My letter and opinion about the new E-Flite Apprentice

[Frank v B]

In my conversation with Adam Maas (MAAC Zone "L" Director) at Rogo Field yesterday I vented about the frustrations every Wednesday with the E-Flite Apprentice.  He asked me to put it in writing and he would forward it to his contacts at Spektrum (already done).

I have elected to post this in the "general" section and keep it out of the "flight Instruction" heading for obvious reasons.

Here is a copy of my entire note:

Adam,

Great to see you at the field today.  As I mentioned to you, I was the Apprentice's biggest supporter when it first came out.  It has now become a CFI's worst nightmare. Twenty five years ago I instituted a policy that if you show up at the field with your first plane, you will see it fly that day even if we have to work on it for an hour or two to make it flyable.  Fully half of the people who arrive at the field with a brand new Apprentice will not be able to fly that day.   That is against my principles.

When the Apprentice first came out, you charged the battery, put batteries in the Tx and went to the field.  We supplied the buddy box and the cord.  An absolutely perfect trainer.  Fool proof.  The only issue was the reversing switches.  Minor problem.

Fast forward 15 years and now 50% of the Apprentices do not fly on the first visit, the transmitters are a nightmare to set up, SAFE is sometimes impossible to turn off, buddy boxes do not work if the connections are not made in the right order.  The task of programming the new Apprentice has become the killer final exam question for a Masters degree in electronic engineering.  Beyond frustrating.

I am one step away from buying 6-8 DX5e's at swap meets (post-Covid) and Lemon or Orange receivers and insisting on them or you don't fly at our club.  I will outlaw SAFE.  Our job is to teach people to fly, not to baby-sit some programmer's (wrong) understanding of how to teach people to fly.

The current Apprentice is modelling's version of the Boeing 737 Max 8.  Boeing took their best and most profitable airliner and absolutely destroyed it and its reputation.  The only difference is that no-one died in an Apprentice.

Mission- To teach people to fly a model airplane safely in a club setting in the shortest time possible.  The Apprentice should have a 4 channel transmitter and receiver with the only added feature being servo reversing and possibly dual rates.   No Safe, no AS3X, no expo.  If the receiver has this stuff it needs to be cancellable in the plane.  Not on the transmitter because switches have been accidentally flicked when a transmitter is handed over.

Problem: In Canada, the top 20 cities contain about 70% of the national population.  We drive up to 1-2 hours to get to a flying field and fly in restricted areas.  As a result, 70% of flying in Canada is done in a Club setting, not some loner modeller flying off an endless farm field at their back door.  The diameter of a full stick turn of an Apprentice in the beginner mode is bigger than the areas we fly in. An instructor cannot get a plane out of trouble when it accidentally kicks into safe mode.

I would like E-Flite executives to re-read the book on Steve Jobs of Apple.  Steve insisted that a person should be able to open the box of a new computer, attach the mouse, plug it in, push the power button and start working.  That was the original Apprentice.


Frank van Beurden
MAAC 33488

ps: Adam, I am not just a frustrated instructor.  I have an MBA in Marketing and Finance.  My last corporate job was VP Marketing of Seagram's Canada and have run my own business for the last 30 years.  I am well versed in corporate strategy, have been involved in about 15 new product launches and national sales presentations.  I have been an flight instructor for 25 years and a CFI for at least 15 years at two clubs (Bramalea R/C Flyers, Temac).  I have had a hand in teaching about 200 students to fly, including the Chief Pilot for Air Canada, the 3rd place Ryerson University team in the California heavy lift contest..... and you.

[sihinch]

Nice letter Frank, totally agree! 

I have an early version apprentice for sale if anyone wants!!!! 

