Another 'good' thing about EVERYBODY at the field using a 14MZ, there'd be
a lot fewer guys at the field, and a lot less >interferrence!
BUT, I'm envious. Sounds like the radio everyone needs. How long before
the other manufacturers catch up?
Bill,
It is hardly the case that other companies are playing catch-up with Futaba.
Instead, it�s more the case that Futaba is now starting to play catch-up
with Multiplex.
I�ve been reading a great deal about the new 14MZ and the more that I read
about it, the more I come to the conclusion that much of the marketing
touted �revolutionary� features of the 14MZ are, in fact, implementations of
designs that Multiplex has offered for years.
Take, for example, the free assign ability of the widgets. This is a
standard practice of Multiplex. The 14MZ has the severe limitation, however,
in that the receiver ports are hard-set and cannot be freely assigned like
they can on Multiplex radios.
Futaba claims that the 14MZ can fly for 3 hours on a single charge, but I
can get up to 8 hours on the standard pack on my Multiplex EVO. In addition,
the EVO also offers a battery management function � it constantly keeps
track of the remaining spare milliamps, even when turned off! It even allows
for battery drain daily as the EVO sits on the shelf during the non-flying
days.
There are programming tools that the Profi 4000 (a radio being produced for
more than 10 years) has that the top-end 14MZ doesn�t have. Attenuation
switches (a proportional control dynamically alters the travel of another
proportional control) and Logical switches (AND/OR coupled actions) are the
two most glaring examples. While the 14MZ does have Control switches (the
position of one widget at a certain point during the proportional travel
enables a �switched� function), it does not offer the ability to assign them
to every one of the possible widgets.
I do concede that Futaba has come up with a lot of bling-bling on the 14MZ
and that its marketing folks are pulling out all of the stops in generating
publicity.
The biggest problem that I see is that most of the improvements that Futaba
has implemented on the 14MZ affects the pilot only when not flying. The
fancy screen, the photos of your plane and the ability to play music don�t
do anything for the pilot once the plane has left the ground.
The biggest problems with Multiplex has always been marketing, publicity and
market saturation here in the U.S. Multiplex has also failed miserably in
hiring individuals who fully understand the capabilities of their radios and
who can also explain and articulate programming approaches to pilots who
have experience with other brands of transmitters.
But the truth remains that aside from one or two hardware features that the
14MZ has, it (while being revolutionary in respect to Futaba�s standards)
continues to lag far behind the sheer programming power of the Multiplex
Profi 4000. And ironically enough, the once pie-in-the-sky price of the
Profi 4000 radio is now about half the costs of the 14MZ!
While I applaud Futaba for raising THEIR standards, I am savvy enough to see
through some of their outlandish claims.
Joedy Drulia
Shenandoah Valley, Virginia
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