Specifications

Idle-up allows you to change the throttle curve of the helicopter. This is highly desirable for

collective pitch helicopters because it allows you to maintain a constant headspeed at all

throttle positions in (idle-up mode) after spooling up (in normal mode). This makes a col-

lective pitch helicopter more responsive to the throttle stick and nicer to fly.

Currently, the best price/performance in helicopter radios is the Futaba 7CH (FF7 in Europe).

This radio has all of the above features except 5 point throttle/pitch curves and can be pur-

chased for about $170 (without receiver/servos) at various vendors on the Internet (e.g. Servo

City and Bruckner Hobbies).

"Futaba 6XHS is similar to the 7CH but has fewer model memories and fewer swashplate

types, and will work fine for modelers on a tight budget. The older Futaba 6XH is not recom-

mended because it does not support exponential, swashplate types, and swashplate mixing

settings.

The Hitec Optic 6 can also be used, but this transmitter is only available in an airplane config-

uration, so the throttle will have detents and the idle-up and throttle hold switches will be in a

nonstandard location.

The Futaba 9CH is also good. This radio can be purchased for about $300 (without receiver/ser-

vos) on the Internet.

Other good choices which are moderately priced (<$500) include:

• JR 9303 Heli

• JR XP6102 Heli

• JR XP8103 Heli (XP3810 in Europe)

• Hitec Eclipse 7 Heli (can do 90 CCPM with programmable mixes -explained in Sec-

tion 9.2.1, “Hitec Eclipse 7 with 90 CCPM”)

• Airtronics RD6000 Super Heli (do not buy the SPORT model because the SPORT model

has no swash mode)

• Airtronics RD8000 Heli

• Multiplex Cockpit MM

• Multiplex Royal EVO 9

These radios are very nice but are also very expensive:

• JR 10X Heli

• Futaba 9ZH

• Futaba 14MZ

• Multiplex EVO 9

• Multiplex EVO 12

• Multiplex Profi 4000

Transmitters