BuyinCoins Syma S107/S107G R/C Helicopter

Great helicopter toy...Very accurate flight which makes the short battery life to be worth it. You enjoy a 15 min flight so much that you have enough until it recharges.

Very happy with this purchase. It arrived before the promised date and the machine itself is great fun, and very tough (still flying despite multiple crashes). Had to go on the internet to get some tips on flying. In particular, it will not launch slowly (it just skids sideways and crashes), but needs a good push of the throttle to get it off the ground. And once in the air, it takes a while (at least it took me a while) to develop the right instincts in terms of using the two control toggles. Also, be warned that if there is sunlight in the room, it crashes. Overall, highly recommended.

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!

Arrived as advertyised. Flew very well and stable indoors. I balanced front to back with slight adjustment of tail fin position along boom and got vertical lift off and descent. Battery has been excellent and even seems to have increased flight times with careful handling - 15 minute cool down, charge off USB exactly 52 minutes, remove on time so no overcharge.

I've always liked remote controlled models. I had several radio controlled cars when I was younger and always dreamed of building an airplane or helicopter that could really fly.Unfortunately the larger flying models ended up being difficult to fly and maintain. Not because I couldn't build them, but more because they require a lot of space to operate and also can break VERY easily if you aren't well practiced in how to fly them. Put simply I wanted a toy I could mess around with but not something I had to spend hours and hours working on as a full-time hobby.The Syma S107 helicopter is simply amazing. You can seriously take this thing out of the box, charge it up, and begin flying it without any practice or any worries. It flies amazingly stable! As long as you don't "floor it" and push the stick all the way to the top immediately you'll be fine (otherwise you'll fly straight into the ceiling). The helicopter can easily simply hover in one spot. This ability to me is just amazing when you consider how much design and technology has to go into accomplishing something like this.The body is actually very durable with a mostly metal frame. The blades themselves utilize a folding design that means you can fly this into the wall, ceiling, floor, etc. without much worry about damaging it. I've run it into the wall and other objects many times and even though the blades start striking the wall and the helicopter falls to the ground I have yet to damage it. Many times it will fall down and land upright so I can just crank it up from the remote again and start flying without even having to touch it!The helicopter uses an infrared remote control rather than radio, but surprisingly this works great inside. I can only guess that the remote puts out a very bright and wide angle infrared signal because it will even work if the helicopter is around corners or if the remove is behind an object.While flying you have three controls:- The left stick moves only up and down and does not automatically reset itself. This is used to control the speed of the helicopter blades, which in turn determine the altitude that your helicopter will fly at. Since you can take your finger off the left stick and it will remain in place you are able to get the helicopter to a hovering altitude and leave it there "hands-free".- The right stick moves both up and down and left and right. Moving it left and right changes the speed at which the counter-rotating main blades spin, thus causing the helicopter to turn left or right. Moving the stick up and down causes the helicopter to pitch forward or backwards (by using a smaller propeller at the tail of the helicopter). When the helicopter is pitched forward it causes the main blades to then propel the whole helicopter forward. The reverse is true when you have it pitched backwards.The remote control unit takes four AA batteries. The helicopter itself has a built in lithium battery that can be recharged either through the included USB cable or via a small cable that pulls out of the bottom of the remote control. I recommend charging the helicopter using the USB cable when possible so you can prolong the life of the batteries you have in your remote control. I actually just connect the USB cable to a standard iPhone charger and charge the helicopter that way.A nice feature of the USB cable is that it has a light that lights up when the helicopter is fully charged so you know it's ready to go. Charging time is somewhere around an hour and provides you with about seven to nine minutes of flight. When the battery starts running low the helicopter simply won't fly as high. Even when you have the blade speed maxxed out you'll notice that the helicopter will slowly start drifting downward until eventually it won't have enough power to even lift off the floor.I'm in my thirties and have this little guy sitting on my desk in my home office. It's a great little toy to fly around for a few minutes as a break! If you've always wanted a little helicopter but don't have the time or the drive to mess around with the big models then get this! It provides great straight out of the box fun and the price is right!

This little helicopter is really amazing, I can't believe the level of control you can have with it, especially considering the price. Awesome purchase.