So You Would like Small Radio Controlled Helicopters? If you want to start flying or even making remote controlled helicopters, the best way to start is at the beginning and the beginning is with small electric, 7"-8" long, battery-powered models. These models are very cheap likened to a year ago, when they cost $100-$120 each. Now you can purchase one for $20. There is practically no assembly work with these small RC choppers, although you may have to secure the rotors and insert the battery and a child can do that. However, you are not buying this model in order to learn assembly, you are purchasing it in order to learn flight management. These small radio control helicopters usually have three channel-control, which gives you control over flight in three vectors: up - down; left - right and forwards backwards. This sounds very simple, but you will crash your RC helicopter, because you do not know what you are doing and you are not into any routines. You have almost certainly not worked out how to judge distance and height either. First, you will crash into items and have rough landings. Second, you will misjudge distances, height and flight time. These latter are important because, your transmitter and receiver have a working distance of around 30 feet and if you model goes outside that distance, you lose control over it - anything could occur! Furthermore, the battery will power the chopper for about 5-7 minutes. If the chopper is 25 feet off the ground and the battery fails, you will have a significant crash on your hands. Luckily, these little replicas are very sturdy with a metal frame, so you will almost certainly merely lose a couple of rotors, which are not costly or difficult to replace. If you trash the whole thing, you have just lost $20, but what if your model cost $500 and you were just starting out? That would be a costly manner to learn flying RC choppers, would it not? These small model choppers will put up with lots of rough treatment, but you will need spares and these parts can be bought. Parts are readily obtainable and it is worth purchasing spare main and rear rotors as you purchase your model. This is doing you good. If you choose to move up a degree after a while, you will realize how practical your practice with a small RC helicopter has been, even though you can only learn so much from these small helicopters. Larger models, say a six or eight foot model will have a lot more controls and need far more maintenance, so start small and learn. One thing that you will be able to do with your small model will be to use it for photographic purposes. Birds may entirely ignore them, so if you strap a small, lightweight modern video camera to it, you will be able to film special footage of
local birds. You might even get able to sell aerial photographs of your neighbours' gardens, with their permission, obviously. Owen Jones, the author of this article, writes on a number of subjects, but is now involved with the Gyro Helicopter S107. If you would like to know more, please visit our website at Smart Toys for Kids.