// ********** Messages **********

var maxmsg = 9;
var message = 'Welcome to Nick\'s eRC HQ';

next_message[0] = 'Video Gallery now available, see below';
next_message[1] = 'RCHoverdisc - The invasion begins';
next_message[2] = 'Check out GWS J3 Piper Cub & RCHoverdisc crash videos';
next_message[3] = 'Carbon Ark X400 courtesy of Panzoa';
next_message[4] = 'Look out for GWS Slow Stick videos';
next_message[5] = 'Onboard the Mini Titan';
next_message[6] = 'Thermal soaring with the EasyStar';
next_message[7] = 'Coming soon - Kinkade Slowhawk Ornithopter';
next_message[8] = 'Monster truck madness arrives';
next_message[9] = message;

// ********** Images **********

var bcategorys = 19;	// Body array initialisation parameter
var bitems = 25;	// Body array initialisation parameter
var bslots = 2;		// Body array initialisation parameter

getbodydata(); // Define pseudo 3 dimensional array


category[18] = 'Multiplex EasyStar';

bodydata[18][0][0] = 'gallery/easystar/easystar-1.jpg';
bodydata[18][0][1] = 'This is EasyStar #2. I killed EasyStar #1 in a high speed borehole drilling incident (see video\'s). Powered by a brushless 400 sized inrunner and 6x4 apc prop, it\'s capable of shooting for the moon and gliding back down again. The EasyStar\'s were the first of my planes to receive a 2.4Ghz Futaba radio makeover.';

category[17] = 'Vanessa\'s Lunchbox';

bodydata[17][0][0] = 'gallery/lunchbox/lunchbox-1.jpg';
bodydata[17][0][1] = 'In a world of Lithium Polymer batteries, brushless motor\'s and 2.4Gig Radio\'s here\'s a blast from the past. Tamiya\'s re-release of their late 1980\'s nicad powered fun monster truck kit - Vanessa\'s Lunchbox. If you\'re not familiar with it...Yes that\'s its name.';
bodydata[17][1][0] = 'gallery/lunchbox/lunchbox-2.jpg';
bodydata[17][1][1] = 'These days\'s most surface vehicles seem to come RTR (ready to race) but me being an \"old-skool\" (to quote the young \'uns) kinda guy I like building more than I enjoy driving them so Tamiya is still king in my book. I sprayed this with regular humbrol yellow rattle cans with a couple of coats of spray varnish to protect it\'s nice glossy sheen. Came out quite nicely but it\'s not nearly durable enough to take the kind of hammering the Lunchbox receives from its wheely and flip-over inducing rear weighted layout.';
bodydata[17][2][0] = 'gallery/lunchbox/lunchbox-3.jpg';
bodydata[17][2][1] = 'I don\'t really go in for transfers so the Lunchbox remains naked apart from a few small touches. From here you can see the wheelybar (which isn\'t gonna stop it flipping over if you really gun it) and the only mods - namely full all round oil shocks instead of the toyish friction shocks it came with.';
bodydata[17][3][0] = 'gallery/lunchbox/lunchbox-5.jpg';
bodydata[17][3][1] = 'The gearbox is bulletproof and the worn rear tyres and scuff marks on the shell are testament to how hard this has been tested on the small number of occasions it\'s actually been driven.';
bodydata[17][4][0] = 'gallery/lunchbox/lunchbox-6.jpg';
bodydata[17][4][1] = 'The oil shocks were quite cheap and the screws and springs haven\'t reacted well to salt water puddles on the beach. Here you can see the centre shock mod which is an additional shock I\'ve mounted at the front of the gearbox. This is normally supported only by little springy wire clips which break easily. You can see a little loop of wire of one of the spring clips peeping out from where the gearbox mounts to the chassis.';
bodydata[17][5][0] = 'gallery/lunchbox/lunchbox-8.jpg';
bodydata[17][5][1] = 'Here you can see how I\'ve mounted the centre shock. I\'ve actually cut a rectangle hole out of the gearbox revealing the mounting shaft to which the shock is attached. You can also see the crappy spring clips where the gearbox sits in the chassis.';
bodydata[17][6][0] = 'gallery/lunchbox/lunchbox-10.jpg';
bodydata[17][6][1] = 'This is another view of the centre shock mod and how I\'ve attached it to the chassis. That is really rusty!';
bodydata[17][7][0] = 'gallery/lunchbox/lunchbox-7.jpg';
bodydata[17][7][1] = 'More rusty springs on the front oil shocks.';
bodydata[17][8][0] = 'gallery/lunchbox/lunchbox-9.jpg';
bodydata[17][8][1] = 'Interior view with only the tiny 2.4ghz receiver highlighting we are well and truly in the 21st Century. The lunchbox was a tentative dip in the world of surface R\/C so it was a cheap brand 2.4Ghz unit with many poor reviews and has an unfeasibly long antenna for some bizarre reason. However it seems to work perfectly fine and the only problems I\'ve had is a shutdown of the Tamiya ESC after finally succumbing to total submergence in sea water. Left it out in the sun to dry and it eventually sprung back into life. This explains why it\'s covered in sand.';

category[16] = 'Thunder Tiger Mini-Titan';

bodydata[16][0][0] = 'gallery/mini-titan/mini-titan-1.jpg';
bodydata[16][0][1] = 'With the R\/C bug came the heli bug. Splashed out on Thunder Tiger\'s Mini-Titan. It\'s been a while since I\'ve flown heli\'s so its running with the toned down head settings while I get used to it and it really is as stable and smooth as they say. The extra weight and larger size over the X400 helps make this heli fly like a much larger heli and handles the wind a lot better than the X400. Spot the onboard camera. The hacked CVS camera is quite a bit larger than the little usb pencam I had on the Hoverdiscs which has since died. This camera is powered from the flight battery via the RX to save weight - still it\'s 3x the weight of the pencam but the Mini-Titan can handle it';
bodydata[16][1][0] = 'gallery/mini-titan/mini-titan-2.jpg';
bodydata[16][1][1] = 'Everyone\'s going digital these days but to keep costs down I\'m re-using parts bin electronics. My old HS56 servo\'s are on the swash and HS50 on the tail from the X400. I sold the expensive and top class GY401 gyro so the Mini-Titan gets the cut price HL800 piezo heading hold gyro which works surprisingly well. This is the same as the one supplied by Align or badged as Telebee but is even cheaper than both of those. The only issue I\'ve had is that the gain lead can\'t see past channel 4 on JR equipment so I\'m forced to use manual gain and no switching to rate mode - which is no big loss at all. The manual gain is useful anyway should I ever need that 6th channel for retracts for instance on a scale model.';
bodydata[16][2][0] = 'gallery/mini-titan/mini-titan-3.jpg';
bodydata[16][2][1] = 'Nicely lit overhead shot. The only thing I\'ve splashed out on for this bird is a large 2.5mAh FlightPower 20c Lipo battery which along with an 11 tooth pinion tones down the performance and extends the flight time considerably. I\'ve always forgotten to set the flight timer but I\'m getting roughly 10-12 minutes flight time as long as she\'s moving and not just hovering';
bodydata[16][3][0] = 'gallery/mini-titan/mini-titan-4.jpg';
bodydata[16][3][1] = 'The Mini-Titan may be all plastic but its top quality and a far better design than the aluminium X400 flat flat frame system. With easy access to the servo\'s and motor and nice touches like the RX side platform set this heli apart from the rest. That plastic-fantastic frame also means that the CVS camera is easily attached. Here I\'m using a simple wooden stick to attach the camera and there\'s surprisingly little vibration visible once the heli is spooled up. Whether that\'s just because the high quality makes this heli vibe free or whether its because the plastic absorbs all the wobbles it\'s hard to say.';
bodydata[16][4][0] = 'gallery/mini-titan/mini-titan-5.jpg';
bodydata[16][4][1] = 'Me just gently hovering around for the photo\'s. 2008 and looks like I\'ve gained a few pounds and a little age since the 2006 X400 pics and jeez...I was but a skinny tot in the circa 2003 Hummingbird & hoverfly pics.';
bodydata[16][5][0] = 'gallery/mini-titan/mini-titan-6.jpg';
bodydata[16][5][1] = 'The aluminium frame of the x400 acted like an antenna and spued out glitchy noise like a bat in a butterfly farm. Good job for my Dad with the cam that this Mini-Titan has proved glitch free so far. He gets a bit overexcited with his camera and with a blade tip speed of 250mph and weighted wooden blades that\'s gonna sting a bit if it gets too close.';
bodydata[16][6][0] = 'gallery/mini-titan/mini-titan-7.jpg';
bodydata[16][6][1] = 'More hovering around. At this stage I hadn\'t really spent any time setting her up and yet flys just wonderfully.';
bodydata[16][7][0] = 'gallery/mini-titan/mini-titan-8.jpg';
bodydata[16][7][1] = 'More me and heli. Check out the video gallery for this flight video - although it\'s not very interesting. Heli\'s are good for nosing over garden fences but hovering at height is a tricky proposition. Many people use flight stabilisation to help out for aerial photography work.';
bodydata[16][8][0] = 'gallery/mini-titan/mini-titan-9.jpg';
bodydata[16][8][1] = 'Once that camera comes off this Mini-Titan will get a proper shake out.';

category[15] = 'Honeybee';

