Phil's News

Here is sneak peek inside a new 9XR model , coming from Hobby King in time for Christmas (hopefully)
It is based on the Sky9x , re-designed to fit in the 9XR.

The combination of a powerful processor, sophisticated openTX software and FRsky's solid link will make this a great budget radio

I don't know what it will sell for , or what will come with it yet.

It uses real Tact switches , and has support for a Rotary encoder , and a Haptic buzzer
Built in USB socket and micro SD card slot , full sound / voice output , RTC + battery backup , 5V - 1.5A Switching power supply,
Battery capacity monitoring, Hardware support for telemetry connections. (RS232 or logic level) through
5 pin RF connector. There is also a spare switch input , and spare A/D channel and a second PPM output and spare serial ports
for future hacking , such as the addition of a Blue Tooth module.

It will definitely raise the bar on the entree level radios , and allow a lot more people access to
the Advanced (ARM) versions of the Open Source firmwares (er9x and OpenTX)
It will also provide a great working platform for the DIY'ers wanting to build their own radios.

-Brent

F3J League at 01/09/2013

Phil asked if I could write something about F3j for the newsletter so here goes!

We’ve reached the end of another soaring season. We had much better weather this year than last and the 3 two day competitions we held (for team qualification) went ahead without weather interruption. Qualifying for the uk team in 2014 meant taking the best two of three scores over the 3 comps – Radioglide , Interglide and the Nationals ( a change to previous years where we’ve had more single day comps in addition to the two day ones). Radio glide and Interglide were both held near to Bicester and the Silent Flight part of the Nationals were held at RAF Cranwell. Both great venues and good flying sites (the only real restriction being at Cranwell where we couldn’t fly north of the east/west main runway) – didn’t turn out to be an issue.

I personally like the two day format and , since many of us have to travel some distance, it makes sense to stay overnight and do some socialising at the same time! The “normal” F3J league has also run this year with a number of one day comps.

You can see the competition reports here:

Gliders being flown this year included Pike perfects and perfections, Xplorers, Shadows, Maxa’s and Tragi 801s (Cluster). All are very competitive in the right hands. Although quick launches are important, more important is a. flying the slot out and b. landing as near to the spot to get 100 points as possible. At world championship level, 3 or 4 sec launches and 9:56 min flights are the order of the day.

The team hasn’t yet been announced for 2014. Watch this space. The worlds will take place in Martin, Slovakia in 2014 – the date hasn’t been announced yet.

As always, F3J is welcoming to new competitors and we usually have the first competition of the season (round “zero”) as a shakedown competition and to introduce new pilots to the format of our competition. I’ll post details of when and where round zero (and the rest of the ) comps are going to be held in 2014.

Maybe see some of you next season (if not before on the slope)

Chris

Pos

Name

Points

Cards

Ian Duff

396.1

Peter Allen

395

Colin Boorman

370.6