Mode Zero

Isnt fate a strange thing, being a dyed in the wool JR fan over many years, I had been looking for one of these transmitters for my collection and then sadly, one of our Forum members, Steve Salmon passed away recently and had not just one, but two of these very rare and desirable transmitters sold only in the US. Steve was a stroke victim with the loss of his left arm and had flown only single stick transmitters for many years.
He and I had become friends a few years back when I had renovated and converted his single stick Series 4 Flight Link to an Arduino encoder and 2.4 GHz, viewtopic.php?f=27&t=1082&hilit=Flight+Link+series+4

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Steve had amassed quite a collection of single stick transmitters and I think it would be fair to say that they had been well used in his stewardship!

His family made contact with me asking me to appraise Steve' s stuff/collection from a lifetime of aeromodelling and here is an example that arrived today of a truly wonderful piece of RC engineering, built in Japan by JR for and sold through Bill Bennett (of Tournament of Champions fame) Circus Hobbies in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Apart from a coat of looking over and very deep clean, battery was charged and a LemonRx Plug & Go 2.4 GHz Module installed into the JR module bay, paired up with a Gen 2 lemon 7 channel receiver and selection of servos saw the Century 7 waggling servos as it would have done in the mid 80s.

The vintage of this radio and software architecture places it just before the first JR computer set the Apex Computer, which set the scene for the modern programmable transmitters that we take for granted these days.

So there we go, that last hurrah for a custom built set by one of the major Japanese manfacturers of the 80s and I put it to you that it is an important piece of RC history in it's own right?

A lovely piece of kit, that! Someone I know who lives in Wales has both a JR and a Futaba single-stick sets. From memory, they are both computer radios, and imported from America.

Single stick remained popular in America for a long time, and having flown with it, I can understand why. To me, it feels much more natural than twin-sticks, but is not so suitable for the "stick-banging" style that has become (sadly!) more prevalent in recent years.

If people want to bang the sticks around like that, why don't they just go back to reeds?

Anyway, that is a lovely set. Good to see it being preserved.

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Pete

The second Century 7 transmitter arrived today and after a good clean and charge of the battery we had a photo opportunity of both Century 7 single sticks in aero and heli versions as well as the sister transmitter, the twin stick JR Apex 7 or Circus Hobbies Century 7 as it was known and sold under in the USA.
I also created the photo that Pete Christy referred to, as we now have both contemporary single stick transmitters from JR and Futaba in the same post code in Norfolk!