bodydata[15][0][0] = 'gallery/honeybee/honeybee-1.jpg';
bodydata[15][0][1] = 'I\'d forgotten how much fun these small, cheap, 4 channel fixed pitch micro heli\'s were so I bought this V1 Honeybee some time ago to throw around. It languished in a drawer for a couple of years until I decided recently to dig it out, fix-it-up and fly it with spare components I had lying around. It\'s flying on a 1320mAh ThunderPower 2cell LiPo hidden by the bright green V2 canopy. These little micro\'s are quite tricky and fast to fly so are particularly good for practicing slow tight circuits in small spaces...oh and bombing up and down the street, annoying the neighbours';
bodydata[15][1][0] = 'gallery/honeybee/honeybee-2.jpg';
bodydata[15][1][1] = 'I\'ve run this from the start on separate electronics...GWS brushed ESC on main, pixie 7p on the tail and my (un)trusty pcm JR RX. Apart from that it\'s pretty much stock except for replacing the stuff that breaks easy. It now has super soft Xtreme landing gear and glass fibre battery mount. The new landing gear allow\'s the motor to be slung underneath. Not sure there\'s any particular advantage to this other than the motor can now be run in the correct direction but I think it look\'s a lot better and certainly helps keep the wiring neat.';
bodydata[15][2][0] = 'gallery/honeybee/honeybee-3.jpg';
bodydata[15][2][1] = 'Cheap GWS PG03 rate gyro keeps the tail in check.';
bodydata[15][3][0] = 'gallery/honeybee/honeybee-4.jpg';
bodydata[15][3][1] = 'Goes without saying...the direct drive tail is a must. I\'m using the Xtreme mounting hardware and IPS motor. Work\'s well, much better than chasing the tail with the regular gear and puny motor combination and also look\'s better with the smaller DD prop.';

category[14] = 'GWS Slow Stick';

bodydata[14][0][0] = 'gallery/slowstick/slowstick-1.jpg';
bodydata[14][0][1] = 'Only a slight wind to contend with but otherwise it\'s a perfect day to maiden. I built the Slow Stick before Christmas after suddenly getting the R\/C bug back. But only now, mid spring of 2008 will it fly. A gentle slope will ease this bird into my old comp school\'s large tree lined field.';
bodydata[14][1][0] = 'gallery/slowstick/slowstick-2.jpg';
bodydata[14][1][1] = 'I was nervous at first especially as I haven\'t flown in a while and it\'s kind of a backward step for me to fly rudder and elevator only and no ailerons. But there was no need to worry - she\'s up and flying and a cinch to fly. Here I\'m buzzing my Dad with the camera for some in-flight shots. ';
bodydata[14][2][0] = 'gallery/slowstick/slowstick-3.jpg';
bodydata[14][2][1] = 'Nice dynamic nose down shot.';
bodydata[14][3][0] = 'gallery/slowstick/slowstick-4.jpg';
bodydata[14][3][1] = 'This field is ideal, big, open, virtually empty (apart from that single photogenic tree) and not a sole to bother us.';
bodydata[14][4][0] = 'gallery/slowstick/slowstick-5.jpg';
bodydata[14][4][1] = 'A bit of dive bombing and strafing the kids here. Must add that hoverdisc bomb release mechanism.';
bodydata[14][5][0] = 'gallery/slowstick/slowstick-6.jpg';
bodydata[14][5][1] = 'Overhead and almost silouhetted against the sky. You can just about see the ThunderPower 1350mAh 2 cell powering the GWS 2208/18T brushless outrunner spinning a 1047 prop. Even on 2 cells it has plenty of power and good duration. Can easily push it past the 20 minute mark.';
bodydata[14][6][0] = 'gallery/slowstick/slowstick-7.jpg';
bodydata[14][6][1] = 'Bit higher this time. The Slow Stick with its heavily undercambered high lift wing is designed for nicad\'s and geared brushed motors so with this especially light and powerful lythium and brushless combo will carry a lot of weight. It\'s ideal for aerial photography so the next stage for me is to add my hacked CVS camera for some in-flight video.';
bodydata[14][7][0] = 'gallery/slowstick/slowstick-8.jpg';
bodydata[14][7][1] = 'The downside of that undercambered wing and slow flight capability is that the slow stick is not much cop in the wind. Good for still or gentle breeze days only. It does mean though that it will take off and stop on a dime.';
bodydata[14][8][0] = 'gallery/slowstick/slowstick-9.jpg';
bodydata[14][8][1] = 'More in-flight shots.';
bodydata[14][9][0] = 'gallery/slowstick/slowstick-10.jpg';
bodydata[14][9][1] = 'More in-flight shots.';
bodydata[14][10][0] = 'gallery/slowstick/slowstick-11.jpg';
bodydata[14][10][1] = 'More in-flight shots.';
bodydata[14][11][0] = 'gallery/slowstick/slowstick-12.jpg';
bodydata[14][11][1] = 'More in-flight shots.';

category[13] = 'Dragonfly Ornithopter';

bodydata[13][0][0] = 'gallery/dragonfly/dragonfly-1.jpg';
bodydata[13][0][1] = 'Always fancied one of these fun little toys and finally managed to pick one up at a clearance price.';
bodydata[13][1][0] = 'gallery/dragonfly/dragonfly-2.jpg';
bodydata[13][1][1] = 'It\'s a tricky little bugger to fly but once you get the hang of it it\'s a lot of fun and flys surprisingly well. The kids love to try and grab the ribbon tail which serves to slow this little flapper down.';
bodydata[13][2][0] = 'gallery/dragonfly/dragonfly-3.jpg';
bodydata[13][2][1] = 'Despite the light weight design it\'s a tough, almost indestructable little bird. Which is lucky with inexperienced pilots at the controls. ';
bodydata[13][3][0] = 'gallery/dragonfly/dragonfly-4.jpg';
bodydata[13][3][1] = 'It actually has two wings each side which flap together and squeeze the air backwards providing thrust. Without the ribbon it\'s quite fast...not fast enough in this case.';
bodydata[13][4][0] = 'gallery/dragonfly/dragonfly-5.jpg';
bodydata[13][4][1] = 'Turning is carried out via a small tail mounted prop and is very effective for escaping marauding children.';
bodydata[13][5][0] = 'gallery/dragonfly/dragonfly-6.jpg';
bodydata[13][5][1] = 'It carries a tiny lithium polymer cell which is charged via the transmitter. I use rechargeables in the TX. It look\'s really strange, almost alive when it\'s fluttering around.';
bodydata[13][6][0] = 'gallery/dragonfly/firefly-1.jpg';
bodydata[13][6][1] = 'This photoshoot was carried out at night and produced some interesting lighting effects.';
bodydata[13][7][0] = 'gallery/dragonfly/firefly-2.jpg';
bodydata[13][7][1] = 'We set fire to the house for this shot. The dragonfly has glowing blue LED\'s for eyes.';
bodydata[13][8][0] = 'gallery/dragonfly/firefly-3.jpg';
bodydata[13][8][1] = 'The dragonfly is bigger than you think!';
bodydata[13][9][0] = 'gallery/dragonfly/firefly-4.jpg';
bodydata[13][9][1] = 'It\'s very tricky to fly when you can\'t see a damned thing.';
bodydata[13][10][0] = 'gallery/dragonfly/firefly-5.jpg';
bodydata[13][10][1] = 'I\'m struggling to see it let alone fly it.';
bodydata[13][11][0] = 'gallery/dragonfly/firefly-6.jpg';
bodydata[13][11][1] = 'OK I\'m all out of beta-carotene. let\'s bring her in.';
bodydata[13][12][0] = 'gallery/dragonfly/firefly-7.jpg';
bodydata[13][12][1] = 'Crashed in the dark but look where it ended up...looks like it\'s nested for the night.';

category[12] = 'Micron Helicopter';

bodydata[12][0][0] = 'gallery/micron/micron-1.jpg';
bodydata[12][0][1] = 'The original \'Worlds smallest helicopter\'....not sure it was the case back then and certainly not the case now. Didn\'t fly at all until I got some replacement blades and I found the electronics to be temperamental. Flys good with some tweaking but I quickly lost interest and sold it.';
bodydata[12][1][0] = 'gallery/micron/micron-2.jpg';
bodydata[12][1][1] = 'Close up of the nose showing the tiny and slightly temperamental 3in1.';
bodydata[12][2][0] = 'gallery/micron/micron-3.jpg';
bodydata[12][2][1] = 'Close up of the tail. I reckon that motor won\'t last long.';
bodydata[12][3][0] = 'gallery/micron/micron-4.jpg';
bodydata[12][3][1] = 'See! Its not tiny in a late 2000 and something sense.';
bodydata[12][4][0] = 'gallery/micron/micron-5.jpg';
bodydata[12][4][1] = 'Nice piccie outside. A big improvement over the original mk1 design but still not good enough especially as there\s now a chinese copy at a fraction of the price.';

category[11] = 'Mini RCHoverDisc';

