Tenergy Syma S107/S107G R/C Helicopter - Yellow

This is my first remote controlled helicopter. I'm almost 40 years old and have nurtured a dream of flying a remote controlled helicopter since I was in gradeschool. I had given up on this dream for several decades due to the extreme cost, complexity, and risk of property damage that was associated with "real" outdoor RC helicopters. I discovered this helicopter quite by accident when it was listed as the "Amazon Deal of the Day" on one of my RSS feeds. Seeing it's incredibly low price, I decided to purchase one for my brother as a Christmas gift and then pick one up for myself (why should he have all the fun!) I honestly had no idea just what I was getting myself into...The first time I powered it up and flew it, I swear I was transported back to when I was 11 years old when my head was full of dreams and fantasies about flying. If you ever have had any such notions, I can tell you that you will NOT be disappointed in this amazing device. Now, all gushing aside...This helicopter is engineered amazingly well. The first thing I was worried about was how it might be damaged if it were to collide with something and fall to the floor. I was also worried about what kind of damage it would inflict on my house were it to hit something (not to mention incurring the wrath of my wife...) It turns out that the light weight of the copter keeps it from generating too much momentum, the sturdy metal frame keeps it from breaking itself in a fall, and the very lightweight but sturdy blades are mounted on pivots which help them "collapse" during a collision to avoid damaging whatever they hit. This isn't to say that you couldn't severely hurt your eyes or other sensitive body parts (or that of a pet or family member) if the blades were to hit them, but a strike on your hand or arm will sting but not do much damage otherwise.The controls for this kind of helicopter are extremely easy. First, it's a marvel to see the coaxial rotor design implemented in such an elegant way. This helicopter hovers by default and you only have to control the main throttle speed until it's "balanced" in the air. Adjusting the trim so that it doesn't rotate left or right is trivial to do and takes only seconds after you power it up. You can control it going forward/backwards (a tiny bit of pitch), up/down (vertical), and left/right (yaw) but you have no ability to go sideways or in any way affect the roll of the helicopter. This makes learning to fly the helicopter a real breeze (pun intended) and you'll very quickly start learning to push the performance limits of this little helicopter. This is definitely a departure from "real" helicopter models which have only a single main blade and a vertically-mounted tail blade. The difference is that those cost several hundred dollars and are very easy to crash until you master the much more complex controls.Battery life is around 5-7 minutes on a full charge and it takes about 40 minutes (avg?) to charge it from the USB charger. I'd recommend buying a little plug-in USB adapter (like you get for your cellphone) and use that rather than worrying about powering your computer on. Charging from the controller is a little less reliable and seems to take longer while not providing a very good charge. I'm seriously considering picking up a few more of these little helicopters just so I can have more continuous fun flying my helicopters while chasing my kid's RC cars around the house (fun for the whole family!!!) :)You can control 2 of these helicopters at the same time from the controller that came with my package. I've heard rumors that there exist 3 frequency controllers on the forums that exist for this helicopter but it doesn't seem likely that you'll be able to find one very easily (assuming they exist...) When you first power on the helicopter, it needs to be told which frequency to use. The first controller to start transmitting to it (be it on channel A or B) will be the channel that the helicopter "pairs" itself with. From that point, you won't be able to change frequencies unless you power cycle the helicopter.The other really neat thing about this helicopter is that there seems to be a vibrant user community on the web. Just Google "Syma s107" and you'll find a lot of fans both in RC forums as well as rabid fans who have made entire web pages devoted to this helicopter. Go to youtube and search for "Syma s107" and you'll find dozens of fan videos that show this little helicopter in action. There are also numerous hacks that people have posted to improve the forward/backward speed (swap the rear propeller with one with a larger blade pitch), increase battery life (with a new battery pack), make the controller more "advanced" by removing the spring that resets the throttle controller, and even some crazy guy that made custom pontoons for this helicopter and landed it successfully (with takeoff!) from his swimming pool!!! It's also possible to mount a camera--either a recorder or a live transmitter--to it but you'll have to carefully dissect the copter to remove weight and/or do the battery hack to increase its lifting power.You can buy packs of spare parts for this helicopter so if you have a bad crash and break something you can easily take it apart and swap out the parts. You can also (if so inclined) buy different color replacement packs and make a truly multi-color custom helicopter if you want. Just do a search for "syma" here at Amazon and be marveled at all the things that come up--including all of the many different models of helicopters that Syma makes. Just be careful and thoroughly read all the reviews when looking for spare parts. There seems to be quite a market for cheap "clone" parts that people in Asia(?) are trying to pass off on unsuspecting consumers. This is a price that we pay for globalism, so make sure to be an informed consumer.One word of caution. This helicopter uses infra-red (IR) light to be controlled. It does NOT use radio frequencies like more traditional RC cars and planes. What does this mean? First, this means that you should always try to point the blue top of your controller at the helicopter at all times. When using your TV remote control (which also uses infra-red light!) just think about how well that works when you aim the controller away to the TV--the same principle applies to this helicopter. This means that your controller must be pointed at the helicopter at all times and you cannot block your line of sight. I've found that the helicopter "buffers" the last commanded throttle command for a second or two so if someone momentarily blocks your controller you'll be okay. However, if you stuff the controller into an IR-opaque bag your helicopter will drop out of the air like a brick. That being said, most wall paints in houses are pretty IR reflective so I've been able to control my helicopter purely by the reflections of the IR light off of my walls but I wouldn't push it too much as I don't want to drop the helicopter TOO many times. The further the helicopter gets from the controller, the more you'll want to aim the controller straight at the helicopter. I once flew it in a large two-story atrium where I worked and I had a few moments when the helicopter dropped about 12 feet before catching itself because it was too high in the air. That also means that you cannot use this in direct sunlight outdoors. This helicopter is an INDOOR toy and you need to respect that. The sun is a massive source of infrared radiation and any transmission range you were used to indoors will be greatly diminished if not lost completely if you try to fly outdoors. Also, this helicopter is so light that the slightest breeze will completely blow it away so be careful if you try to fly outdoors at night.I've heard that this toy was awarded an award for "hottest toy of the year" in 2010. As an entry-level helicopter, this model CANNOT be beat. I don't consider it so much an entry-level device so much as a "gateway" into more complex and interesting models. I've flown it at least twice a night since I bought it a month ago and I don't see that letting up anytime soon. I've got my eye on a number of the different indoor IR helicopters made by Syma as well as a few from other manufacturers now. I am extremely happy and satisfied with this purchase and would recommend this to anyone who has any remote interest in RC flying but has never done so before.ps, here are a few fun games that I've learned you can play with this helicopter- Swimming upstream : I have forced-air heating/cooling in my house and so when that turns on, I'll direct the helicopter towards the vent and try to get it to push itself closer. This is very technically challenging and a lot of fun. Besides, when you've gotten as close as you want, just turn around and "surf" the tailwind to get a huge boost in speed!- Skimming the floor : while the in-air top speed of this helicopter isn't great (that's why people sometimes hack the tail rotor and replace it with a bigger one) you can get some amazingly fast speeds if you power up the main rotor *just* enough that the helicopter is still just barely touching the ground. Then you push the forward/backward stick as far forward as you can and you'll rocket along the floor at least twice as fast as you can in the air. You can then turn the chopper around and "drift" around corners and the like. It's a challenge to keep the throttle balanced just perfectly that you stay on the ground but get enough "ground effect" turbulence to shoot you forward at a high speed. Great fun!- Low-altitude obstacle course : once you get confident with maneuvering the helicopter, you can fly it at around shin height and dodge it between chair legs, under tables, and slalom around furniture. Caution: do NOT do this in the presence of pets or children--please!

