My New Radio - Futaba 14SG (hell version FUTK9411)

I've been wanting a new radio transmitter for some time. I looked at a lot of different radios and couldn't make up my mind. There are so many good radios on the market now. My Spektrum DX7SE served me well, and probably still will for a while, but I was really needing something with knobs and/or sliders that my DX7SE does not have.

A few weeks ago Ron at Al's Cycle and Hobby in Medford showed me the Futaba 14SG. I liked all the available switches and knobs and it felt good in the hand. Plus the gimbals felt really nice and that's been a picky thing I have had about my DX7SE. If I handed you my DX7SE and asked you, you'd probably say they feel fine, but there is this hardly noticeable "Sticktion" on the throttle stick that just bugs me. Time will tell after a bunch of flights, but the Futaba sticks feel silky smooth to me.

Now I just have to figure out Futaba-ese.

I would like to send a big shout out to Ron at Al's Cycle and Hobby in Medford for taking the time and patience to answer my questions and also demonstrating his own personal Futaba 14SG for me. His knowledge and experience with the radio sealed the deal.

Here it is freshly opened. You can still smell the electronic goodness.

Nice, I am working with a 8FG Super and am starting to like it, but it takes a lot to figure things out.

GPS - If you could figure out the Spektrum, then the Futaba should be a cake walk. You'll love that radio. I always fly Futaba on anything expensive or dangerous. Definitely wouldn't fly helicopters on anything else. I fly Spektrum on the park flyers because that's what so many of them come with and also the receivers are super cheap for the scratch built stuff. I use a Futaba 10CAP so I can plug a Spektrum module into the back of it. It's really nice to fly everything on one radio. I'm getting too old to remember how to program ten different radios.

...Tiger

I can't say I ever struggled with the Spektrum radio. I think the hardest thing I ever did was setting up a helicopter from scratch when I was not really sure what the mechanical swash should be doing in the first place. Compared to helicopters multi rotors are pretty simple. I think you end up messing with the flight controller more than the radio.

One thing for sure is that Futaba needs to do better within their manuals. Here is a quote taken straight from the 14SG manual:

WTF?
Seriously. I'm sorry but in this "Global Economy" the Futaba folks can't find a English speaking person somewhere to help write a manual that doesn't sound like it was written by some half wit?

Ron at Al's Hobby told me there is a good book available on Amazon. I haven't looked for that yet. I will see if I can figure it out with this miserable manual for now and see how far I get. Good to know there is a third party manual available I guess.

It seems that there have already been three firmware updates for this radio also. Nice to know Futaba seems to be on the ball with but fixes and improvements.

I just noticed last night that the side sliders have center detents, I'm glad for this. I missed that when looking at Ron's.

The manual is the worse thing ever, mine says go to page 40 for further info, but it is on page 63, about a dozen times I found that. The 8fg sliders will beep when centered, if you can find in the manual how to turn that on.

Agree. The manual is very poorly written.
I found the Kindle e-book that Ron at Al's Hobby was telling me about, but it seems it is really written for fixed wing. However I read the free preview that Amazon allows and already it clarified a few things to me about the radio. It looks like it also pertains to several other Futaba models so your 8FG is similar firmware wise.

You can buy the book and read the preview parts here:
http://www.amazon.com/Futaba-14SG-Programming-Fixed-Aircraft-ebook/dp/B00BMM9J7A