bodydata[11][0][0] = 'gallery/rchoverdisc/minidisc0.jpg';
bodydata[11][0][1] = 'After the untimely death of my 3\' RCHoverdisc (see video gallery & rcgroups blog links - below left) Tom of www.rchoverdisc.com sent me a shed load of Overbreak Hoverdiscs of both 3\' and 2\' variety, a couple of depron foam kits and his new bomb drop system. I decided to try out a build of the smaller 2\' hoverdisc first but using a clone-disc that I picked up from a local bargain store. The Overbreak 2\' disc uses a much thinner floppier fibre glass rod than the original 3\' disc and also requires a rod extension to pull excess material taut and give it a more streamlined profile. This clone disc uses a full sized rod providing a much stiffer structure and the material is taut from new. In the picture below Overbreaks 2\' disc as it is supplied [back] looks like an inflatable cushion until the required modification forces it to take on a slimmer more aerodynamic profile [front left]. The clone disc [right] is perfect from new...no modification required. The 2\' disc no doubt will be faster and a lot less floaty than the larger 3\' disc due to the disc/weight ratio but time will tell.';
bodydata[11][1][0] = 'gallery/rchoverdisc/minidisc5.jpg';
bodydata[11][1][1] = 'After a brief experiment with 3M dual lock velcro-ish type stuff I eventually opted for a mixed foam backed double sided sticky tape and hot glue build. I\'ve used dubro-esque ez-style connectors for the tail feathers with a couple of cheap/light 5.6 gram Tower Pro servo\'s and an HS50 nicked from my heli.';
bodydata[11][2][0] = 'gallery/rchoverdisc/minidisc3.jpg';
bodydata[11][2][1] = 'The servo\'s are routed up to my trusty R700 RX by a bunch of servo extensions taped to the underbelly.';
bodydata[11][3][0] = 'gallery/rchoverdisc/minidisc1.jpg';
bodydata[11][3][1] = 'Power is provided by a GWS 15T brushless outrunner and my heli\'s 25Amp ESC';
bodydata[11][4][0] = 'gallery/rchoverdisc/minidisc2.jpg';
bodydata[11][4][1] = 'I\'ll continue to use a 1200mAh Flightpower 2 cell and swap between a 7x3.5 prop for duration and 8x4 for hover power. That\'s not our real kitchen background of course...our\'s is much messier.';
bodydata[11][5][0] = 'gallery/rchoverdisc/minidisc4.jpg';
bodydata[11][5][1] = 'As a final touch I locked the motor stick over the fibre glass rod with an additional stick. This takes the weight off the foam to disc mount so hopefully no sudden separations.';
bodydata[11][6][0] = 'gallery/rchoverdisc/minidisc6.jpg';
bodydata[11][6][1] = 'Here it is completed and waiting for its maiden voyage.';
bodydata[11][7][0] = 'gallery/rchoverdisc/minidisc7.jpg';
bodydata[11][7][1] = 'Once it\'s maidened and I\'m happy with the way it\'s flying I\'ll try out Tom\'s bomb drop kit which should be a lot of fun.';
bodydata[11][8][0] = 'gallery/rchoverdisc/minidisc8.jpg';
bodydata[11][8][1] = 'GWs 15T pulls plenty of current and therefore needs a larger, heavier battery. The minisdisc needs to be built light so I swapped out the outrunner for a Feigao 12mm brushless IPS replacement with a 350mAh 3cell and 5Amp ESC.';
bodydata[11][9][0] = 'gallery/rchoverdisc/minidisc9.jpg';
bodydata[11][9][1] = 'A close look at the Feigao inrunner on an IPS A gear.';
bodydata[11][10][0] = 'gallery/rchoverdisc/minidisc10.jpg';
bodydata[11][10][1] = 'Piggyback riding or a scene out of Brokeback Mountain...not sure.';

category[10] = 'RCHoverDisc';

bodydata[10][0][0] = 'gallery/rchoverdisc/rchoverdisc1.jpg';
bodydata[10][0][1] = 'The saucer invasion begins....This is the RCHoverDisc developed by a guy called Tom who goes by the handle TomGoFly on RCGroups. The saucer section is actually a kids toy...called a Hoverdisc. Its simply a 3 foot wide mylar envelope which can be filled with helium or just plain old air and contains a fibreglass ring to give it its shape. The idea I guess is that kids whizz it at each other like a frisbee until they have someones eye out.<br>To cut a long story short this guy - called Tom - decided to shove a motor and tail feathers on it to see how it flew and amazingly, filled with only air and with a rudder/elevon setup it flew great....fast or extremely slow with a lovely floaty handling. I loved the look of it and positive reports, so in an effort to return to my roots of unusal flying things I had to have one. The rest is history.<br>Check out the video gallery for onboard flight video.';
bodydata[10][1][0] = 'gallery/rchoverdisc/rchoverdisc2.jpg';
bodydata[10][1][1] = 'The build was easy....all hot glue and very little effort although I still managed to screw it up trying to be clever. Here its shown with the Verbatim 5in1 video usb pendrive mounted on the stick which produces all the onboard footage available in the video gallery below left.';
bodydata[10][2][0] = 'gallery/rchoverdisc/rchoverdisc3.jpg';
bodydata[10][2][1] = 'Patent pending adjustable nose weight. Eventually put a longer motor stick on it to effect the CoG so that I could lose this heavy piece of iron on the nose. You can also see my troublesome prop saver here although with a stronger rubber band the prop has handled many heavy nose plants with not one single broken prop.<br>Electrics are very basic and cheap GWS350c with C gearing, 300Li ESC, Naro\'s, my old faithful JR R700 and a FlightPower 2cell 1200mAh LiPo. I\'ve stuck a couple of glitch reducers from Dionysis Design on the throttle and rudder channels as PPM rx\'s scare me.';
bodydata[10][3][0] = 'gallery/rchoverdisc/rchoverdisc4.jpg';
bodydata[10][3][1] = 'Major crash.<br>Well not so much a major crash as a major structural failure. I was getting more confident and taking it up high. This time I wanted to take it up <u>really</u> high.<br>So there it was about the size of your finger nail in the sky....did a few loops but it was so high it was difficult to tell orientation so I tried to settle it back into forward flight when suddenly....<b>bang</b> something separated and began the long fall a few hundred feet into an adjacent field. The hoverdisc gently fluttered and flipped all the way down for what seemed like an age. As it fell it drifted toward the roof of a pumping station...I was having kittens that It\'d get stuck up on the roof....did not what to lose a rx and all those servo\'s but luckily it just missed and floated into an overgrown field next door.<br>I headed for what I figured would be the most expensive thing...the thing that fell off. Yup...this was the front foam mount together with motor\/gearbox\/battery\/camera and speed controller all deeply embedded in thick mud. The hot glue had simply failed and the whole front foam section had cleanly parted company from the hoverdisc.<br>Then I headed for the hoverdisc. This was a little harder to get too...had to fight my way through spiky bushes and down an embankment but there it was sat upright by a river and completely intact. Apart from the missing front mount there was no damage whatsoever.<br>Got it home....all cleaned up and checked out. Everything Aok. Lipo sems fine which is the main thing. I guess the mud absorbed the impact. Would probably have been a different story if the ground was hard. <br>I\'ve now switched to foam backed double sided sticky tape to hold the nose secton on together with a second motor stick clamped over the fibre glass rim and amazingly it works really well although finally learning how to fly it has helped a lot to avoid high-g turns and heavy landings.';
bodydata[10][4][0] = 'gallery/rchoverdisc/rchoverdisc5.jpg';
bodydata[10][4][1] = 'The only damage was a chipped corner of the gearbox.....this no doubt was caused by my patent pending adjustable nose weight ripping off on impact. I didn\'t realise the g-clamp was missing at first and had to go back and look for it after I\'d collected everything else. Amazingly I managed to find the original crash spot in the field and saw a bit of red deep in the mud. Maybe it was the extra weight on the nose or maybe I just entered an extreme-g move....to be honest at one point I no longer knew which way up it was....it was too far away. The other thing was that I somehow forgot to use the acetone pad to remove the print for glueing the nose section. I rubbed the pad along the sides where the foam met the hoverdisc and then ran a bead of hot glue along this edge...obviously not good enough.<br>I\'m quite upset that I didn\'t manage to get any video footage of flying at height and this quite spectacular separation...the camera\'s output was corrupted but it seems to be working now. Ah well plenty more mishaps where that came from. This is an image of the front section that parted company and embedded itself in the mud before I cleaned it all up.';
bodydata[10][5][0] = 'gallery/rchoverdisc/rchoverdisc7.jpg';
bodydata[10][5][1] = 'Rebuild with new gearbox and motor heatsink. I\'ve installed a second stick which is clamped over the original stick by a single screw. This allows adjustment of the thrust angle and takes the motor weight strain off the foam to mylar connection. Foam double sided tape is sandwiched between the two sticks to maintain the angle once the screw is tightened. Note the indentation in the top stick over the FG rim to ensure a good clamping effect. The inset image shows the slight angling in of the motor compared to the original stick position. Works a treat!';
bodydata[10][6][0] = 'gallery/rchoverdisc/rchoverdisc6.jpg';
bodydata[10][6][1] = 'In flight photo\'s taken by me whilst trying to fly it. Very very tricky.';
bodydata[10][7][0] = 'gallery/rchoverdisc/rchoverdisc8.jpg';
bodydata[10][7][1] = 'Neon RCHoverdisc!! Electroluminescant glow wire for night flying. Cool eh?<br>This is the underside for full on \'spook the neighbourhood\' UFO effect.<br>The glow wire is attached under the hoverdisc lip and not on the edge where it maybe prone to damage. The disadvantage is that it\'s not visible from the top-side. No matter...there\'s plenty of excess.';
bodydata[10][8][0] = 'gallery/rchoverdisc/rchoverdisc9.jpg';
bodydata[10][8][1] = 'This is the topside. Lots of excess wire but not quite enough to do the saucer thing so I concentrated on in-flight orientation.<br>Its fairly obvious which way it\'s pointing dontcha think.';
bodydata[10][9][0] = 'gallery/rchoverdisc/rchoverdisc10.jpg';
bodydata[10][9][1] = 'This is Hoverdisc numero 2 after a big crash that killed the original. See video gallery and my RCGroups blog.<br>This time I tried clamping two nose sections together to give me a topside camera mount and a very strong motor mount.';
bodydata[10][10][0] = 'gallery/rchoverdisc/rchoverdisc11.jpg';
bodydata[10][10][1] = 'GWS 15T is now on the big disc with a 800mAh 3cell. The mini disc gets a Feigao IPS replacement.<br>Don\'t they look cute together.<br>No they are not humping.';
bodydata[10][11][0] = 'gallery/rchoverdisc/rchoverdisc12.jpg';
bodydata[10][11][1] = 'Low passes over spiky bushes, with hindsight, was a dumb idea. See video gallery.<br>Ah well, all hardware and foam will transfer to hoverdisc numero 3.';

