Your pick: stick or pistol grip

[MattHiggins]

What's your favorite style of transmitter?

[Doubledog]

Geesh, I like them both, but if you had to hit me with a dead fav... it would be the pistol.

Currently have two stick & two pistols in the inventory and like them both. Just depends on which boat goes with me. If I run the pistol, then it makes you wonder how you can ever run a stick. Then a weekend or two later, I'll play with the stick & don't think about the pistol.

The one handed feel of the pistol is good.

[rjjr]

I'm new to this so bear with me.

A stick box has 4 or more channels correct?

If I have a twin engine boat I can run one servo to operate one engine and one servo to operate the other??

[Doubledog]

Stick box has 4 or more channels?

Not always.
In the past I've ran a two channel stick & now have them as three ch. The left only goes up and down for gas & the right is steering, while the third is a dial on the top.

About the twin engine deal... I'd do it only for scale electro. When running normal twin nitro & gas setups you'll use a "Y" to run two servos off the same channel. :)

[Ron Olson]

Nothing against stick radios but I've been running pistol-grip radios since they first came out. My first wheel radio was one of the Futaba box radios. Every once in a while I still see some around that have been converted to narrow band.
I would like to try out one of the newer 2 stick with a 3rd channel knob TX like the Hi-Tec Ranger III.

[Doubledog]

Ron, I've got two of them.

The third channel isn't serving me any purpose as of yet, but I'd like to utilize it as a kill switch. Been told they work good for a third ch. mixture. Very good radios from my perspective.

[Ron Olson]

I bought a JR XR-3 for the 3rd channel usage for fuel mixture control and found out that it was way too slow to use this way. Other than that, it's a great 2 channel radio. :D

[BoatDoc]

i like the pistol grips. stick radio's always felt kinda clumsy to me.

[rjjr]

I'm restoring an old 63" Criss Craft and want realistic operation so I'd like to control each electric motor independantly. Not quite sure how to do that yet though.

[Ron Olson]

Ace R/C offers a dual-stick radio system that operates the motors independently, just like full-sized boats with extra channels for lights, horns, etc.. This is the radio of choice for most scale boat modellers that like to load their boats with all of the goodies.

[Doc]

'rjjr',
You can use a three channel radio for operating the rudder and two motors independently. Not the 'cheapest' way, but using two ESC's is certainly the simplest way of doing it. But, since the three and four channel radios are fairly close in price, why not get a four channel? The 'extra' channel can always be used for something, or don't use it at all.

As to my choice between a 'stick' and 'pistol' type radio, I prefer the 'stick'. No particular reason, just do...
- 'Doc

[550racer]

i like my pistol radio i havent really used a stick but i dont think id like it

[Hydro Junkie]

Twin Sticks is the only way to go. I'm looking at updating an old Futaba Conquest to gold standards for a modified Kadet Jr I'm scratch building and getting a Futaba 9C that can be used for anything that floats flies or rolls. Besides, with turbine hydros, you need throttle, rudder, mixture and canards. Show me a pistol that can do that :cool:

[Doubledog]

If you ever get a chance to try a pistol, it takes a while like anything, but the feel is so much better to me. Like someone said, I feel like my box will fall at any moment. Don't use straps but maybe should.

[Chris LaPanse]

I like pistols. It just has always felt more natural and intuitive to me. I also like the feel - it feels like you have a better grip on it. The only place I like stick better is on airplanes (and I haven't found someone yet who disagrees)