New In Box Cox Cobra Three Radio

cstatman wrote:does it give you pleasure to look at?
if you sold it, .... would you use the money to buy MORE cool things?

thats pretty much all I got for ya.    COOL radio

Probably add it to my cox collection of engines, planes, catalogs, and all of the Cox memorabilia in the corner of the basement where it is climate controlled.
Right next to the Cox RC Commander and the (NIB) EZ Bee II (without radio).
Purchased the radio for the EZ Bee II ---- never built it or assembled it like the RC Commander.
As the EZ Bee II that I purchased, the RC Commander had no radio with the plane when I purchased it at the local hobby shop.
"Al's Hobby Shop" in Elmhurst (suburb of Chicago).

I didn't want the basic Cox Commander radio that was really designed for the plane (up/down and left/right buttons)

sosam117 wrote:I didn't want the basic Cox Commander radio that was really designed for the plane (up/down and left/right buttons)

A while back in one of the older forums, this discussion came up. Someone came up with a way to disable the auto return to neutral if the button was held down for more than a couple seconds.

It involved removing some capacitors that when charged, would restore neutral voltage levels. Then a person could fly it basically similar to an old reed system, to include basic stunts.

GallopingGhostler wrote:

sosam117 wrote:I didn't want the basic Cox Commander radio that was really designed for the plane (up/down and left/right buttons)

A while back in one of the older forums, this discussion came up. Someone came up with a way to disable the auto return to neutral if the button was held down for more than a couple seconds.

It involved removing some capacitors that when charged, would restore neutral voltage levels. Then a person could fly it basically similar to an old reed system, to include basic stunts.

The Cobra Three servos and airborne pack fit exactly the locations in the foam.
The receiver hole is a little larger for the Cobra radio, but with some padding it will fit nicely?
That is what I did on the R/C Commander plane.

sosam117 wrote:The Cobra Three servos and airborne pack fit exactly the locations in the foam. The receiver hole is a little larger for the Cobra radio, but with some padding it will fit nicely? That is what I did on the R/C Commander plane.

That I can't answer, because I have never owned either the Cobra nor the aircraft. I did own the Cox Sanwa 2 channel 2 stick system back in the late 1970's for a short time.

My comment came from what I recall, when Cox made these systems available separately. It was discussed in forums how to improve them for use in aircraft. I never had a desire to buy it, because I already had a decent 6 channel Futaba system with dual rates. Dual rates were handy even on half-A aircraft, because I could switch it off, increasing throws for better dead stick performance when aircraft airspeed slowed during glide.

My comment came from what I recall, when Cox made these systems available separately. It was discussed in forums how to improve them for use in aircraft. I never had a desire to buy it, because I already had a decent 6 channel Futaba system with dual rates. Dual rates were handy even on half-A aircraft, because I could switch it off, increasing throws for better dead stick performance when aircraft airspeed slowed during glide.[/quote] The first rc plane I flew
was made homemade wit coroplas corflute balsa and with a radio control from my boat and it was a 2-channel futaba after A friend gave me a good one a futaba for an airplane that has to hang around somewhere I put it in a trainer .40 I think it was a tower hobbies .40 trainer Now almost not recognizable Due to the multiple crashes, especially Because the wing break in two twice not just once I remember my reaction the first time The controller and the receiver still work to this day To return to the subject, it's me too what I liked about this precision radio, the fact of having Dual rates were handy

The radios I started on were the EK Logictrol "Brick" radios.
They were designed a little cheaper than the Kraft radios but were of the same design.
I also had a Kraft 2 channel "brick" radio as well.

My EK radios still work. Sadly, on my Kraft brick I used it in a boat, and it shorted out.




And of course EK Radio went out of business so I had to select another radio manufacture.

Then I moved up to the Tower Hobbies radio gear which was just Kraft radio rebranded for Tower Hobbies.
And of course (again) Tower Hobbies stopped using the rebranded Kraft and started sing rebranded Futaba.

That is when I went to Airtronics and have stayed with Airtronics/Sanwa to this day.
And here I have another "brick" receiver that was purchased from Becker (German radio company that is sold by Multiplex)
I use this 6 channel Rx for my small indoor planes.

davidll1984 wrote:The controller and the receiver still work to this day To return to the subject, it's me too what I liked about this precision radio, the fact of having Dual rates were handy

Enjoyed your story of your learning curve with the .40 trainer, David. Yes, that was the most useful advanced feature. But lo and behold, they obsoleted wideband 74 MHz, my G system had to be retired. To replace (I was working long hours at the time and just wanted anything to legally fly) bought a Hobby Shack no frills 4 channel Futaba stencil. But lately, acquired a nice used Futaba 6 channel modern PCM basic programmable radio. Will take me some time to figure it all out. (Got a strong IT and digital electronics background, but the senior in me wants to fail at wanting to learning new tricks. May be this is why I still love rudder only flight and CL. )

sosam117 wrote:And of course EK Radio went out of business so I had to select another radio manufacture. Then I moved up to the Tower Hobbies radio gear which was just Kraft radio rebranded for Tower Hobbies. And of course (again) Tower Hobbies stopped using the rebranded Kraft and started sing rebranded Futaba. That is when I went to Airtronics and have stayed with Airtronics/Sanwa to this day.

I remember discussion by the late Tom Runge at Ace R/C, as to why they had to discontinue their R/C systems manufacturing. It had to do with our national trade policies, that allowed imported radios overtake locally grown ones, because they could not compete on price. They could not obtain wholesale materials and electronics cheap enough to lower their unit costs. This is why we no longer see Logictrol, Kraft, Ace R/C, Bonner, Orbit, Cannon micro systems, and etc.

sosam117 wrote:And here I have another "brick" receiver that was purchased from Becker (German radio company that is sold by Multiplex). I use this 6 channel Rx for my small indoor planes.

Yes, that is cute as a bugger, only 2" long and super compact. That would even work on 1/4-A outdoor projects. I remember Nick Ziroli back in the mid 1960's, a magazine article talking about him flying a 12" wingspan Peanut scale Fokker DVII on single channel escapement and Pee Wee or .010 Tee Dee power. The large scale master did small scale as well. Something like that would be the ideal brick to use.


I wanted to build Nick Ziroli's mid 1960's 40" Waco N cabin bipe with tricycle landing gear, bought the blueline plan, but never got around to doing it. The Waco is a beautiful scale aircraft. Nick Ziroli was a master craftsman, made that block cowl look good, too like it was turned on a lathe.

Outzone oz3667: Waco N by Nick Ziroli from Jan 1967 Flying Models


Outerzone plan photo of Nick Ziroli's single channel Waco N