I was at my sister's place a while back & we were discussing one of her friends who is a pilot & he also plays around with those big model remote control planes.

Somehow during the discussion, she mentioned he bought a whole heap of cheap remote controlled helicopters & had given her one which she has stashed & forgotten about. After a bit of searching it was discovered & then we spent quite a time pulling batteries out of all her electronic devices to get it running.



I've always wanted to have a crack at flying a helicopter regardless of size & this was my chance.

It takes a couple of attempts to work out the best way to launch. Sitting it on the ground isn't a good idea as it falls over & the rotors flap about everywhere. Holding it underneath, giving it full power & letting it go was a far better method. It looks incredible feeble with thin bits of wire & plastic, but is quite happy to smack into furniture & keep flying (& it did countless times!)

Controls are simple, a throttle, steering & a trim control button to adjust the speed of the tail rotor so it goes in a straight line. Turning left & right is quite a pointless exercise because the downdraft it creates keeps it from getting close to walls & as such it flies relatively unassisted around the room.



Unfortunately, the maximum charge of the helicopter is around six minutes, which.... tends to also be the amount of time it takes to master & get bored of it.

Of course, you recharge & then let the rest of the family & friends have a go after which the batteries are flat, all your small electronic devices have sacrificed said batteries for the cause & it ends up back in the box to probably never get used again!

A similar remote controlled helicopter on ebay is now less than $20, which actually makes it good value for about a couple of hours entertainment. To really get your monies worth, just make sure you have a lot of people around to fly it as well or perhaps a cat to terrify from above.

Hmmm.... now who do I know that has a cat?