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The majority of micro remote controlled choppers are manufactured for indoor flying and may be flown outside soley under the most ideal weather conditions, because they can easily be blown off course. These mini RC choppers may be controlled in three flight paths: up – down, forwards – backwards and left – right.

This means that the model is capable of quite remarkably specific manoeuvres. In spite of that, accidents do and will occur. ornaments will get knocked off the mantelpiece and some windows may get broken, if the flier is not cautious or adept.

So, it is best to practice in the garage or backyard shed or even outdoors in fine weather until a reasonable degree of ability has been achieved. it should not take long with these micro flying machines.

They are great fun, the sole real drawback is that the small battery will just give between five and seven minutes flying time. Luckily, it just takes 30 minutes to recharge the battery with the AC mains charger or the USB computer-cum-transmitter charger.

Many of the indoor helicopters are padded softly so that they cannot do a lot of harm to windows, heads and the like, but not all of them. Some have a metal body so that it can better protect the motors from crashes. If you would like to create one of these far less risky, try sticking some foam rubber to the nose of the model.

However, actually bumping into items is not the sole difficulty that indoor RC helicopters may cause. As with all choppers, the top rotors make quite a downdraft, which can blow things about or off shelves. A letter put behind a vase may catch the draft, move and knock the vase off the shelf.

When you are flying model aircraft of any sort, you should be constantly aware of the health and safety of others. Learn to judge the diameter that the top rotors cover.

With these smaller craft, the sweep of the rotors usually extends well in front of the helicopter, which could be a hazard to eyes and faces. Never fly your chopper where someone may turn a corner and walk straight into it. You have to assume responsibility for your model whether you fly it into someone or they unpredictably walk into it.

Children are not normally the people most at risk from a flying helicopter, because you usually fly over their heads. However, most flights will be at a height of about six feet, so adults beware. If you choose to fly your indoor chopper outside, there are extra safety problems.

Power lines are a major worry when flying your helicopter outside in a town.You could do lots of damage to power lines and you would be responsible for any financial cost incurred.

Two of the foremost advantages of starting flying a mini RC chopper are that: one] you learn how to control the model, mastering basic tricky flight manoeuvres two] you learn health and safety procedures, which will serve you well if you move on to a larger, stronger remote controlled helicopter.

Owen Jones, the writer of this piece, writes on a variety 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.

If you would like to begin flying or even making radio controlled choppers, 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 compared 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 helicopters, although you may have to secure the rotors and insert the battery and a child could do that. However, you are not buying this model in order to learn assembly, you are purchasing it in order to learn flight control.

These small remote control helicopters normally have three channel-control, which gives you power more than 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 things and make 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 range, you lose control over it – anything could occur!

In addition, the battery will power the chopper for around 5-7 minutes. If the chopper is 25 feet off the ground when the battery fails, you will have a serious crash on your hands.

Luckily, these little models are very sturdy with a metal frame, so you will almost certainly only 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 only starting out? That would be a costly manner to learn flying RC helicopters, would it not?

These small model helicopters will put up with a lot of rough treatment, but you will require spares and these parts can be purchased. Parts are readily available and it is worth buying spare main and rear rotors as you purchase your model. This is doing you good.

If you decide to move up a degree after a while, you will realize how useful your practice with a small RC helicopter has been, even though you may just learn so much from these small helicopters. Larger models, say a six or eight foot model will have far more controls and require far more maintenance, so begin 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 might entirely ignore them, so if you strap a small, lightweight contemporary video camera to it, you will be able to get special footage of local birds. You may even get able to sell aerial photographs of your neighbours’ gardens, with their permission, naturally.

Owen Jones, the author of this article, writes on a number of topics, but is now concerned with the Gyro Helicopter S107. If you would like to know more, please visit our website at Smart Toys for Kids.

If you want to buy a remote controlled copter, the first thing to do is find out what you want. There are basically two categories of remote controlled helicopter and each category has two main types.

The first option is, do you want a battery or petrol powered chopper and secondly, do you want to buy the helicopter pre-assembled (ready to fly) or do you want a kit? You could also think of size and price.

Some of the small or mini battery remote controlled helicopters just cost around $30, so you are not taking a lot of risk by buying one sight-unseen.

However, larger petrol or nitro powered models cost $1,000 and more, although there are plenty of models in the $200 – $500 bracket. So, price is an crucial factor in how you continue.

You can purchase a $30 Syma mini battery powered helicopter on the Internet right away, but if you want something more up market you will need to do some research first. As always, the first thing, if you are a beginner, is to learn something concerning the hobby before you go buying anything.

Buy yourself a mini copter and learn some of the skills of flying it. Read some magazines and join a couple of Web forums. Go along to a club if there is one in your area or ask at the local hobby shop whether they know other RC fliers locally.

They may have a few models in the shop that you can look at too, but do not spend hundreds of dollars until you are sure of what you like. As you are formulating in your mind a picture of the RC chopper you would like, note the prices that you see it being sold for.

Ignoring the cheap micro choppers, if you are purchasing your first ‘real’ RC helicopter for, say, $100, get one that is crash-proof. Nothing is really damage proof, when something drops 30 feet out of the sky, something is going to break, so buy a remote controlled copter that is stronger rather than beautiful, because, as a novice, you will crash it.

Because you will crash it, be certain that there are parts readily available in your area or on the Internet. You will probably need to replace the rotors, the skids and the canopy from time to time due to crashes. You may also have to replace the motor (or parts of it) and batteries, if you are using them.

Some firms provide, or sell separately, a flight simulation program for your computer. This is a good idea, because you can practice the more awkward manoeuvres without risking damage to your helicopter in a crash. This is one of the questions that you could pose on one of the forums – whether the flight simulator for your model is worth having.

Owen Jones, the writer of this article, writes on a variety of topics, 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.