Believe it or not the vbar actually is setup out of the box as well really. The only setting up you need to do and that I did in the video, is in the radio make sure your control surfaces are all going the correct way. The gains are already preset, however I talked in the video a little about adjusting them to your liking and of course the endpoints which are personal as well. So, even though I haven't set up a Cortex, I have to believe that you still need to make sure the controls are going the correct way at a minimum as well with your radio. In fact I'd bet the setup is very similar as well as the tuning but with the advantage of the vbar having its own radio, it should be much faster. I know that when I set up a basic Spektrum say 6210 receiver, it takes me longer using my DX9 to do that than with the vbar. This is because the menus in the radio take more time to navigate. Think about when you set up that new plane, you have to check the controls are going the correct direction, you have to adjust the endpoints so there is no binding and or max throws, then you have to adjust the subtrims. All of these small adjustments which we do on most every setup take time and are on different menu screens. With the Vbar they are all on one screen per each control surface making it much faster and this is one of the huge benefits of the radio. I'm really hoping other systems in the future adopt some of these ideas, because the one thing I do not like about the vbar radio is being tied to it and not really being able to use it on smaller stuff dur to cost restraints.
In regards to the cortex, a good comparison would be to really spend time with both and fly the heck out of them side by side. I would like to try a Cortex for sure, but they are priced out of my range for my needs. While the vbar setup is pricey too and probably more so at least up front, I mainly use it with my helicopters which is something I wouldn't be able to do with the cortex. Unfortunately for the vbar radio, it's only a wise purchase for folks who really fly both and don't mind sticking with the vbar brand. Hopefully down the road they will either adapt to work with other systems or other systems will adopt some of their technology.
Oh and some of those turbine jets doing 3d are amazing and I believe a lot of them are using the cortex. Bavarian Demon, the company of the Cortex also has what I hear to be a nice helicopter flybarless unit as well. Nice to have all these great choices...