I had seen these little RC choppers flood the market for the last few years, and iv flown a few of them in stores, at first they were a little bulky, with short flight times,. and clunky flight controls. but this one caught my attention due to all the good reviews it was getting,. and because it was under 20$At 20$ I figured if I got two or three days' worth of flight time out of it before it broke, and got to chase my cats a few times with it, I would be coming out ahead for the sheer entertainment value. But amazingly I've been flying this little bird for two weeks now, multiple times per day, and crashing multiple times per day,. (some fairly hard crashes) and it just keeps on ticking,. after probably over 50 crashes, I am starting to see some wear and tear on the propellers, and iv had to do some fine adjustments, ever so slightly re bending this or that back into perfect alignment, but beyond that she still fly's perfectly straight and level and flight times continue to stay at about 7-8 min. So this little bird,. is very sturdy. The build quality on this helicopter is way higher than I had expected for 20$.Flight controls are the best iv tried, if you're at all good at controlling a game controller you will pick this up quickly, if you're not flying perfectly on the first battery charge,. you will be by the second. The S107G is made for indoor flight so she's not very fast,. You don't want fast indoors or you'll just be constantly hitting the walls,. While you don't have much speed,. You have a lot of fine control, hovering in one spot is very easy,. And once you get a hang of the three control axis you will be zipping around the living room ducking under tables, landing on your friends outstretched hand, and tormenting your pets.As a cat toy,. It fails,. All three of my cats are very interested in it when its flying at a distance,. (its about the right size for a small bird, and not very noisy at all) so they watch it very intently,. But if it gets close enough for them to feel the down draft of the propellers they scatter in fear,. My neighbor's dog will chase it all over the yard, however,. I don't recommend letting a dog catch it,.As a human toy its simply awesome,. If your kid is dexterous enough to play a computer game, he or she will be able to fly this. To get good at landing and taking off, I put an office box in the middle of my living room and treated it as a "sky scraper landing platform" the smaller, and taller the box, the trickier it is to precision land,. so I started with a large box, and now I'm down to being able to land it on a small candy box about the size of my hand. doing this also helps you learn about the "edge" drafts you have to adjust for when flying near steep drop offs or in tight spaces.Recommended upgrades:I am going to be changing the main tail tube to carbon fiber,. as well as the two tail support rods, this should reduce weight, extend flight time a little,. and by removing weight from the back half,. I will be making it forward heavy, slightly increasing the forward speed. (Be warned this will also give it a slight permanent forward movement when hovering). Although there is a weight in the nose of the chopper, if you really want removing that will likely balance you back out again, if you don't want the added speed or the permanent forward movement.If you're going to upgrade the battery, get the 250 mAh upgrade battery that's out there,. do not do what one of the other reviewers did and add a 70 mAh battery to the existing battery, this is for a complicated reason,. but to simplify, when you add non equal (sized) batteries like that, the 70mAh battery will drain out much faster than the 150-200 mAh battery, once that happens,. performance will drop for the remaining mAh, think of it this way, you have two gas tanks, one is a gallon, and the other is two gallons, your "toy" takes from both tanks equally so the 1 gallon tank will empty before the 2 gallon tank empties, when this happens, the empty tank starts to act as a deficit for the remaining amount of fuel in the 2 gallon tank. In addition your charging circuit is going to get very confused by this de-balanced pairing, as it will try to charge both equally, though the smaller 70mAh tank will fill up first and trick the charger into thinking the system is fully charged, when it really is not. (This was grossly simplified, rule of thumb, it's just a very bad idea to match non matching (size) batteries in parallel). So if you're going to go to the trouble of ordering an upgrade battery just get the single 250mAh battery, that will give you much better flight times, will not degrade flight characteristics, and will not confuse the charging circuit.

I suggest indoor use only unless a calm day go to a ballfield, no trees