category[9] = 'eCCPM Ark X400';

bodydata[9][0][0] = 'gallery/x400/carbonark3.jpg';
bodydata[9][0][1] = 'Matt of Panzoa very kindly sent me this carbon eccpm frame. It looks really good with precision milling and nice detailing. It\'s pretty much the same design as Ark\'s own frames accept with some added touches such as double holes for HS56 servos so I\'m hoping this will be a simple build. It should lose a bit of weight compared to the current stock alloy mccpm frame.';
bodydata[9][1][0] = 'gallery/x400/carbonark2.jpg';
bodydata[9][1][1] = 'Current mechanically mixed build. Up front is 3 x HS56HBs + Ark motor & ESC';
bodydata[9][2][0] = 'gallery/x400/carbonark1.jpg';
bodydata[9][2][1] = 'On the tail is an HS50, GY401 and JR R770S.';
bodydata[9][3][0] = 'gallery/x400/carbonark5.jpg';
bodydata[9][3][1] = 'AUW currently 734grams with mccpm frame and chunky 2.2A Flightpower LiPo. eCCPM will give me more space inside that canopy so it\'ll avoid issues with servo rubbing and give me lots of space for that battery especially with the extra surface available with the carbon frames.';
bodydata[9][4][0] = 'gallery/x400/carbonark4.jpg';
bodydata[9][4][1] = 'Weight w\/o battery\/canopy 556grams. Hoping to lose some of that flab.';
bodydata[9][5][0] = 'gallery/x400/carbonark6.jpg';
bodydata[9][5][1] = 'Major components seperated.';
bodydata[9][6][0] = 'gallery/x400/carbonark7.jpg';
bodydata[9][6][1] = 'Smaller components removed and grouped to aid rebuild.';
bodydata[9][7][0] = 'gallery/x400/carbonark8.jpg';
bodydata[9][7][1] = 'Everything fitting nicely.';
bodydata[9][8][0] = 'gallery/x400/carbonark9.jpg';
bodydata[9][8][1] = 'Opted to attach the hs56 servo\'s from the inside of the frame. Won\'t know for sure of best layout till a 120 degree swash arrives.';
bodydata[9][9][0] = 'gallery/x400/carbonark10.jpg';
bodydata[9][9][1] = 'Starting to look like a heli.';
bodydata[9][10][0] = 'gallery/x400/carbonark11.jpg';
bodydata[9][10][1] = 'Finished\! Same electronics layout as before. I haven\'t used that extra front platform...I kinda liked the X400 logo visible. It is now electronically mixed rather than onboard mechanically as before and sports a red anodized alloy 120 degree swash.';
bodydata[9][11][0] = 'gallery/x400/carbonark12.jpg';
bodydata[9][11][1] = 'Left side view. At 516 grams its a whole 40 grams lighter than before thanks to the carbon frames and direct servo to swash electronic mixing. That weightloss should help a lot in onboard video. Its a mare to setup though...at one point at extremes of aileron throw and negative pitch the servo arm was dropping into the path of the main gear. That wouldn\'t be good.';
bodydata[9][12][0] = 'gallery/x400/carbonark13.jpg';
bodydata[9][12][1] = 'Right side view. Just needs a few test flight tweaks once the weather improves. I\'m expecting this to feel like a different helicopter. I\'m a bit scared to be honest.';
bodydata[9][13][0] = 'gallery/x400/x400-21.jpg';
bodydata[9][13][1] = 'Finished with new black undercarriage and 400dh motor.';

category[8] = 'mCCPM Ark X400';

bodydata[8][0][0] = 'gallery/x400/x400-1.jpg';
bodydata[8][0][1] = 'This is the X400, a T-Rex sized heli from a company called ARK. The not necessarily true story goes that when Align - a Taiwanese company decided to expand its operations from vacuum cleaners into R/C aircraft it contracted design work over to a bloke called Li-Chann who ran a company called Ark out of a lock-up garage. The original Align T-Rex had many issues such as a flabby waistline, tail exploding vibration and levels of \'slop\' only dairy farmers are more familiar with. Version 2 came in quick and fast with many improvements and in a matter of months became the most popular micro CP heli by far - not least because of very competitive pricing. Anyway soon after Li-Chann cheekily decided to go  his own way and from the original designs crafted their own version...so similar in many ways that some parts are interchangeable but different enough to give it its own unique handling. Reports soon followed that the Ark helicopter was supremely stable and handled like a much larger machine. The frames were alumimium rather than plastic and there were many improvements to the head that reduced \'slop\' to a minimum. This was obviously a nice heli but unpopular due to the overwhelming Align marketing and head start the T-Rex had in the marketplace. Ever one to not follow the masses I opted for the X400 despite the pending 3rd iteration of the T-rex at the time which promised further improvements and an increased price to match. Out of the box my X400 has flown flawlessly for months with out upgrade and I am still more than happy with my choice';
bodydata[8][1][0] = 'gallery/x400/x400-4.jpg';
bodydata[8][1][1] = 'Nice overhead flying pic...';
bodydata[8][2][0] = 'gallery/x400/x400-2.jpg';
bodydata[8][2][1] = 'Thats me! Trying to look cool.';
bodydata[8][3][0] = 'gallery/x400/x400-13.jpg';
bodydata[8][3][1] = 'Is that a smile?? - bit hard whilst buttock clenching. This is an intimidating bird considering that it\'s classed as a micro. To this day it still has its moments where I\'d just like to get it down and go lie down for a bit...but I need stress or I get bored fast.';
bodydata[8][4][0] = 'gallery/x400/x400-3.jpg';
bodydata[8][4][1] = 'Oops! Tail glitch caused a tipover just as I was landing. Just a blade and bent flybar. This was only the 6th flight but I\'ve managed many more since incident free. All those years with fixed pitch micro\'s have kept me out of trouble with this more complex CP machine';
bodydata[8][5][0] = 'gallery/x400/x400-5.jpg';
bodydata[8][5][1] = 'Pre-flight build with T-Rex 450XL white canopy. The original canopy was formed from a thicker more durable plastic and I would have liked to have kept it, if it not for the awkward shape which restricted space inside for the hefty battery. One thing thats not shown is the battery - A flightpower 3 cell Lithium Polymer 2300mAh. Good for at least 10 minutes flying. Up to 13 flying conservatively.<br>Must mention one of the main issues with the X400...White plastic is brittle. The undercarriage is zip tied due to all the cracks that appeared after a flew flights and I never flew the Ark tail blades opting for T-Rex blades instead due to all the horror stories - think halflife style \'manhacks\'.';
bodydata[8][6][0] = 'gallery/x400/x400-6.jpg';
bodydata[8][6][1] = 'Naked showing a JR R700 Rx and Ark-125 400 brushless motor with 14T pinion. After a few flights I noticed the motor was going into melt down despite the inclusion of a heatsink and the battery was too hot to touch so I switched to a 13T pinion. 12T would be perfect but is not available. Unfortunately the 13T pinion is for an Align motor which has a different shaft size. Luckily my brother was able to get a brass collet made up by his college machine shop. Fits perfectly.<br>Moving around the frame you can see two of the three Hitec HS56hb servo\'s. These are fast, torquey, accurate and the most often recommended servo\'s. They are also a distinctly awkward shape with attachment tabs low on the case which causes all sorts of canopy fit issues.<br>On the boom you should also be able to see a red object attached to the horizontal fin. It\'s 2 coins heatshrinked to get the CofG right. In later configurations I moved things around to avoid adding unnecessary weight. I never stop messing with layout.<br>One last item to mention is the antenna looped round a couple of straws. This was quickly ditched in favour of running the antenna straight out to ensure full range and reduce interference. I found a long \'Mega Rainbow Dust\' straw was ideal for this purpose. The downside is having to eat the contents which is unpleasant but strangely addictive. Was still not entirely happy with this solution and later attached a steel antenna which I\'ve tried in various locations. Glitching & range problems are a major issue with the X400 - possibly due to the alloy frame helping to transmit interference or maybe it\'s just the cheap Ark ESC. A PCM RX came next but more of a bandaid than a definitive solution.';
bodydata[8][7][0] = 'gallery/x400/x400-7.jpg';
bodydata[8][7][1] = 'Still showing off her underwear...This side you can see the Ark-122 25Amp ESC - probably a little underated for 4 servo\'s but seems to work well enough although is the most likely source of electrical noise. This attaches to the battery via a Deans Ultra connector which is good for 80Amps apparently with very little loss...but an unapologetic nightmarish design. Next time Anderson Power Pole connectors will be on my list.<br>Anyway theres another chance to see an HS56hb \'Karbonite\' servo on pitch and a dinky transparent blue HS50 on tail pitch. This is kept busy twanging a bendy steel pushrod. The HS50 is not a torquey servo but is very very fast - Just right for the tail as long as it\'s smooth and well greased. A lot of people are changing the pushrod for a T-Rex hard carbon rod with the servo on a boom mount for more direct, responsive tail control.<br>Moving on...hiding inside the frame is a Futaba GY401 heading hold gyro. One of the best gyro\'s around for micro heli\'s - should think so considering the crater where my wallet was!!';
bodydata[8][8][0] = 'gallery/x400/x400-8.jpg';
bodydata[8][8][1] = 'Hovering around.';
bodydata[8][9][0] = 'gallery/x400/x400-9.jpg';
bodydata[8][9][1] = 'More hovering for the photoshoot.';
bodydata[8][10][0] = 'gallery/x400/x400-10.jpg';
bodydata[8][10][1] = '...a bit more hovering. I can do circuits and nose-in...honestly.';
bodydata[8][11][0] = 'gallery/x400/x400-11.jpg';
bodydata[8][11][1] = '...is that the time??';
bodydata[8][12][0] = 'gallery/x400/x400-12.jpg';
bodydata[8][12][1] = '...[tumbleweed]...';
bodydata[8][13][0] = 'gallery/x400/x400-14.jpg';
bodydata[8][13][1] = 'Ok, enough already!!';
bodydata[8][14][0] = 'gallery/x400/x400-15.jpg';
bodydata[8][14][1] = 'Are we there yet??';
bodydata[8][15][0] = 'gallery/x400/x400-16.jpg';
bodydata[8][15][1] = 'Oh for gawds sake..stop with the hovering pulleeeezzzzz';
bodydata[8][16][0] = 'gallery/x400/x400-17.jpg';
bodydata[8][16][1] = 'This is the latest build configuration with a T-Rex 450XL ready painted fibreglass canopy which is surprisingly light compared to my painted version which you can check out by clicking on the next menu sub options.<br>Other changes are a JR R770S PCM receiver hung out the rear instead of vulnerable on the side. The antenna wire is attached to a steel antenna which is directed out horizontally to the rear, parallel to the boom. Range is much improved and glitches caused by interference are a thing of the past with the PCM RX. There is much discussion on the merits and shortcomings of PCM as it effectively simply masks glitches by ignoring bad data packets. Glitches can cause slow responses and a \'failsafe\' condition which may or may not be worse than a glitch through a regular RX. For parkflyers the future is perhaps 2.4Ghz spread spectrum radios which are immune to such interference as electrical noise has no energy above 300Mhz. The latest system I\'ve seen is really impressive with tiny double antenna\'s on the RX end \(no more silly looking antenna straws and dangly wires - although I wouldn\'t fancy \'Mega Rainbow Dust\' withdrawal\). It\'s amazingly cheap too for a new technology but has a slightly limited TX. Anyway I\'ve promised myself to keep well away from shiny new money pits for a while.<br>Anyway I\'m digressing the ESC is also no longer on the side, instead I have pushed it further forward and under the battery tray far from the RX. This was an early attempt to reduce interference but together with a ferrite torroid ultimately made no difference whatsoever but the ESC position did improve canopy installation and more importantly looks a whole lot neater IMO.';
bodydata[8][17][0] = 'gallery/x400/x400-18.jpg';
bodydata[8][17][1] = 'Clear canopy sprayed internally with day-glow enamel paint and carbon fibre look screen.<br>The paint alone added 10-15grams of nose weight but looks nice and glossy and is so easy to see you need sunglasses. The enamel paint was a nightmare to spray as it was like my attempt at an omelette...thin and runny. In fact it was easier to brush it on. The trick to bring out the colour was to back it with white primer - effectively painting it in reverse. Obvious really.';
bodydata[8][18][0] = 'gallery/x400/x400-19.jpg';
bodydata[8][18][1] = 'Another chance to see the day-glow canopy \(aren\'t you lucky?!!\)...this time in sunshine which shows the CF look screen better.';
bodydata[8][19][0] = 'gallery/x400/x400-20.jpg';
bodydata[8][19][1] = 'Indoor pic of the day-glow canopy. Here I was playing with a steel antenna which looks worryingly like a deadly \'skewer\' when it\'s coming at you. The canopy weighed 40 grams at this stage as I hadn\'t cut out the screen area underneath the CF look screen. Was too nosy heavy like this so I hacked it out and lost about 6 grams - not me..the heli!!';

