You dont need AS3X to learn to fly. THIS is what you need!!

[Ededge2002]

This is the original radio I learned to fly with on the trainer cord.  The year 1984.  I flew with it for a few years after too.  Super high tech as it had trainer cord AND servo reversing! 

NO:
End points,  Dual rates,  Exponential,  Mixes,  Timers,  beepers or graphic display!

What it did do was fly the plane and that it did flawlessly.

Want to learn to fly?  Get one of these you will be almost as amazing as me.(I can not guarantee that you will be as amazing as me as im pretty damn amazing!)

Say no to Gyros except those delicious meat filled ones!

Dig that frequency pin?  wide band baby! 

[bfeist]

I learned on a 6xa. Good investment at the time, it lasted me years (I think I still have it somewhere). It was BARELY digital, but it did have dual rates.

[piker]

This is what I learned on.  Didn't even have servo reversing.  Just two sticks and four channels, but there was a trainer button that I never used.

Hey Ed.  Soon you'll be saying that people should build their planes!

Robert

[Ededge2002]

Nice Futaba gold there Robert!  Is that your actual radio or an archived photo?

Bet that didn't get recalled like so many Spektrum radios did!  I plugged a battery into my old radio and hooked up a servo to the rx and it works like 29 brand new years old! 

I flew JR for years and only switched to Futaba about 8 years ago.   I will post a couple of my other radios from the archives soon!

[thehaze]

While Statler and Waldorf reminisce about the horribly crappy tech that was available when they learned to fly, I figured I'd post a link about what I used. It was the original Spektrum DX6 DSM1 radio. A true legend in the hobby as the first Spektrum 2.4ghz air radio. It changed the hobby for better or for worse. This my friends, was a man's radio. 

So while you guys remember how you had to fly upwind both ways around the pattern, and had to use potato batteries to power your planes. You can go ahead and read this review and imagine how it would have been if you had this awesome piece of tech for your formative years in rc...   http://www.rcuniverse.com/magazine/article_display.cfm?article_id=623

[Ededge2002]

Man's radio?  Really?   It was for "park flyers". What ever the hell those are and that little antenna...  You know what they say about little antennas don't you? 

[piker]

 

Well, I can tell you that one day I was riding my bike down the BIG hill in my neighbourhood, toward the river (St. Lawrence) to take my cox .049 power speed boat for a run, with one hand on the handle bars, and the other arm wrapped around the boat, the transmitter, fuel and battery, when the transmitter fell out of my hand (the metal stand on the back was the handle and the whole back cover came off).  That metal transmitter bounced and tumbled down the rest of the hill... probably 100 feet on the course, crushed gravel in tar road surface (like a giant rasp)!  I picked it up.  Brushed it off and went to float my boat.  That old transmitter was still working fine for years after.  I used it for 10 years!

No, it's not mine.  that's a webernet photo.  I don't have that radio anymore, but I do still have my next radio that I bought in 1989.

[Michael]

Based on my experiences, my opinions are as follows:

AS3X will NOT make you fly better; it will NOT save your plane if you make a mistake; and it will NOT help anyone learn to fly better nor faster.

It WILL significantly help a model plane with a low wing loading fly smoother in regards to how it reacts in slightly windy conditions.

Note: for Horizon Hobby AS3X systems to function properly, initial advancement of throttle MUST be done while the model is flat parallel (top up) with the ground, or, if the model has wheels, resting on the ground on its wheels.

[bfeist]

Hmm, I wonder why JR didn't put their name on the first Spektrum

[thehaze]

Mostly because it was so awesome they didn't want to share the credit