Shortman
04-12-2006, 10:37 AM
Okay, these past few months I have been given the opportunity to try flying my helicopters with a tray. This tray is the RCTRAYMANUSA all aluminum anodized tray. After being one of the few pilots who flew without a neck strap or tray, I felt it was time to try something new. Just as I adjusted for a pinch grip after flying thumbs for years, I noticed the tray was just another step in getting more comfortable flying with my helicopter.
The RCTRAYMANUSA tray can be adjusted to anyone or any transmitter, for my purposes, I was using a Futaba 7C and I'm about 5' 10". I had no trouble fitting my transmitter or body to the tray as it allows itself to be adjusted in multiple fashions. First, the length of the tray can be adjusted to fit any height depending how you like your transmitter to sit when flying. After adjusting the height of the straps and the tray you have a few more options to adjust comfort. The tray has an adjustable knob on the bottom to allow the transmitter portion itself lean or tilt to your preference, meaning, that if you want the transmitter 90 degrees to your body and elbows locked at a right angle, you may do so. However, if you feel you want the tray to til in, towards your stomach, the knob can simply be loosened, adjusted by pulling the transmitter to your best fit, and simply retightening the knob with your hand. Now that you have the height of the tray right, and the tilt and rest position of the transmitter, you can adjust the guide rails that come included with the tray. These nifty devices have slots cut into them not only for light weight and looks, but as a channel to guide your fingers to the transmitter. It's hard to describe how locked in you feel with this tray, but this feature really helps. If you need to take your hand off the right or left stick for a second as your flying to swat a fly or simply adjust your hat, the slotted guides allow your hand to flow right back to the same position your hand was at before adjusting your hat, etc. I just can't emphasize how well thought out this design really is. Another thing I noticed with most other trays available is that they sit flat, and the transmitter sits on a board basically. With this tray, the slotted adjustable guides on both sides of the transmitter move up and down and also tilt "in or away" from the transmitter to give you a solid connection. What I mean is, when you grab your transmitter on the table per say, your hand interacts with the flat surface and can make holding or resting your hands cumbersome when flying. With these slotted transmitter guides, your hand simply falls into place, without strain, and allows your hand to completely grasp the girth of the transmitter. Furthermore, now that you have the slotted guides adjusted, the tilt of the tray in relation to your body, elbows adjusted for comfort, and the correct height, you can actually bend the shoulder straps to make the transmitter feel tight around your shoulders or loosen it up a bit to get it more free. All together, once complete, you have a very comfortable piece of equipment that really makes holding the transmitter a thing of the past. I noticed when flying with the tray that my stick inputs were off after having been use to compensating while flying without a tray or neck strap. My hovering manuevers improved quite a bit and the solid connection I had between my helicopter really was noticeable. When performing flips with the transmitter tray, I could now see that I was indeed really making the helicopter do weird things that I passed as the helicopters fault when it was really me pushing the sticks incorrectly. After quickly adjusting to the tray, my flips leveled out smoothly and the precision of other manuevers improved.
So overall, I would highly recommened this tray to others who want a more solid feel between their transmitter and helicopter, and those who want the most in comfort. You don't need to be a world class F3C pilot to feel the difference with this tray.
You can find more information on this tray including the very in depth manual that actually comes with the tray showing you in much greater depth, the adjustability features of this piece of equipment at www.rctraymanusa.com
The RCTRAYMANUSA tray can be adjusted to anyone or any transmitter, for my purposes, I was using a Futaba 7C and I'm about 5' 10". I had no trouble fitting my transmitter or body to the tray as it allows itself to be adjusted in multiple fashions. First, the length of the tray can be adjusted to fit any height depending how you like your transmitter to sit when flying. After adjusting the height of the straps and the tray you have a few more options to adjust comfort. The tray has an adjustable knob on the bottom to allow the transmitter portion itself lean or tilt to your preference, meaning, that if you want the transmitter 90 degrees to your body and elbows locked at a right angle, you may do so. However, if you feel you want the tray to til in, towards your stomach, the knob can simply be loosened, adjusted by pulling the transmitter to your best fit, and simply retightening the knob with your hand. Now that you have the height of the tray right, and the tilt and rest position of the transmitter, you can adjust the guide rails that come included with the tray. These nifty devices have slots cut into them not only for light weight and looks, but as a channel to guide your fingers to the transmitter. It's hard to describe how locked in you feel with this tray, but this feature really helps. If you need to take your hand off the right or left stick for a second as your flying to swat a fly or simply adjust your hat, the slotted guides allow your hand to flow right back to the same position your hand was at before adjusting your hat, etc. I just can't emphasize how well thought out this design really is. Another thing I noticed with most other trays available is that they sit flat, and the transmitter sits on a board basically. With this tray, the slotted adjustable guides on both sides of the transmitter move up and down and also tilt "in or away" from the transmitter to give you a solid connection. What I mean is, when you grab your transmitter on the table per say, your hand interacts with the flat surface and can make holding or resting your hands cumbersome when flying. With these slotted transmitter guides, your hand simply falls into place, without strain, and allows your hand to completely grasp the girth of the transmitter. Furthermore, now that you have the slotted guides adjusted, the tilt of the tray in relation to your body, elbows adjusted for comfort, and the correct height, you can actually bend the shoulder straps to make the transmitter feel tight around your shoulders or loosen it up a bit to get it more free. All together, once complete, you have a very comfortable piece of equipment that really makes holding the transmitter a thing of the past. I noticed when flying with the tray that my stick inputs were off after having been use to compensating while flying without a tray or neck strap. My hovering manuevers improved quite a bit and the solid connection I had between my helicopter really was noticeable. When performing flips with the transmitter tray, I could now see that I was indeed really making the helicopter do weird things that I passed as the helicopters fault when it was really me pushing the sticks incorrectly. After quickly adjusting to the tray, my flips leveled out smoothly and the precision of other manuevers improved.
So overall, I would highly recommened this tray to others who want a more solid feel between their transmitter and helicopter, and those who want the most in comfort. You don't need to be a world class F3C pilot to feel the difference with this tray.
You can find more information on this tray including the very in depth manual that actually comes with the tray showing you in much greater depth, the adjustability features of this piece of equipment at www.rctraymanusa.com