Radio Control Blog
I’m not sponsored by HobbyKing or any of their brands (Turnigy, TrackStar, Quanum, etc.), but I’ve found that they’ve been a boon for someone getting back into any radio control hobby on a budget.
Truth-be-told, I feel like more of a product tester than anything. That is sort of what sponsored drivers/pilots do anyway: they get access to the newest stuff for testing and feedback.
I just do testing and feedback on the stuff I buy, and since it’s so darn cheap I don’t really mind.
Dear hobby shop owners and employees,
This is a plea, asking you to get to know your competition. If you don’t know what a Turnigy 9x or an XT60 is, you’ve become a slave to your distributors, and your customers are likely going to leave you behind. There is an enterprising young man named Anthony Hand who moved to China and started a company called HobbyKing. You should pay attention to what they (and others) are doing as they’re rewriting the rules of radio control hobbies.
If you haven’t yet purchased a Turnigy 9x, you might want to instead consider the Taranis X7 which has even more features plus telemetry.
But if you already have a Turnigy 9x or got one on the cheap, here are a few things you should do to it right away as they’re all free or very inexpensive and will make your 9x experience much better.
I got super-cheap HK-T6A V2 6-channel radio for my first model airplane. It’s great because it’s programmable using a computer and a specialized USB cable. Using the USB cable, you can also play simulators such as FMS and RC Desk Pilot (among others). Did I also mention it’s dirt cheap?!?
After I built another plane and also purchased a small multi-rotor, I quickly realized the need for a transmitter that could handle multiple models. The Turnigy 9x fit the bill. I kept my old HK-T6A for using on the simulator and now my son will use it to fly his FT Flyer.
The 9x has a trainer switch and a trainer port, so I wondered if I could buddy-box these two radios. There’s plenty of information out there regarding modifications to buddy box two HK-T6As, but using the 9x as the master and the T6A as the slave seems like it would only require a specialized cable with no modification to either radio.
There are many things that I like about R/C, especially now that I have kids. At the heart of the matter is that having kids means having less cash. Fact. Also, R/C models are something my kids and I can enjoy together.
There is 99% less chance that I’ll get killed doing model racing or flying vs. “real” racing or flying. I have no desire to be the next John Travolta or even worse, John Denver.
I didn’t say the danger is 100% less, as proven by this video that made it’s way to Tosh.0:
(probably not safe for kids – but it is pretty funny)
Jules joined cub scouts this year and as part of joining, he was given a cub-scout branded Estes rocket to build and launch at the Rocket Into Scouting event to jump start his membership.