For X-Mas the year before last my in laws bought me a medium sized RC Helo that crashed and burned on its first flight. It was one of those Dept. store stocking stuffer deals and it was returned for a full refund. This Christmas they bought mini helos called Execuhelis from JC Penney (another stocking stuffer deal). I was pretty impressed by the flight characteristics of the small counter rotating rotor design and after playing with a paper clip to balance it out I was buzzing all over the garage and house. It had up/down & left/right controls and generically flew in one direction forward. Well in a nutshell after enjoying many flights and crashes the lower rotors engine quit working. Once again I returned the product hoping to exchange it for another but received a full refund after learning Penney's sold out.

After a little bit a searching I found a better Mini Heli called the Syma S107. Its sports a metal chassis and full directional control. This is my first experience with RC helos of any type but this new Syma looks to be promising! It should arrive tomorrow afternoon (with a twin helo for my father in law). At $32 on amazon I think this is a great deal. I'll post more later after I get my hands on it but have included some video links I found on Youtube.





Too much fun, by far my favorite Christmas gift!

I received my new RC Heli last night and must say was exactly what I hoped for based on my research.

I was able to take off right after first charge and buzz around the house and garage with no issues. This helo is SUPER stable it will take off steadily anywhere and the throttle control is very nice (don't like the spring though). As described it flies forw/back. left or right which makes for some very controllable flight characteristics. One thing about its stability is that its so stable and easy to fly it really lacks in forward flight. I think this is intentional on the manufacturers part, I think they were aiming for a super easy to fly helo beginner. I'll probably experiment with a paper clip or penny to gain a little airspeed, its too boring at the current speed. The controller has a built in Yaw trimmer and honestly its rarely needed. The first helo I had would constantly need to be trimmed especially after throttling up or down, with the Syma S107 this isn't an issue. I've noticed in forward flight if you let go of the flight control the helo flies back a slight bit and levels itself out nicely.

After a while my father in-law came over to try his helo out and for someone that has never flown or drove anything remotely it's extremely forgiving. It wasn't long until he was able to fly under a folding table and land on said table. He had a few crashes (to be expected) but with a metal chassis and folding blades it's no big deal. I'm already thinking of ordering some replacement rotor blades for both the main and tail.

A true beginners RC Helo, I'd say it's safe for any 7&up yr old, an adult and/or beginner that has no experience. Just the fact that it flies where you want it, can take off in a hover and stable is enough to recommend this to anyone.

Anyone else have one of these little helos?


PS - I'm already thinking of removing the controllers throttle spring, adding some forward weight to give more speed and looking for ways I shave weight (canopy, etc....). Too much fun!

Thanks for the heads up. I started an aerospace and simulation club at my school and I need airframes that are stable. I've gotten the Airhogs aircraft but they can be a handful at times. Quite chaotic honestly. I think I will get a couple of the Syma 107 for my boys. Now if I can get a real budget, I can really outfit my crew.

Anyway, thanks again for the mini report.

--T

No problem I think everyone I know will want one once they fly it! It won't perform any crazy stunts but will fly where you want it and is easy to learn. My father in-law can barely figure out how to turn on his PC yet alone program a TV remote. That said anyone can fly it. Just watch out for air movement, I lost control trying to fly into the house from the garage it was 40 outside and 72 in the house. Pretty amazing to watch it react to the draft coming out of the doorway. So ceiling fans and heat/ac registers will affect it. With the first helo I mentioned in my orig. post it would spin out off the blower from our gas fireplace pretty humorous. I imagine the Execu Heli is very similar in fligt to the Airhog heli's. The Syma S107 compared to that one is night and day difference. On another note you can fly three at a time just make sure you get different colors. I thought ordering two of them on amazon from a store that listed "Assorted Colors" would have sent me two different helos but no, they sent me two reds!

Glad you enjoyed my little description of a great RC heli, when you get yours I know you'll be impressed! I don't think you can get a better mini for a better price at least. I'm think I'm gettin a bug lol!

I have a couple of the older types of these helos. Great fun to fly them.

Yeah, have one older type to. Thanks HitchHikingFlatlander for sharing your experience. Will order a Syma S107.

I got one for Chrismas. It's broken already

Well it can't survive every crash lol but I've been fortunate so far!

After getting the hang of it more and more I have to say the forward/reverse flight takes some getting used to. I think it has to do with how the helo tries to auto stabilize but it's definitely slow in forward/reverse flight. I'm going to play around with some pennies or paperclips to get some speed out of it. I might remove any dead weight to see what that does. I figure taking the body off will lighten it up a bit and at worst give me a slight bit more battery time.

hi there
I have one of these they are fantastic
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/SYMA-GYRO-Metal-3-...e#ht_3256wt_913
price in the shops here is £30
vampyre
ps I also have a CopterX 450 but this little baby is much more fun

I promise I'll make a video at some point. Demo/Mini Review or something or other. I've been flying it under/over folding tables and I hang a mountain bike tire in the garage and fly through it. Flying this thing in circles gets boring after you get the hang of it! With all that said, stunt flying does lead itself to additional crashes and this little helo is taking a beating.

