Rating:

First things first – this is a proper man toy, despite being tiny and very, very, light. I suspect most (but not all) children younger than teenage years would get too frustrated by the sensitivity required to fly a helicopter and would give up (but only after having crashed into everything in sight). So, if you are considering buying a remote controlled helicopter for somebody younger than say 11 or 12, I would suggest giving them some juggling balls first. Once they can juggle three balls easily and five balls just about, they are ready to try a helicopter. Am I exaggerating? Not much. I have flown fixed wing aircraft, as well as both full-sized fixed-wing and helicopter simulators. The latter was the most difficult of all of those. Bizarrely, flying this remote controlled helicopter seems even harder (I suspect the controls are not as accurate as they should be, and crash damage causes some extra unpredictability). I don’t think the instructions help – with the controls adjusted so that it hovers perfectly with a reasonable amount of power, attempting to take off by gently increasing the power from nothing results in a sideways tumble across the floor. Give it some welly to get off the ground (but not as far as the ceiling!), bring it to a hover, then do more sensitive adjustments once in the air. Also, the removable plastic stabiliser at the front is a nightmare. Each time you crash the stabiliser ends up pointing in a different direction. Take it off as soon as possible and things become more predictable.

Note that this is very much an indoor toy. It is tiny. It’s not the sort of thing you see guys flying over the South Downs. I don’t know what happens outside – whether it has absolutely no damp protection, or whether it is so light that a gust of wind will blow it away, but the instructions say indoors only.

For frequent users, I suspect good re-chargeable batteries are probably the way to go, although you notice when the charge starts to drop (if you keep flying, the helicopter just drops out of the sky when the charge drops below a certain level). One thing that is very useful is a blue light that can be turned on at the front of the helicopter. I bought the helicopter in camouflage colours. As you aren’t supposed to fly this under bright lights, in a long, not very well lit room, when the helicopter is end on to you, it can be hard to tell whether it is pointing towards you or away from you. The light solves that nicely.

Great fun. Feels flimsy and toy-like, but still a great product. I hope nobody is expecting me to get much practical stuff done in the near future, other than, like now, when I am re-charging the helicopter.

[Noted added 12th Feb 2010] – I’ve bought a second one of these helicopters after the first one had one crash too many and became un-steerable. The second one has completely different flying characteristics to the first (even before the crashes) – this one is far more stable and controllable. So it seems that there is some variation between one helicopter and another, even for the same model. With the first I could not do a gentle take-off, and landing was incredibly difficult, with the second a gentle take-off is easy and a tidy landing is now only challenging rather than incredibly difficult.

Rating:

If you want a first helicopter that is easy to use, understand and takes incredible abuse, this is one that can be recommended with whole hearted recommendation!!