category[7] = 'Hirobo XRB SR';

bodydata[7][0][0] = 'gallery/xrb/xrb-1.jpg';
bodydata[7][0][1] = 'Coaxial heli from Hirobo';
bodydata[7][1][0] = 'gallery/xrb/xrb-2.jpg';
bodydata[7][1][1] = 'Nice close up \(for ebay\)';
bodydata[7][2][0] = 'gallery/xrb/xrb-4.jpg';
bodydata[7][2][1] = 'Nose in is easy with the XRB. I did this a lot for pics.';
bodydata[7][3][0] = 'gallery/xrb/xrb-6.jpg';
bodydata[7][3][1] = 'More nose in.';
bodydata[7][4][0] = 'gallery/xrb/xrb-7.jpg';
bodydata[7][4][1] = '...and more nose in.';
bodydata[7][5][0] = 'gallery/xrb/xrb-8.jpg';
bodydata[7][5][1] = 'Ok....now try that with the X400';
bodydata[7][6][0] = 'gallery/xrb/xrb-9.jpg';
bodydata[7][6][1] = 'Show off....but a monkey could do this.';
bodydata[7][7][0] = 'gallery/xrb/xrb-10.jpg';
bodydata[7][7][1] = 'Oops thats a bit close.';
bodydata[7][8][0] = 'gallery/xrb/xrb-13.jpg';
bodydata[7][8][1] = 'Thats gonna take your eye out matey!';
bodydata[7][9][0] = 'gallery/xrb/xrb-14.jpg';
bodydata[7][9][1] = 'Wow who\'d a thought....nose in....AGAIN!!!';
bodydata[7][10][0] = 'gallery/xrb/xrb-17.jpg';
bodydata[7][10][1] = 'Bit tight in this corridor';
bodydata[7][11][0] = 'gallery/xrb/xrb-3.jpg';
bodydata[7][11][1] = 'Thats a real dog you know. No really!!';
bodydata[7][12][0] = 'gallery/xrb/xrb-5.jpg';
bodydata[7][12][1] = 'Coaxial heli from Hirobo';
bodydata[7][13][0] = 'gallery/xrb/xrb-11.jpg';
bodydata[7][13][1] = 'Coaxial heli from Hirobo';
bodydata[7][14][0] = 'gallery/xrb/xrb-12.jpg';
bodydata[7][14][1] = 'Great pic dad...now let me get my X400';
bodydata[7][15][0] = 'gallery/xrb/xrb-15.jpg';
bodydata[7][15][1] = 'Coaxial heli from Hirobo';
bodydata[7][16][0] = 'gallery/xrb/xrb-16.jpg';
bodydata[7][16][1] = 'Coaxial heli from Hirobo';
bodydata[7][17][0] = 'gallery/xrb/xrb-18.jpg';
bodydata[7][17][1] = 'Coaxial heli from Hirobo';
bodydata[7][18][0] = 'gallery/xrb/xrb-19.jpg';
bodydata[7][18][1] = 'Cameraman\'s gonna get it in the chops.';
bodydata[7][19][0] = 'gallery/xrb/xrb-20.jpg';
bodydata[7][19][1] = 'Coaxial heli from Hirobo';
bodydata[7][20][0] = 'gallery/xrb/xrb-21.jpg';
bodydata[7][20][1] = 'Flying one handed while taking pictures is tricky but possible with the super stable XRB.';

category[6] = 'MicroCopter';

bodydata[6][0][0] = 'gallery/microcopter/microcopter-1.jpg';
bodydata[6][0][1] = 'Nice custom job. XRB canopy, Alloy head stiffener, hand built high tail with alloy direct drive motor mount, GWS IPS direct drive motor and 4530 prop with prop adaptor.';
bodydata[6][1][0] = 'gallery/microcopter/microcopter-2.jpg';
bodydata[6][1][1] = 'Another pic of the custom build. This build stemmed from the original geared tail motor that died after just ten flights. Direct drive is too heavy though without a 3 cell Lipo which then is too much voltage for the direct drive IPS. Gave up on it in the end and off to ebay it went.';
bodydata[6][2][0] = 'gallery/microcopter/microcopter-3.jpg';
bodydata[6][2][1] = 'RTF out of the box sub-micro heli';
bodydata[6][3][0] = 'gallery/microcopter/microcopter-4.jpg';
bodydata[6][3][1] = 'Another RTF pic';
bodydata[6][4][0] = 'gallery/microcopter/microcopter-5.jpg';
bodydata[6][4][1] = 'For a sub-micro heli its still too big and fast to do anything but hover inside.';
bodydata[6][5][0] = 'gallery/microcopter/microcopter-6.jpg';
bodydata[6][5][1] = 'MicroCopter';
bodydata[6][6][0] = 'gallery/microcopter/microcopter-7.jpg';
bodydata[6][6][1] = 'MicroCopter';
bodydata[6][7][0] = 'gallery/microcopter/microcopter-8.jpg';
bodydata[6][7][1] = 'MicroCopter';
bodydata[6][8][0] = 'gallery/microcopter/microcopter-9.jpg';
bodydata[6][8][1] = 'MicroCopter';
bodydata[6][9][0] = 'gallery/microcopter/microcopter-10.jpg';
bodydata[6][9][1] = 'MicroCopter';
bodydata[6][10][0] = 'gallery/microcopter/microcopter-11.jpg';
bodydata[6][10][1] = 'MicroCopter';
bodydata[6][11][0] = 'gallery/microcopter/microcopter-12.jpg';
bodydata[6][11][1] = 'MicroCopter';
bodydata[6][12][0] = 'gallery/microcopter/microcopter-22.jpg';
bodydata[6][12][1] = 'MicroCopter';
bodydata[6][13][0] = 'gallery/microcopter/microcopter-23.jpg';
bodydata[6][13][1] = 'MicroCopter';
bodydata[6][14][0] = 'gallery/microcopter/microcopter-13.jpg';
bodydata[6][14][1] = 'MicroCopter';
bodydata[6][15][0] = 'gallery/microcopter/microcopter-14.jpg';
bodydata[6][15][1] = 'MicroCopter';
bodydata[6][16][0] = 'gallery/microcopter/microcopter-15.jpg';
bodydata[6][16][1] = 'MicroCopter';
bodydata[6][17][0] = 'gallery/microcopter/microcopter-16.jpg';
bodydata[6][17][1] = 'MicroCopter';
bodydata[6][18][0] = 'gallery/microcopter/microcopter-18.jpg';
bodydata[6][18][1] = 'MicroCopter';
bodydata[6][19][0] = 'gallery/microcopter/microcopter-19.jpg';
bodydata[6][19][1] = 'MicroCopter';
bodydata[6][20][0] = 'gallery/microcopter/microcopter-20.jpg';
bodydata[6][20][1] = 'MicroCopter';
bodydata[6][21][0] = 'gallery/microcopter/microcopter-21.jpg';
bodydata[6][21][1] = 'Yeah thats a large pencil.';
bodydata[6][22][0] = 'gallery/microcopter/microcopter-24.jpg';
bodydata[6][22][1] = 'Boil the plastic!!??';