One of the two helos has trouble keeping balance now but doesn't have any parts that look damaged. I think what happened is that the battery has slid loose from its holder and is causing the helo go off balance. I've yet to determine that as the cause but given how many hard crashes it's handled I can't complain. I'll report back in after I get a chance to look at it. The second helo is also showing similar signs but it's still very flyable. I've crashed both at least 75-100 times though so keep that in mind!

Is it a IR controller? Will it work outside?

IR controlled these are indoor only. Even if you could fly outside any little bit of airflow can disrupt controlled flight. Ceiling fans, heat registers and drafts are all perils to watch for!

Syma does make some radio controlled outdoor helis. They have a Chinook and a larger version of the S107 both look fun and are affordable at roughly $60. Not only that they're just as forgiving as the mini heli I have from what I've read.

Did I promise to make a video at some point? LOL that was before I trashed the S107G.......

I was flying under tables, thru bike tires hanging from the ceiling and the rafters in the garage to name a few. I must have had 200+ crashes with this thing. The last crash I think bent the rotor shaft, now when I take off it starts getting wobbly in the air and crashes. I last flew back in April I think.

Fast forward to a couple weeks ago. I was aching to fly my heli again and after trying everything I could think of to get it back in the air I went to Amazon instead. I bought the S107G's big brother the S032 basically the same but twice the size with a radio transmitter and the fact that its cleared for outdoor flight. Like the Syma S107 it comes ready to fly after charging the battery (about 60mins charge time for 5-10 flight). The transmitter had a speed select switch for the tail rotor which controls the forward/backward flight characteristics (I didn't notice much of a difference outdoors).

On my first flight I was disappointed with the forward speed, I was hoping it would have gone a little faster being a bigger heli. So I did what any self respecting tinkerer does, I modified it! I found two nails with just the right weight and taped them to the front and I was zipping around in front of my house in no time. The heli has good range about 100' and has great flight characteristics (SO LONG AS NO WIND IS PRESENT) and had no problem adjusting to the larger/faster/outside issues. Only problem is that with the nails on the front it changed a little too much. The heli wasn't designed for the speed and turning at high speeds (and I pushed it to the limit every flight!). After a number of flights and some hard crashes I snapped the tail section and I'm waiting for the replacement as epoxy didn't quite cut it. That said I'm hoping once I get it fixed I can get a video of this heli in action!

From now on I think I'll fly her at the park over grass too! Oh and if anyone follows suit with this heli make sure you put the nail head pointing out rather than the point like I did the first time (no one lost any eyes).

My heli is back in business now I just need a calm day outside to fly! Will try and take some video at the park today if weather allows!

FYI this new heli is roughly $30 a great deal! http://www.amazon.com/3-5-Ch-Metal-Outdo...5739&sr=8-1

So how did the new heli flight go Hitch? I've got two of them myself, a eFlight CX and a MicroCX. The micro is indoor only, and I have only had to replace the rotors once (after about 50 crashes). The CX is rated for outdoors, but anything over about 1 knot of wind and it is uncontrollable. The CX is currently grounded after a wind gust related crash into a tree in the park behind my house. It snapped the rotor shaft in half, and I just haven't bothered to replace it as yet.

Keep after it and post a video of your maiden voyage if you have one!
Dud

Unfortunately the replacement part from Amazon was a bust. The tail section they sent me had a smaller shaft size for the rotor and trying to replace the gear/shaft with the old one gets me a sticky motor. I've been busy since then and haven't had a chance to modify it. I recommend two of these helo's one to fly the other for parts! Some of the parts are half the price of a new helo thats why.

I'll try and update when I get it working again but its a great beginner (medium sized helo).

My son and I each got one of these not too long ago. We have a lot of fun with them, but unfortunately they are on the same channel so we can't fly at the same time. Only downside is 5-6 mins of flight time followed by 45 mins of charging

Yeah I agree Johnny I've read some reviews on amazon that suggested a better quality battery for longer flights and better performance but I admit I wouldn't know where or what to look for. The mini S107Gs are great for indoors (two car garage is perfect and have three channels.

I'm looking at the Big Chinook heli next, looks fun!

EDIT: You might already know this Johnny but hand launching the helo and taking it easy on the collective power will prolong your flights a little more. Adding forward weight will help too since you wont have to use as much power.

Yeah I've heard about replacing batteries, but didn't know about using less collective or weighting the nose down to conserve the battery. I've also heard of buying additional batteries so you can just swap them out (kinda like what most electric RCers do), but I haven 't looked into it tbh.

I've flown it in my garage too, but I like flying it in the basement - more objects to manuever around, it can handle some pretty tight quarters. My RC club flies in a high school field house in the winter, I'm going to bring it out one night and see what it does in that size space.

I thought about switching batteries too but its too much hassle having to take the cover off. They also use double sided tape to hold it in its cradle. I envy the indoor flying though that sounds fun!

As for the collective control, the less you have to take-off or recover from altitude drops the more you can squeeze from the battery.

This is the same as the Revell Proto CX that I have, a 4 Ch Co-Axial.
I find that most of the ones available under "Western" brand names can be found really cheap from the original company making it if you know where to look.

Well Santa brought me a bunk a Syma S022 "Big Chinook" helicopter but it had issues so is being sent back for a replacement. I have some cash from Christmas that will probably find its way into the Double Horse 9104. At some point I may move onto the next level in the hobby but I want to get all beginner tears out on cheaper heli's!

I'll try and update when I get the S022 replaced.