[TonvM]

Hi Frank,

Thanks for showing me this letter, your so 100% correct on this which is the same here in Holland.
To be honest Iam kinda stopped with giving instruction because some of my student can't stop screwing working with the radio, that we have to fix every time.
It looks all very simple but as you mention you have to be a programmer instead of a modeler.
They don't want to take the time to read any thing about the building , flying or even aerodynamics to have an idea of what is happening while flying.
They want to fly in 1 or 2 lessons because they did read that all is very easy with that radio and model.
I even hope that they sometimes crash a model to get there feet back on earth.

Your 100% right by getting an as simple as possible radio to teach the students the basics.

Keep up the good work and lets all go back to basic and start with freeflight.

Must admit there is nothing more satisfying to see a freeflight model do its rounds, without any control from outside.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G-14xc1-dX0
https://www.youtube.com/user/TonvM

[Frank v B]

Thank you Ton.

For those of you who do not know Ton, he was introduced to TEMAC by Jack Higgins when Jack chose to use Ton's RedEagle e-glider design as a club build project.  Ton lives in Holland and is a life-long modeller.

Ton and I have stayed in touch ever since.  He was ever the victim gentleman about 5 years ago the last time I visited Holland.  Ton and I met at his field and let me fly two of his designs.  He has had at least half a dozen designs published in the British model magazines.  He is a kid at heart.

I value his opinions.

Frank

[msatin]

Thanks for your open letter Frank and I couldn't agree more.
When I was 1st learning I can't say how many flights I missed due to Tx buddy boxing issues, and quite frankly nothing has changed since then, and perhaps may have gotten harder.
Adam - My 2 cents, for what its worth.
If E-flite is not prepared to actually fix the issues relating to Tx/buddy box, they should come out with an RTF version with a 2nd Tx in the box. This 2nd Tx could be a "stripped down" unit without any features and pre-bound to the primary Tx.
This would not add much cost to the kit, but ensure no issues with buddy boxing.

[Athol]

@Frank v B  and everyone, I am not that familiar with the latest rendition of the Apprentice but have also been frustrated with SAFE Mode. For this reason, I have recommended that if you're new to RC and want to get started, get a Timber (now the Evolution that looks like a 2nd Gen Turbo Timber) Plug n Play and put a Lemon RX 7 Channel Stabilser Receiver - Not the Plus version - it has SAFE Mode.

[Max]

Hi Frank,
I totally agree and understand your frustration with safe and other totally unnecessary fancy BS additions such as gps and self landing planes. I started flying with a timber.I joined a club, not Temac, and showed up on the first training night with my plane and tx. A club member bound my plane in safe mode for me as I didn't have a clue what to do.
So I started the learning process and seemed to progress quite quickly I was blissfully unaware that the safe was flying the plane .
I later joined Temac and discovered the truth, when safe was disabled I found my flying skills were also disabled with it and subsequently  crashed on take off causing serious not to mention expensive damage to my plane. Broke the nose, broke the motor, fried the esc and snapped the wing.
After purchasing a new plane and binding it without safe, I have started the learning process the correct way with the greatly appreciated help of Frank and his team of instructers.
They introduced me to the buddy box system which also seems to be flawed in that you have to connect the cable between the transmitters in a certain sequence to make it work with my DX7S. This was also a source of extreme frustration.
So in conclusion, a note to Spectrum,STOP TRYING TO REINVENT THE BLOODY WHEEL, REMEMBER THE KISS SYSTEM.
Trust me, you are not doing new pilots any favours with all this tech. BS you are installing in models. The extra cost you are adding to models is reprehensible

Max

[Frank v B]

The story got more absurd last night during training.

Calvin took over on the buddy box at 2 mistakes high (100') and the plane started to wobble and was unflyable.  I took over and the same thing happened, cut the motor and pancaked it into the beans (no damage).

The cause- when we switched from master to slave, the motor went in reverse.  Yes, reverse.
Apparently the new Timber has that feature for taxiing when float flying.  That it can be activated in the air is beyond dangerous.  If an instructor were to take over when a potential flight line issue arises and it goes into reverse..........  Think about it.

SAFE... is not!

Frank