category[5] = 'Hummingbird';

bodydata[5][0][0] = 'gallery/hummingbird/hummingbird-7.jpg';
bodydata[5][0][1] = 'This is the V2 Hummingbird from Century. It came ready built and \'Almost Ready To Fly\' with an installed 280 motor and 700mAh NiMH \'Birdseed\' battery pack. Just needed to add servo\'s, receiver, gyro and ESC. I switched the servo\'s from the Piccolo but opted to replace the Piccoboard with Century\'s flightpack. Apart from installing the electrics and routing the wires there is no build to carry out on the Hummingbird. All mechanical components are pre-built and setup. So once I was happy that the servo\'s, throttle and tail operated in the right direction and that the gyro gain and tail mix were good it was ready to fly.';
bodydata[5][1][0] = 'gallery/hummingbird/hummingbird-1.jpg';
bodydata[5][1][1] = 'After the problems I had getting the Piccolo to fly the Hummingbird was a breeze. I was out hovering it straight away and it flew a lot like a larger and therefore more stable version of the Hoverfly. The NiMH battery lasts just 7 minutes but this is long enough when you\'re just starting out.  Got a bit too close to the cameraman here and another chunk of flesh was claimed by the Heli God.';
bodydata[5][2][0] = 'gallery/hummingbird/hummingbird-4.jpg';
bodydata[5][2][1] = 'The Hummingbird is small but still a little too big for indoors. Outdoors is best but requires still conditions to fly it comfortably. ';
bodydata[5][3][0] = 'gallery/hummingbird/hummingbird-3.jpg';
bodydata[5][3][1] = 'A lovely overhead shot, nicely lit.';
bodydata[5][4][0] = 'gallery/hummingbird/hummingbird-5.jpg';
bodydata[5][4][1] = 'Another classic overhead shot.';
bodydata[5][5][0] = 'gallery/hummingbird/hummingbird-6.jpg';
bodydata[5][5][1] = 'The Hummingbird is quite stable even in ground effect inspiring confidence to fly it to the very last drop of juice and till it has nothing left to give.';
bodydata[5][6][0] = 'gallery/hummingbird/hummingbird-2.jpg';
bodydata[5][6][1] = 'Nice rose bush. Almost fast forward flight here. Most likely accidental at the time.';
bodydata[5][7][0] = 'gallery/hummingbird/hummingbird-8.jpg';
bodydata[5][7][1] = 'Canopy off you can see here the \'Hummingboard\' which apart from an attempt at humour by a faceless American corporation is a tiny heat-shrinked circuit board containing speed controller, tail mixing and BEC for RX power. The Century flightpack includes a seperate micro piezo rate gyro billed at the time as the worlds smallest \(but is no longer the case by a long chalk\) and a seperate GWS receiver that annoyingly used a micro crystal. Two GWS Pico Servo\'s were transferred over from the Piccolo and neatly slotted into guides on the main mast and held in place with sticky tape. High tech huh??.<br>This early Hummingbird was supplied with a regular brushed 280 motor and 700mAh NiMH \'Birdseed\' \(ho ho!\) battery pack which flew it satisfactorily for a resonable length of time.';

category[4] = 'Piccolo';

bodydata[4][0][0] = 'gallery/piccolo/piccolo-1.jpg';
bodydata[4][0][1] = 'A long time ago in a galaxy far far away Alexander Van de Rostyne developed a micro electric helicopter he called \'Pixel\'. After much tweaking and redesigning finally he marketed an R\/C helicopter based on his original designs through a German company called Ikarus. The Piccolo and the micro electric helicopter class was born. Clones followed, many with considerable improvements over the original but the Piccolo you see here is the daddy of them all.<br>This version 1 Piccolo was supplied with both fixed and collective pitch heads. It is pictured here with its CP head and balsa blades.';
bodydata[4][1][0] = 'gallery/piccolo/piccolo-2.jpg';
bodydata[4][1][1] = 'Ikarus sell a 4in1 \'Piccoboard\' which you can see here in front of the supplied Ikarus 380 motor. The Piccoboard is a combined receiver, gyro, tail mixer and speed controller in an all-in-one heat-shrink wrapped circuit-board sandwich. I also ordered a heading hold module to upgrade the Piccolo\'s on-board gyro capability. This is a tiny red heat-shrink covered circuit board which simply slots into a set of pins on top on the Piccoboard.<br>Overall I enjoyed the build process of the Piccolo more than the flying experience. With little knowledge of fixed pitch helicopters at the time I wasn\'t able to get a good flight out of it. With more effort and patience and the know-how I have developed since that time I have no doubt that I could now get it flying well. Ultimately though there are plenty of newer and far better designs out there that fly out of the box so why bother with the Piccolo??!!';
bodydata[4][2][0] = 'gallery/piccolo/piccolo-3.jpg';
bodydata[4][2][1] = 'The original undercarriage I destroyed very quickly so I replaced it with this nice springy steel piano wire retrofit landing gear I imported from the US. It was a tricky installation involving trimming of the main Piccolo frame but when finished gave the Piccolo a more purposeful stance and includes a much improved battery mount.';
bodydata[4][3][0] = 'gallery/piccolo/piccolo-4.jpg';
bodydata[4][3][1] = 'Piccolo and Hummingbird kit contents. After my disappointment with the Pic I quickly switched to Century\'s Hummingbird after advice from an LHS. The Hummingbird came \'Almost Ready To Fly\' so I just had to transfer over the servo\'s from the Pic. I intended to use the Piccoboard on the Hummingbird but eventually plumped for a set of Century electronics - \'Hummingboard 2in1\', Century gyro, RX and BirdSeed NiMH battery pack.<br>My first flights with the Hummingbird were a much better experience and I quickly had it hovering.';
bodydata[4][4][0] = 'gallery/piccolo/piccolo-6.jpg';
bodydata[4][4][1] = 'The Mk1 Piccolo and Mk2 Hummingbird stand side by side here but are very different designs.<br> Apart from the obvious inclusion of servo position guides and an integral battery cage the Hummingbird has a number of improvements to the rotor head design which make a real difference to the flight characteristics. These have obviously helped make it perhaps the most stable and easiest to setup and fly of all the early range of fixed pitch micro helicopters.';

category[3] = 'Hoverfly';

