Shooting for the Stars, We Only Reached the Moon, So We Called for an RMA
Sean started this a few weeks ago with his impulse purchase of an Air Hogs Sharpshooter. Immediately, I assumed a superior attitude and chastised him for such a ridiculous waste of money. However, my chiding quickly faltered as I saw how well the heli flew, and how much fun Sean was having with it. The next day, I went to Toys 'R Us and bought one for myself. I'm glad I did.
Things have changed around our house because of this. Every night, we fly at least one sortie. The helis shoot little plastic rockets, which if you're lucky while shooting, will head in the general direction that you intended. We needed some flavor for this ongoing event, so I made a playlist consisting of Music to Fly Little RC Helicopters By. Now, Wagner's Ride of the Valkryies imparts the appropriate gravitas as Sean and I pilot our warships about, shooting at each other, at the dogs, and at Priscilla*. On more pastoral flights, Gershwin's Rhapsody In Blue invokes feelings of bliss, as bird-like, we conquer the winds that howl through the air-conditioning vents of our minds. And one can only imagine the horror as our brave heroes try to avoid the Howling Dog Monsters (Sampson has been re-monikered as "Bowjira"). For $39.95, these little guys have already given us much more than our money's worth of fun, and they've so far proven to be indestructible.
But it led, as it always does, to looking into mods on YouTube ("where everything is possible"). In particular, I was looking into a bigger battery to increase the ~10 minute flight time between recharges. What I found was completely unexpected. I found a whole world of newer and bigger RC helicopters that, while still in the "toy" category, seemed to provide much more value for approximately the same money. Sean and I spent hours looking at different models before settling on the Syma S006, primarily because we could get them in two days via Amazon Prime, and we needed them before the weekend, when Tammy and Mikey will be visiting (while I can't make the logical connection now, it seemed to make sense at the time). We pulled the trigger. Of course, after the order was placed, we noticed that the one that we really wanted was the S006G, which includes a gyroscope, which is so much better because, well... ah, you won't understand, it's really technical.
So anyway, they arrived today, and I anticipated a great start to my short, pre-4th of July vacation. I unpacked one of the helis, connected it, and since it was partially charged, tried flying it. All I could get it to do is rush sideways to the left and crash. So I decided to charge the battery, and read the manual as it charged. What a fine collection of Engrish ("While the indicator of the controller is sparkle, which shows the controller is lack of power. And you can change some batteries for it."). I've found that there is a "potentiometer on the chopper circuit board" that I can adjust if it spins when it shouldn't spin. This doesn't seem to be an issue, though. After charging, and a few instructive crashes, we were able to fly it around the living room with very good control. Luckily, this machine seems to be able to take a beating as well, though there's no way it'll take the pounding that the Air Hogs get.
One area of dismay is that after unpacking, I noticed that both of the helis operate on the same frequency, and that there's no way to change the operating frequency. Of course, this means that we won't be able to fly both of them at the same time. While this was disappointing news at first, after flying it, we realized that we really can't fly both of them in the house at the same time anyway, and they're not powerful enough to control in even a mild wind outdoors, so in the end, it's not a big deal.
Which leaves us with options. I already have an RMA from Amazon to return one of them. We'll return the unopened one, and then perhaps we'll purchase an S006G (to see what that G will do for us), or maybe the S032, which is a model much like the S006 that the little hobbit in the YouTube videos liked so much, or maybe go with another brand, just to see what's out there. Meanwhile, we'll get used to flying a bigger machine. So far, it's remarkably easy, and a lot of fun.
This could be the start of something expensive.
*Priscilla has been extraordinarily patient with our nightly regressions into sub-adolescence, even going so far as to reload Sean's chopper with rockets, that Sean promptly fired back at her. Although she did once threaten to hide his chopper in a place that I don't believe he would ever expect to find it.
Things have changed around our house because of this. Every night, we fly at least one sortie. The helis shoot little plastic rockets, which if you're lucky while shooting, will head in the general direction that you intended. We needed some flavor for this ongoing event, so I made a playlist consisting of Music to Fly Little RC Helicopters By. Now, Wagner's Ride of the Valkryies imparts the appropriate gravitas as Sean and I pilot our warships about, shooting at each other, at the dogs, and at Priscilla*. On more pastoral flights, Gershwin's Rhapsody In Blue invokes feelings of bliss, as bird-like, we conquer the winds that howl through the air-conditioning vents of our minds. And one can only imagine the horror as our brave heroes try to avoid the Howling Dog Monsters (Sampson has been re-monikered as "Bowjira"). For $39.95, these little guys have already given us much more than our money's worth of fun, and they've so far proven to be indestructible.
But it led, as it always does, to looking into mods on YouTube ("where everything is possible"). In particular, I was looking into a bigger battery to increase the ~10 minute flight time between recharges. What I found was completely unexpected. I found a whole world of newer and bigger RC helicopters that, while still in the "toy" category, seemed to provide much more value for approximately the same money. Sean and I spent hours looking at different models before settling on the Syma S006, primarily because we could get them in two days via Amazon Prime, and we needed them before the weekend, when Tammy and Mikey will be visiting (while I can't make the logical connection now, it seemed to make sense at the time). We pulled the trigger. Of course, after the order was placed, we noticed that the one that we really wanted was the S006G, which includes a gyroscope, which is so much better because, well... ah, you won't understand, it's really technical.
So anyway, they arrived today, and I anticipated a great start to my short, pre-4th of July vacation. I unpacked one of the helis, connected it, and since it was partially charged, tried flying it. All I could get it to do is rush sideways to the left and crash. So I decided to charge the battery, and read the manual as it charged. What a fine collection of Engrish ("While the indicator of the controller is sparkle, which shows the controller is lack of power. And you can change some batteries for it."). I've found that there is a "potentiometer on the chopper circuit board" that I can adjust if it spins when it shouldn't spin. This doesn't seem to be an issue, though. After charging, and a few instructive crashes, we were able to fly it around the living room with very good control. Luckily, this machine seems to be able to take a beating as well, though there's no way it'll take the pounding that the Air Hogs get.
One area of dismay is that after unpacking, I noticed that both of the helis operate on the same frequency, and that there's no way to change the operating frequency. Of course, this means that we won't be able to fly both of them at the same time. While this was disappointing news at first, after flying it, we realized that we really can't fly both of them in the house at the same time anyway, and they're not powerful enough to control in even a mild wind outdoors, so in the end, it's not a big deal.
Which leaves us with options. I already have an RMA from Amazon to return one of them. We'll return the unopened one, and then perhaps we'll purchase an S006G (to see what that G will do for us), or maybe the S032, which is a model much like the S006 that the little hobbit in the YouTube videos liked so much, or maybe go with another brand, just to see what's out there. Meanwhile, we'll get used to flying a bigger machine. So far, it's remarkably easy, and a lot of fun.
This could be the start of something expensive.
*Priscilla has been extraordinarily patient with our nightly regressions into sub-adolescence, even going so far as to reload Sean's chopper with rockets, that Sean promptly fired back at her. Although she did once threaten to hide his chopper in a place that I don't believe he would ever expect to find it.