Paul Thompson 1

I bought a kit from USA this year, kit was approx £380 inc. intl. shipping. Import duty @4.5% plus 20% VAT gave me a customs bill for £108 (including £8 handling fee from Parcel Force) There are online duty calculators that gave me fairly accurate figure of what to expect. **LINK** Paul.

The MacKay 24 in my XL recently expired, so decided to replace it with a new DLE 20. Surprisingly the DLE is identical in mounting dimensions so it was a straightforward swap, the only difference was in the exhaust port which meant making a new adaptor plate for the exhaust manifold. Amazingly the DLE is 7 oz. lighter than the MacKay! On my XL I had mounted the two battery packs behind the servos but still needed 1 1/2 oz tail weight with the MacKay installed, now I've removed tail weight so model is almost 9 oz lighter; the c of g is now about 115mm from wing le, around 31% of MAC, and flies much better for it, feels much more neutral in flight.

Thx for the reply; just tried slave mode but no joy. Will email Phoenix and see if they can help, hope it's not a Tx fault. What with the bad weather and other things, not actually used mine yet which was why I wanted to get the sim working.

Ruston, have you tried Tx on a sim? Trying to get mine to work on Phoenix sim but won't work; normally connecting USB lead into trainer jack automatically switches Tx on, but can't get DX10 to come on. Have tried enabling trainer functions etc but to no avail.

Posted by Bob Cotsford on 18/04/2012 14:01:30: ok Paul, in ideal circumstances a 65 4st might fly it after a fashion, but it definitely wouldn't be something I'd recommend, or even suggest. As I said, I consider it 'adequate' with a 120 4st, though a 120 2st would be 'interesting'. Edited By Bob Cotsford on 18/04/2012 14:02:09 We'll agree to disagree Bob, nice to have a sensible debate without things getting personal.

A bit unfair on Horizon, give them their due that they're on the ball sorting out any bugs that crop up, with the complex nature of Tx software now it's ineveitable that these things will happen. I can think of worse software disasters, Microsoft Vista anybody.......

Had a reply from a John Norris at Horizon UK who says that fault will be resolved in next firmware update, so sounds like they're aware of the issue.

  Jim, Just weighed my other (rear exhaust) MacKay and it's 865grams bare, with plug but minus ignition, battery & exhaust so your CRRC seems to be considerably lighter.   Bob, I disagree, the issue isn't about all up weight but of wing loading, I think a 65 four stroke would fly it but as I previously said would be limited in aerobatics, Using a glow engine would also mean less weight to carry further reducing weight & wing loading. Not something I would want to fly though, bit too sedate. Edited By Paul Thompson 1 on 18/04/2012 12:49:31 Edited By Paul Thompson 1 on 18/04/2012 12:51:19

I think a 65 four stroke would fly it ok, but may be limited for aerobatics as it won't have the power of a 60 two stroke. Depends what you want from the model.

Putting battery packs at back of fus is impossible due to lack of space and the rudder/elevator linkages, so I cut a hatch under fus just behind servos and installed them in there, tight squeeze but just fits, model now balances with just 1 1/2 oz tail weight. Despite my previous post, the fin was still too short by exactly 3mm, no big deal though just cyano'd some 1/8" balsa to it and sanded it down. The covering on mine was wrinkled in places and discovered that covering hadn't been properly shrunk so went over entire airframe with film iron & gun, a lot of shrinkage took place to secure the covering. Initially I fitted the supplied control horns to elevator & ailerons but these were terribly sloppy giving an unacceptable amount of free play, so these were replaced with some Flair ones I found in my bits box. Also used thread lock on the metal clevises & lock nuts. Flew the XL yesterday in variable conditions, weather started out with blustery cross wind, then a hail storm followed by half hour of blue sky and flat calm before returning to blustery cross wind, so experienced all weathers in one afternoon, typical English summer I suppose! First impression was how fast it was, MacKay 24 turning an APC 16 x 8 and it howled round like a pylon racer at full throttle, flying round at half throttle and model would still loop from level flight with ease so I'm sure it would fly on a good .60, especially considering that model would be much lighter too. Trim wise 2 clicks of right aileron and 1 click of up elevator had model flying hands off, inverted required only a touch of down to maintain. I had built in 1.5 degrees of right thrust and this seemed about right as model tracked straight up vertical. Needed a lot of opposite aileron mixed in with the rudder, around 20% on my DX8. Tried everything I could think of in one afternoon including pos & neg flicks, upright & inverted spins and model performed perfectly, comes out of spins with no fuss, very safe and predictable. Obviously not up to F3A standards but a brilliant all round aerobatic model; if I wreck it will have no hesitation in buying another. Edited By Paul Thompson 1 on 18/04/2012 11:19:30

Not impressed with the Spektrum harness, expensive and doesn't seem to have any adjustment so Tx hangs down around the groin area... Other manufactures such as Graupner do better ones for less money; however I've discovered that using two standard JR neck straps extended to the max, one slung over each arm and around the neck, this supports Tx perfectly.