bodydata[3][0][0] = 'gallery/hoverfly/hoverfly-1.jpg';
bodydata[3][0][1] = 'I love things that fly by unusal\/innovative means. This is Snelflight\'s Hoverfly and can very much be described as \'unusual\'. The cute looking Hoverfly is a tiny mains wired helicopter which in spite of the strange looking mechanism apparently behaves more like its regular R\/C helicopter bigger brothers.<br>It\'s marketed as an accurate trainer, particularly useful for hover practice, nose in and circuits. In fact it\'s perfect for this purpose as despite the Hoverfly\'s diminutive size it is surprisingly durable and survives the odd ding with little more than prop damage. Aerobatics are obviously out and pirouettes can lead to twists in the fine multi-strand tether which are impossible to remove but as an alternative to a PC Sim it is capable of providing a level of realism \(and panic\)that simply isn\'t possible with anything else. It is a really nicetraining facility and now the price has dropped dramatically is highly recommended if you have any aspirations to move onto  bigger and better things.<br>It\'s a pity though that Snelflight don\'t appear to have development funding to really develop this. I\'m sure things have moved on sufficiently since the first Hoverfly to allow them to lose the tether. Now that would be really cool.';
bodydata[3][1][0] = 'gallery/hoverfly/hoverfly-2.jpg';
bodydata[3][1][1] = 'The Hoverfly is a rather typically British cottage industry design consisting of a cheap vacuum formed canopy, brittle plastic parts, drinking straws and paperclips. In fact the only nod to high-tech is the inclusion of carbon fibre rotor arms in the Mk2 rather than the original\'s wooden toffee apple sticks.<br>The main frame of the Hoverfly is a rather flexible plastic cube supported by a metal undercarriage. A fragile plastic tail boom runs through the frame from the front and extends past the rear. To ensure correct CofG a tiny motor is located at the front of the boom and uses a belt to drive the tail rotor. Inside the frame is the connection point for the gyro and all the wires from the tether. The tiny piezo rate gyro is the only electronics componentry that actually flys and sits directly under the rotor hub. The rotor hub is where all the power signals are seperated and directed to the three motors at the end of the carbon fibre rotor arms. The motor\'s each drive a propeller directly and are angled in such away as to cause the whole rotor head to spin. The propellers provide all of the lift - there is no dynamic lift created by the rotor arms as they are about as aerodynamic as a 2x4. The rotor arms spin at about 250 rpm so there is little chance of damage but its enough to blur the whole head and appear like real helicopter blades once it is up to speed. The purpose of the spin is to provide a complete disc of lift as the propellers are rotated through 360 degrees.';
bodydata[3][2][0] = 'gallery/hoverfly/hoverfly-3.jpg';
bodydata[3][2][1] = 'Compared to the Vectron, control of the Hoverfly is far more complex and closer to larger R\/C helicopters requiring the utmost concentration and skill.<br>The main difference is the Hoverfly\'s lack of relative positional control. You\'ll remember that the Vectron knows which way the operator is facing from the telemetry supplied by the infra-red link between the pad and flying platform. Directional control is always from the operators point of view unless the link is lost and then everything goes haywire. The Hoverfly however does no such calculations. Directional control is relative to the helicopter. You have to control it as though from the Hoverfly\'s cockpit. This means that from outside the controls become reversed when the helicopter is nose-in \(facing you\) compared to a tail-in hover. This may sound obvious and easy but when the helicopter is flying there is no time to think. You must react instantaneously without conscious thought with positive control commands whilst balancing out random turbulent fluctuations. Helicopters hover in similar manner to a balancing a pencil on the pointy end but the Hoverfly in particular due to its size is constantly aiming to take out pot plants or anything valuable in the vicinity. Human flesh is a particular favourite and shredded carbon fibre is unlikely to become a popular breakfast cereal. To avoid this, control in all orientations must become second nature.';
bodydata[3][3][0] = 'gallery/hoverfly/hoverfly-4.jpg';
bodydata[3][3][1] = 'The heart of the Hoverfly is a seperate \'Electrocyclic Control Processor\' box which converts the signals from your own R\/C TX or supplied \'gamepad\' into individual motor commands switching quickly between motors as they rotate similar to the Vectron. This box does not fly and is connected to a power supply and household power outlet.<br> Everything appears to be built out of off-the-shelf boxes from electrical spares retailers and the supplied simulator is of the graphically unsophisticated and just plain old DOS based CSM kind. All rather quaint but it works.<br>Crashing the Hoverfly is an unspectacular affair, everything generally pops apart and just pops back again. The props though easily shear on impact and matched \'thrust group\' packs must be purchased to ensure good balance between the three motors to avoid head wobble.';
bodydata[3][4][0] = 'gallery/hoverfly/hoverfly-5.gif';
bodydata[3][4][1] = 'The Vectron served me well in teaching relatively good cyclic control so it took only a few days before I was finally able to teach my left thumb to work the tail. The Hoverfly generates no rotor head torque to overcome but the basic rate gyro still requires constant attention to keep it pointed right. In many ways this is a good thing. Heading hold gyros are extremely effective but don\'t teach effective tail control.<br>It was many weeks before I\'d learnt to precisely position the heli in the hover. This is a very squirrely heli due to its light weight and susceptibility to turbulent air. If you can fly this then in theory anything else should be easy.<br>The next stage was to learn nose-in where the cyclic controls are reversed as the helicopter faces the pilot. After weeks turned into months I was becoming frustrated with the constant prop damage and had almost given up when the weather turned nice and we had a number of consecutive still evenings. This is perfect weather to get outdoors and utilise the greater space to nail the technique. The space and lack of obstacles afforded a more relaxed approach and I finally flew nose-in hover after many months of failed attempts and shattered props.';

category[2] = 'Paramotor';

bodydata[2][0][0] = 'gallery/paramotor/paramotor-1.jpg';
bodydata[2][0][1] = 'I always wanted an R/C aircraft - this seemed like an easy way in. Slow and easy to control - it turned out to be neither slow or easy to control but great fun. It\'s a radio controlled Paramotor called the Sky Surfer. The Sky Surfer is a uniquely simple design consisting of an indestructibly sturdy plastic frame housing all the electrics and a powerful electric motor all lifted by a light parafoil wing attached to the aircraft by a number of fine but strong lines and clips. A tough prop is geared to the motor and protected from ground impact by a shiny chrome effect plastic hoop. All equipment is ready installed and it is just a matter of clipping the rear wheels in place, installing the battery \(when charged\), sticking the little pilot in and clipping on the wings. So a fair sized hole in the wallet later and 10 minutes of building time and it was ready.';
bodydata[2][1][0] = 'gallery/paramotor/paramotor-2.jpg';
bodydata[2][1][1] = 'The wing is constructed from polythene and forced into shape with light foam aerofoil formers strategically placed at set intervals along the wings width. I have two wings. The top one here is holed through intimate contact with a tree. Easily fixed with tape although retrieving it from the tree was another story.';
bodydata[2][2][0] = 'gallery/paramotor/paramotor-10.jpg';
bodydata[2][2][1] = 'Here we are in the grounds of my old Comp. It has a really big playing field with just the worry of a busy main road on one side. I advised everyone that if it hits a car just run!...or hobble in my Dads case \(he\'d just broken his toe before we set off\). In between torrential downpours and pesky text messages we managed a fair bit of fun flying fully captured for prosperity. Dad did the flying, Bro\' did the launching and I did the photoshoot.';
bodydata[2][3][0] = 'gallery/paramotor/paramotor-3.jpg';
bodydata[2][3][1] = 'That weather\'s not looking so good and it\'s a bit blustery but she\'s-a-flying. 2 seconds later it nearly hit me - I was too busy taking this shot...fool!';
bodydata[2][4][0] = 'gallery/paramotor/paramotor-4.jpg';
bodydata[2][4][1] = 'We\'ve crashed but we\'re ready again if only he\'d stop texting. You only saw her yesterday for gawds sake!!!';
bodydata[2][5][0] = 'gallery/paramotor/paramotor-5.jpg';
bodydata[2][5][1] = 'Here\'s how not to launch. We\'re attempting to throw launch here as the grass is too long for a regular takeoff.';
bodydata[2][6][0] = 'gallery/paramotor/paramotor-6.jpg';
bodydata[2][6][1] = 'That\'s better but the winds come up and its raining again. We\'re in for a bumpy ride.';
bodydata[2][7][0] = 'gallery/paramotor/paramotor-7.jpg';
bodydata[2][7][1] = 'Grounded after a nasty crash. The trailing edge control line connecting rod wrapped round the prop somehow...take a close look at the pic. But we fixed it.';
bodydata[2][8][0] = 'gallery/paramotor/paramotor-8.jpg';
bodydata[2][8][1] = 'We\'ll wait for that nasty cloud to go over and hopefully it\'ll take that wind with it. Apparently its torrential rain just a quarter of a mile away. My heart bleeds.';
bodydata[2][9][0] = 'gallery/paramotor/paramotor-9.jpg';
bodydata[2][9][1] = 'Oooh big black cloud. If only we\'d done it yesterday.';
bodydata[2][10][0] = 'gallery/paramotor/paramotor-11.jpg';
bodydata[2][10][1] = 'Still perfecting that launch technique.';
bodydata[2][11][0] = 'gallery/paramotor/paramotor-12.jpg';
bodydata[2][11][1] = 'Now its brightened up, the winds disappeared, we know how to launch it and we\'re not wearing sunglasses...lets go!';
bodydata[2][12][0] = 'gallery/paramotor/paramotor-13.jpg';
bodydata[2][12][1] = 'Lets buzz that pesky golfer \(just to the right of the tree\). We don\'t like golfers - get lost!';
bodydata[2][13][0] = 'gallery/paramotor/paramotor-14.jpg';
bodydata[2][13][1] = 'Blue sky and looking fine.';
bodydata[2][14][0] = 'gallery/paramotor/paramotor-15.jpg';
bodydata[2][14][1] = 'Hey is this a real paramotor flying around. Dads grinning bottom left.';
bodydata[2][15][0] = 'gallery/paramotor/paramotor-16.jpg';
bodydata[2][15][1] = 'Ooh, getting high, bring it down.';
bodydata[2][16][0] = 'gallery/paramotor/paramotor-17.jpg';
bodydata[2][16][1] = 'Now he\'s buzzing me....cool!';
bodydata[2][17][0] = 'gallery/paramotor/paramotor-18.jpg';
bodydata[2][17][1] = 'Duck!!! This was really close.';
bodydata[2][18][0] = 'gallery/paramotor/paramotor-19.jpg';
bodydata[2][18][1] = 'Great shot. Paramotor against background for perspective. Maybe the picture will be horizontal next time.';
bodydata[2][19][0] = 'gallery/paramotor/paramotor-20.jpg';
bodydata[2][19][1] = 'Now he\'s getting cocky. I was running to keep up so its a pretty impressive shot under the circumstances.';
bodydata[2][20][0] = 'gallery/paramotor/paramotor-22.jpg';
bodydata[2][20][1] = 'Its crashed again!';
bodydata[2][21][0] = 'gallery/paramotor/paramotor-23.jpg';
bodydata[2][21][1] = 'Photoshoot over, now it\'s my turn. Dad will launch...';
bodydata[2][22][0] = 'gallery/paramotor/paramotor-24.jpg';
bodydata[2][22][1] = 'Noooo!!! The engine cuts out. Battery dead. Maybe next time!';
bodydata[2][23][0] = 'gallery/paramotor/paramotor-21.jpg';
bodydata[2][23][1] = 'The \(bored\) observers';
bodydata[2][24][0] = 'gallery/paramotor/paramotor-25.jpg';
bodydata[2][24][1] = 'The gang - going home.';

