| Isn't this the one that does nothing but hover?
Yes.
I've got one too.
It takes about 10 minutes to charge, and flies about 5 minutes straight (10 if you land for 5 minutes out of that 10 minutes, I guess.)
One channel -- throttle.
It goes up and down, and that's about it. You cannot `fly' it around the room unless you're really lucky, because you have no horizontal control at all. Though it does sometimes tilt to one side or the other, and then it starts flying sideways -- but not under your control, but you can let up on the grip and it drops.
The LEDs are actually pretty good -- very colorful, and nice for flying it outside at night.
It seems to have a 3 cell NiMH pack for power. The motor looks like a
180, and I suspect that I'll save the gearbox, motor, and LEDs and use them in a future plane after this thing is trashed. The battery would be good too, but I don't think it has enough voltage for anything beyond a cordless phone.
Overall, it's very light (a few ounces.) Which is the only reason it survives all the abuse it puts itself through, but it does survive.
The range is very limited. The only reason it can only go up to 30 feet is because you're out of range at that point and the motor starts cutting out. I'm tempted to try better antennas and see if I can improve that, or see how it responds to another 27 mHz transmitter.
At $20, it's a cute toy. My 3.5 year old daughter certainly enjoys it, and can certainly squeeze the trigger with the best of 'em. She can't do it unsupervised, but that's ok. And some of the parts might actually be useful for a home built park flier. | > As a Christmas gift this year for your kids or yourself:) I want | > to let you all know I bought 3 of them and they are fun. A 5 | > minute charge gave us a good 10 minutes flying time with flight | > time to spare. That`s just when we put them away. They hover well | > and have lights on the top and side for lights out fun. Old style | > slot car handle ( TX ) and variable control rpm. Basically you | > control the hover and they wonder around the room. With a little | > practice, you can "fly" them around the room as they will drift if | > you let them. They are lite and I suspect will not take a hard | > beating time and time again so you have to be somewhat | > carefull. However with little care they should last for a while. | > rick markel