260 Flyer

Anyone know why many sites are listing the XL as withdrawn from sale?

My thoughts are with David's family, he will be greatly missed.

It’s no good stating that Futaba are only £5 - £10 dearer than Spektrum the fact remains that for 6ch users the difference is more like £30 - £35. FYI IBM have not made Laptops for many years now, they are all badge engineered of Taiwanese origin! (at nearly twice the price as similar products from the same manufacturer!) Edited By David Ashby - RCME moderator on 11/06/2009 14:57:11

I think Andy is being ironic.

My problem is when I went over to 2.4GHz the 6ch Futaba was similar in price to the Spektrum, both for the outfit  and for the Rx's, which was a factor in my choice. Shortly after I bought my  6EX Futaba announced that the £45 RF606 Rx had been discontinued and I would have to buy the then £60 RF617 7 channel  receiver, which now costs £70 to £80. The comparable (for 6 channel users) Spektrum is still under £40. 

I generaly only see this when I have exceeded the VNE of a model that has been drastically overpowered..  It does seem easy to provoke this reaction in Phoenix but then I have never been brave enough to fly a real model with a 5:1 power to weight ratio!

Phil Wood wrote: Timbo will get Jarty up in the air to the music "Bat out of Hell" Or how about  one by the Jam "Going Underground" 

Oh no , not another one! Let me see 9lb that's 9 X 150, so that's 1350W, 1350 dividwd by....STOP! STOP IT! YOU HAVE ENOUGH PULSES! Rob (certified Pulse addict) PS The U/C on this one looks like my XT60 after it hit a tree!

Back to the Car anology, I remember back in the eighties when people were waking up to Ripoff Britain, certain Japaneese car importers started to reduce the price of their cars but were ordered to charge the list price by the manufacturers as it was bad for their brand image. Maybe this is what we are seeing here, perhaps Ripmax have their hands tied by Futaba. If Futaba want to go head to head with JR why don't they drop the entry level systems as JR have done?

ian I have three Rx's for sale £100 each or £350 for three! (I'm good at this marketing lark!)

Andy I don't think anyone has suggested that you should be able to buy a Futaba Rx for the price of a Corona.  But as the FASST system is much simpler than DSM why are Futaba nearly twice the price of a comparable Spektrum RX?   Rob

Last year we were told that the price hike for glow fuel was due to the Olympics with China drasticaly trying to reduce pollution, but strangely the price of LiPo's and other electronics from China continued to fall, at least until the £ took a nosedive! It would cerainly be interesting to hear the reason for the latest increases.

Back on topic and to rub salt into the wounds of us Futa-bah owners, BRC are now selling AR6000 and AR6100e Rx's for £39.99 or half the price I would currently have to pay for an equivilent Rx! Bah! indeed!!

The Pulse XT 60 seems a little under powered with a 60 2 stroke up front after flying both the Mini and the 40 sized electric powered Pulse. Having said that It does have adequate power for basic aerobatics and general knocking about. As for landing, once you get used to it, the XT60 can be slowed up that three pointers are easy, in fact if you get too slow it will just start to flop about. If you try to grease it in you will probably  miss the strip a few times.   Rob

First off NEVER use a tent peg or similar on a bungee, you will be in the direct firing line of a ballistic missile when it pulls out of the ground. People have been killed doing this! Use a large corkscrew type dog stake. The cotton covered bungee cord is ok for still air (not much use here then!) but the best for light to moderate winds is latex surgical tubing. Bungee tubing. Rob

One thing is for sure these cells need running in! At up to 5 cycles I was getting an initial peak of 625W which dropped to 580W after  a few seconds with the pack voltage (6 cells) dropping to 15.7V. After 25 or so flights on the same setup I now get an initial peak of over 800W dropping  to 700W with the voltage hardly dropping below 17V.  

DW Phoenix or Inwood  are one of the cheapest for the 617.  Futaba do a 6ch Parkflyer RX for around £50 but this only has limited range. You are tied to Futaba for Rx's unless you can fit a Spectrum module to your Tx Rob

Ben First try to power-up without the resistor, which is only there to trick the power supply into thinking it has a load attached. Neither of the ones I have used needed it.   TBH if you need to buy bits you would be better off going for the ready built PS that Graham posted.   Edited By Rob Crewe on 30/05/2009 13:55:17

I'm such a cheapskate that  I never throw anything away! I got mine from my "It'll come in usefull oneday store" AKA loft! PC's are such a disposable items that you don't need to look too far to find a discarded case complete with power supply.

Shaun   Just build yourself two of  these! You only need the 12V lines so simply run them out to a Deans or similar connector.

Cover any wing/fuz joints (or anywhere the  grass can get into) with clear pvc tape to prevent the grass stems entering the joint and the sawing through the foam.

Simon I have the Mini Pulse and the Pulse XT 40, both electric and of the two the XT 40 is the nicest to fly. The Mini Pulse handles the wind OK once in the air but the ground handling can get a bit squirrelly and near ground turbulence can cause a few heart stopping moments!   I have flown the XT 40 in wind speeds up to 25mph and it takes the turbulence in its stride. Like its baby brother the XT 40 likes to float on in the ground effect but seems to damp-out  bumpy air. I have an I.C powered XT 60 currently in dry dock awaiting electrification (that and a new wing after a dead stick argument with a tree  )  so yes I do love my Pulses but of the three it's the original 40 size gets flown the most.   Rob Edited By Rob Crewe on 28/05/2009 00:48:11

Gary Cell detection problems are common in over-discharged packs such as yours. At 3.09V you are only a gnat’s appendage away from cell death! Do a manual charge to about 15V at 0.5C without using the balance function and then balance charge from there.

"convert to glow"  Still fly Glow and Diesel, but unless I take a change of clothes to the office I can't nip out for a crafty flight or three. By the time I've got changed, fueled-up and then got cleaned up there would be no time left for actual flying!  Looking enviously at the petrol heads though, just turn up with a petrol can and a welders glove and away they go!

5C charge rate, one question do you need to let them cool before charging? Or can you Land-Charge-Fly as you can with A123's? If you need to charge them at ambient temp it will take more than the 1C charge time to cool down!