category[1] = 'Vectron';

bodydata[1][0][0] = 'gallery/vectron/vectron-1.jpg';
bodydata[1][0][1] = 'This is the Vectron BlackHawk, a spinning hovering flying thing. It\'s driven from a mains supply so requires a control\/power line tether although this can be swapped for two off-board 9 volt ni-cad battery packs for al-fresco flying fun. Its basically a polystyrene \'tyre\' attached to a hub via three plastic spokes. Geared micro motors are mounted on each of the spokes and drive a set of high performance props. Once the props are up to speed the whole unit spins around its hub. By allowing the unit to spin freely around its central hub the Vectron increases stability and dismisses the requirement for torque counter-action \(eg. tail rotor or counter rotating blades\). The spin is caused by a torque reaction to the propellers which all turn in the same direction. This forces the whole unit to turn at high speed giving a gyroscopic stabilising effect like a Frisbee. This removes a big chunk of complexity and avoids the difficult control reversal required with normal R\/C Helicopters.';
bodydata[1][1][0] = 'gallery/vectron/vectron-2.jpg';
bodydata[1][1][1] = 'A neat side effect of this spinning foam Frisbee is that it is capable of a rather fancy message display.<br>The spinning central hub receives power and command signals from the hand controller via a thin wire. This wire is attached to the stationary landing gear and splits off to each of the spinning spokes to the motors by some very clever interconnections. Most of the control circuitry lies inside the hand controller with only a simple infra-red transmitter\/receiver circuit sitting on top of the hub inside a clear plastic covering. The polystyrene \'tyre\' is also home to the strip of led\'s embedded vertically just below the surface. These flash in a synchronised fashion producing characters once the Vectron is up to speed. Control of the Vectron is carried out by two proportional thumb sticks...the left lever controls power to all motors for height control, the right lever alters power to individual motors for cyclic directional control. The controller also houses an infra red unit so that positional information can be calculated for true referenced flight.';
bodydata[1][2][0] = 'gallery/vectron/vectron-3.jpg';
bodydata[1][2][1] = 'Whilst the vectron spins, user programmable messages can be displayed via a single strip of flashing LED\'s.<br>Control of a spinning device would normally be impossible as power would have to be quickly switched between the rotors as the device spins. The Vectron uses a clever technique to overcome this problem. As it spins the hand controller receives a flash of infra-red light. From this data it deduces which rotor is closest to the operator and instantaneously switch power accordingly. Therefore direction is always from an operators viewpoint - left\/right is always the left\/right of the operator rather the left\/right of the unit. Its all very clever and amazing that it works at all considering the spin speed but does requires a clear line of sight. If the infra-red lock is lost the Vectron is uncontrollable so power is automatically shutdown.';
bodydata[1][3][0] = 'gallery/vectron/vectron-6.jpg';
bodydata[1][3][1] = 'Once the mains transformer and control line tether is connected to the hand controller, push the slider switch to the on position and select the flight mode. There are three modes of operation indicated by a set of lights. The first is \'Auto\' - which in theory allows the Vectron to fly itself to a specific height and hover where you can then use the right stick to get used to directional control without having to worry about power and height. In practice the Vectron doesn\'t fly on autopilot very well and tends to sling itself around the room like a man possessed. On advice I read somewhere I opted for \'Manual\' mode as the power control is not really an issue. The third mode spins the Vectron and allows you to change the text display. You can try and fly it while you do this but then you would have to be highly dexterous or just plain mad!!.<br>Apart from the Start\/Stop button that obviously triggers the Vectrons motors there\'s one more button to think about - \'Turbo\' which as far as I can tell pumps a little more power to the motors making the Vectron more responsive but harder to fly.<br>One other thing to remember before you hit the start button is the \'Abort\' facility. This is extremely useful, press down on the two analogue sticks and the motors immediately halt without the usual slow shutdown procedure thus avoiding potential prop damage. Soft squishy flesh also has a similar protective effect I find.<br>The hand controller also provides error codes via the three mode lights, these can indicate situations like loss of lock and prop\/flesh jam. Typically these errors are frequent in the early stages until effective control is achieved. Despite its apparent lightness of build the Vectron is a sturdy little bugger and has survived many \'error codes\' completely intact.';
bodydata[1][4][0] = 'gallery/vectron/vectron-4.jpg';
bodydata[1][4][1] = 'Ok, so you hit the start button. The three props start to increase speed, they\'re on automatic at first so you have no control until they are up to speed which is equivalent to the midway resting position of the power lever. Herein lies a problem, this speed is just enough to lighten the Vectron but not enough to take off. Its ok on a slippy slidey wooden floor as the Vectron simply starts to blow itself along. On a carpet it tends to dig in and flip over. I usually hold the power at the lowest level so as soon as it obtains its infra-red lock and hands over control the power is reduced and the Vectron holds itself firmly on the ground. It can get a little frustrating and often its easier to get someone to hold one of the Vectron\'s little landing gear until that all-important handover and reduction in power takes place. Infra-red lock is indicated by a flashing light on the hand-controller and the fact that the light display starts.  Eventually you\'re ready to go...apply a little power - better to get it away from the ground as quickly as possible as in ground effect the Vectron easily trips over if those feet dig in. If you\'re using the base unit to restrict the height you can put full power on to stabilise its position and try and get used to the directional control. It needs only slight pressure to oppose unwanted drift but its all too easy for a beginner to lurch about with maximum stick inputs. When experienced cyclic response can be too slow to effect direction changes so the \'Turbo\' function can be used to increase power and therefore directional response.';
bodydata[1][5][0] = 'gallery/vectron/vectron-5.jpg';
bodydata[1][5][1] = 'On first use a base unit is provided which can be filled with water for added weight. The control line tether is passed through a hole in the middle to allow the user to restrict the height or reach of the Vectron whilst learning. This is useful to avoid the \'face full of high speed blades\' experience. I\'m flying it on a short tether here in order to take flying pics.<br>Underneath the controller are a couple of Playstation style shoulder buttons these control the display allowing you to switch through various effects and user programmable stored messages even in flight..but note that if you go for the \'offensive message\' option make sure you can fly it right or you\'ll look stupid!';
bodydata[1][6][0] = 'gallery/vectron/vectron-7.gif';
bodydata[1][6][1] = 'Its not long before your ability increases as unlike many other R\/C aircraft it can be flown everyday for as long as you want with minimal setup time from the comfort of your own home. I had to wait weeks before the weather was good enough to fly the Paramotor. You will not believe the satisfaction from acquiring the skill to simply hover the Vectron, especially when you\'ve thrown away the landing pad and lost that glazed look of extreme concentration - The \'Vectron Stare\'.';

category[0] = 'Kit';

bodydata[0][0][0] = 'gallery/kit/kit-1.jpg';
bodydata[0][0][1] = 'New (for me) for 2009 is Futaba\'s 7 channel 2.4Ghz computer set. It has a nice physical interface but a rather clunky old fashioned software. No servo monitors and graphs here. However it does have a few nice touches and the bullet proof radio link and tiny antenna\'s more than make up for it\'s shortcomings. And beside\'s, I got a great deal on this compared to the rather hefty price of the Spektrum sets. The only issue is I have to handover my first born to buy any more receivers. Futaba\'s stuff is high quality but pricey.';
bodydata[0][1][0] = 'gallery/kit/kit-2.jpg';
bodydata[0][1][1] = 'This is my long-serving (not-so) trusty JR 2610 (6210 US) 35Mhz computer set. It has a really nice easy to use interface with plenty of graphics making it easy to program which is good because the manual is crap. This is what the Spektrum 2.4Ghz sets are based on and their interface is similar. I still use this for short range stuff. The US version\'\s operating on 72Mhz I believe punch out up to 1 watt but over here I think we\'re limited to a miserly 1/10th of that and competing with all the other noise in the 35Mhz part of the spectrum is a recipe for glitches galore. PCM receivers are a must to avoid catastrophic losses but is the reason I switched to 2.4Ghz.';
bodydata[0][2][0] = 'gallery/kit/kit-3.jpg';
bodydata[0][2][1] = 'Funky servo monitor really helps get your head round the affects on a channel of any particular program, mix or setting.';
bodydata[0][3][0] = 'gallery/kit/kit-4.jpg';
bodydata[0][3][1] = 'More graphics. The wide display and relatively high resolution allows for some pretty graphs further help with program settings.';
bodydata[0][4][0] = 'gallery/kit/kit-5.jpg';
bodydata[0][4][1] = 'One downside of 35Mhz. Despite the huge antenna the link is still rubbish at just 100mW and prone to interference.';
bodydata[0][5][0] = 'gallery/kit/kit-6.jpg';
bodydata[0][5][1] = 'Dipping a toe in the world of surface. This is my cheap and nasty and very very ugly 2.4Ghz gear. Has very basic programming and 10 memories for storing your trim settings etc. Works well enough but strangely the Rx still has an extra long aerial which kinda defeats the objective.';