I avoid the American forums for the reasons you mention........... Will wait for reply from Horizon, though I expect they get thousands of emails so may take a while, but now people are aware of the fault we can at least avoid it.

To me it's a fault not a problem, as it deletes all previously entered values in all mixes, very annoying..   I've emailed Horizon UK & USA and will see what they say, though going by their past record I think they will quickly resolve the issue.  Edited By Paul Thompson 1 on 17/04/2012 23:49:35

Hi Tony, Thanks for the confirmation, was beginning to think that it was just my Tx, will email Spektrum tomorrow and see what they have to say.

Have you checked the settings to see which switch is assigned to activate the rates? it's possible to switch all the rates from one switch so you need to see if ail rates is assigned to ail switch etc.

Hi, I've discovered a glitch in my DX8 whereby the scroll button shuts down & restarts the Tx in mixer screen, it also clears any data previously entered in all mixer menus. Select the menu for "Mix 1", Mix 1 is in bold type at top of screen, move scroll button one click to the right and box appears around Mix 1, click scroll button and box starts flashing, move scroll button one click to the left and Mix 1 changes to "AIL > RUD" now move scroll button to the right and Tx shuts down & restarts. Before I email Spektrum need to know whether this fault is unique to my Tx or is common to all DX8's, so if other owners could try it out and let me know please.

My XL is about 80% complete now but have hit a major snag, it's grossly nose heavy? Fitted with MacKay 24cc on Dubro alloy mounts, APC prop and alloy spinner the 2 battery packs would need to be mounted halfway between wing and tail for it to balance correctly. I've considered cutting a hatch in fus behind servos and mounting packs in there but fus has lightening cut outs in the sides which gives little to attach the packs to. My only option would seem to be mounting the packs above or below the servos and will then need 4 - 5oz tail weight. I think the reason for this discrepancy is twofold, firstly using the slightly heavier alloy mounts, secondly my engine is mounted further forward, about 148mm from bulkhead to prop driver.

Hi Ruston, received my DX10 today and echo your comments, the switches feel very flimsy and may be prone to breaking off; the manual is lacking in many ways doesn't even mention the buttons on sticks. Haven't figure out what the allen key inside left cover is for, not mentioned in manual but on side of box it says "Function Module Hinge Allen Tool" but can't see where it's supposed to be used? However my biggest disappointment came when I tried it with a neck strap, it felt awful with tranny sloping down away from me, a very un-natural way of trying to fly. I couldn't understand how it was supposed to be used like this, or any way of 'lifting' tranny up to the horizontal, they've spent at least 2 years developing the DX10? Did some research on web and found the answer, it's supposed to be used with 2 neck straps, one on each leg which are then slipped over ones arms and rest on the shoulders not the neck. See here Although it could be one specially made strap with 2 connectors? Next problem is where to get one from, can't find it on Horizon web site...  Again, something not mentioned in the manual. Edited By Paul Thompson 1 on 10/04/2012 20:16:39 Edited By Paul Thompson 1 on 10/04/2012 20:35:33

Posted by Mark Rowse on 05/04/2012 20:55:31: Ermm interesting looking Tx.....not sure about the price tho. The price is probably a reflection of the fact that tray transmitters are a very small & specialised market and will only appeal to a minority. Ruston, very interesting to hear of your experience with DX10, I wasn't aware of what the "auto trim" was but sounds very useful. The precision of sticks is also good to hear as I'm not into stick bashing 3D flying, prefer the smooth F3A style aerobatics.

Good of you to do a crash test too, very thorough! Installed the engine in mine this week (MacKay 24cc) and found that the issue with cowling has also been fixed, my cowl is 152mm long and instructions state to mount engine with overhang of 140 - 145mm so is now correct; maybe someone read your review, good to see manufacture's on the ball. Though it looks to be pretty well glued in have glassed the undercarriage plate just in case...

Hi, have you tried it out yet? I've been looking forward to this and have now ordered one, though with Bank Holiday weekend not sure when it will arrive. I'm wondering if it will be possible to copy model settings from DX8 into this? I've downloaded manual and it only mentions copying from one DX10 to another so I'll wait and see.

I've just received my XL kit today, though not yet started I've noticed that there's no side thrust built in, did you find it needed any side/down thrust? You might be interested to know that the faults you mentioned have been rectified namely the fin now extends down to the tail plane, and the undercarriage is supplied with proper stub axles instead of screws.