"I already have a Sparkfun FTDI to serial converter  the ones I have has a TTL level module and one with an USB/FTDI chip not sure if you bought 2 if you can configure the 2 TTL serial modules to talk to each other or not"

"Depends on what you need I suppose I just like tinkering. I will give the 3DR radios a go in a boat see what happens in anger

The Xbee based definitely worked at my skill level probably at a range of 300 meters"

"After further experimentation  I confess the latency is awful unless you use it as a simplex connection

Cheap though could use a 433Mhz and a 900Mhz together one for control and one for Telemetry

In the end the Xbee works well with a 5:1…"

"Thanks for the tip

I have not tried them long range will need to hack/wire into the PC end with the FTDI and eliminate it so I can use another ARduino for the  TX anyway.

My first model with these modules is a boat in any case so not so…"

"The plane above is using 2.4Ghz Xbee 

These HK devices are not Xbee the 433Mhz and 900Mhz modules both seem interchangeable the air rate is variable depending on the conditions.

The fact of the matter is it does work in practice I have used the…"

"Here is the code running using the 900Mhz transceiver's"

"I have flown planes with an Xbee Arduino based remote control with very low latency "

"I do too use it a lot at work. You can use VS 2010 C# on the Netduino/FEZ Panda with Micro CLR but its not real-time I tried to use Netduino a while back so now I use Arduino  for my projects. I will have the TX running on Arduino soon hopefully "

"Cutting the tracks no going back from there"

"i need to trace the RX/TX before the FTDI chip on the PC end so I can connect it directly to an Arduino have you done that with one?"

"Any way roll your own with an Arduino and a WiFi shield "

"I found it liked to be at least a meter away from the laptop to work reliably "

"Seems Ok at 100 meters I would estimate (not measured) in an open space its 200mW so quite  powerfull and Xbee is up to 100mW"

"Thanks for the tip"