum*****. My eyes are watering after reading your contributions to this thread. Keep it comin'!!

sirrom

My Feedback: (4)

I feel that this radio is aimed at the guy who really needs the functions. I think that 90% will be sold to people who need and will use the functions and the other 10% to guys who can say, "I got one." I fly turbines and this radio is definitely one of the things that I will be purchasing in the future. With the complexity of the jets and the number of servos that we usually have it would be nice to have all these channels. Think of the scale guy that wants to add all the nice scale operating features on his aircraft.

With all the neat gadgets on the market now that you have to use in multiple servo installations such as matchboxes, powerboxes, and that thing futaba makes (can't recall the name), we are just adding extra layers of failure to our airplanes. I have a jet that has 11 separate channels and that is a simple sport model. My next project will take 9 channels for just the flying surfaces and nose steering (i never Y my steering to the rudders). Not to mention retracts, throttle, brakes and smoke if I want it.

I use almost every function of my 9Z and love it. Especially the synthesized frequency feature. I think after reading the review on Jason.net I would use a minimum of 75% of the features of this radio. The talking feature of the switches is not my thing, but for scale guys who want to know if they have hit the right switch without looking down at the radio this could be a possible use.

This is just my .02 worth.

Patrick